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News -01-18-07 Manual to Allow Executions Based on Hearsay (MSNBC News) "The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow suspected terrorists to be convicted on hearsay evidence and coerced testimony and imprisoned or put to death." "Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and some Democrats have said the legislation will be shot down by the courts as unconstitutional because it bars detainees from protesting their detentions. Under the law, only individuals selected for military trial are given access to a lawyer and judge; other military detainees can be held until hostilities cease." 01-07 -02-08-08 CIA Chief Confirms the Use of Waterboarding (PBS News) "Top intelligence officers publicly confirmed for the first time that three suspected terrorists were waterboarded and warned that al-Qaida is establishing cells in other countries, particularly Pakistan, to plan attacks within the United States." Editor's Note: Use of torture violates United States law (passed last year) and international law. 02-08 -03-06-08 Bush Claims a Right to Use Torture (CNN News) "President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks." Legislators did not agree with Mr. Bush. " 'Torture is a black mark against the United States,' said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California. 'We will not stop until [the ban] becomes law.' " "Some argue it must be banned because, if torture, it is illegal under international and U.S. law. The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 includes a provision barring cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment for all detainees in U.S. custody, including CIA prisoners, and many believe that covers waterboarding." "Others say that, even if legal, there are practical arguments against waterboarding: that its use would undermine the U.S. when arguing overseas for human rights and on other moral issues and would place Americans at greater risk of being tortured when captured." 03-08 -03-18-07 Senior Officials: Abusive Interrogations Continued in Gitmo (MSNBC News) "Speaking publicly for the first time, senior U.S. law enforcement investigators say they waged a long but futile battle inside the Pentagon to stop coercive and degrading treatment of detainees by intelligence interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." "In the end, the law enforcement investigators said, they were not able to stop abusive interrogations, but they were able to slow them. 03-07 -04-04-08 Editorial: Abuse of Prisoners Was Policy (New York Times - Editors) "When the abuses at Abu Ghraib became public, we were told these were the depraved actions of a few soldiers. The Yoo memo makes it chillingly apparent that senior officials authorized unspeakable acts and went to great lengths to shield themselves from prosecution." 04-08 -04-13-08 ABC News: Bush Aware of Interrogations (ABC News) "President Bush says he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details about how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to an exclusive interview with ABC News Friday." "The high-level discussions about these 'enhanced interrogation techniques' were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic." "These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news." 04-08 -06-01-06 BBC: Evidence of Another Massacre in Iraq (BBC News) "The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians." "The new evidence comes in the wake of the alleged massacre in Haditha, where US marines are suspected of massacring up to 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005." "According to the Americans, the building collapsed under heavy fire killing four people - a suspect, two women and a child." "But a report filed by Iraqi police accused US troops of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building." 06-06 -06-08-06 Documents: CIA Hid Nazis' Locations (CBS News) "Determined to win the Cold War, the CIA kept quiet about the whereabouts of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in the 1950s for fear he might expose undercover anticommunist efforts in West Germany, according to documents released Tuesday." 06-06 -06-12-06 Guantanamo's Innocents - After Release (ABC News) "Even after being cleared of any wrongdoing, five innocent men were kept captive at the detention center at Guantanamo. Today, these men who started out in China and ended up in Cuba are now free and in the Eastern European country of Albania, the only country that would take them. They spoke to the ABC News Law & Justice Unit in their first American interview." 06-06 -06-12-06 Marine Claims He Was Following "Rules of Engagement" (MSNBC News) "A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said." 06-06 -06-12-06 Mounting Pressure to Close Guantanamo (Bloomberg.com) "The suicides of three detainees in the war on terror triggered increased international pressure on President George W. Bush to close the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." 06-06 -06-12-06 Suicides Spur Guantanamo Criticism (CNN News) "The suicides of three inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp has spurred renewed calls for changes at the facility, with one Republican senator urging the Bush administration to try suspected terrorists held there." 06-06 -06-17-06 Pentagon Study Describes Abuse by U.S. Units in Iraq (New York Times) "United States Special Operations troops employed a set of harsh, unauthorized interrogation techniques against detainees in Iraq during a four-month period in early 2004, long after approval for their use was rescinded, according to a Pentagon inquiry released Friday." 06-06 -06-17-06 What Really Happened in Haditha? (New York Times) "The 24 Iraqis killed included 5 men in a taxi and 19 other civilians in several houses, where, marines have contended, their use of grenades and blind fire was permitted under their combat guidelines when they believed their lives were threatened." "However, investigators have found evidence that the men in the taxi were not fleeing the bombing scene, as the marines have told military officials. Investigators have also concluded that most of the victims in three houses died from well-aimed rifle shots, not shrapnel or random fire, according to military officials familiar with the initial findings." "The civilian survivors said the victims were shot at close range, some while trying to protect their children or praying for their lives. The death certificates Colonel Watt examined were chillingly succinct: well-aimed shots to the head and chest." 06-06 -08-14-07 How "Enemy Combatant" Designation Was Used Against a U.S. Citizen (CNN News) "By April 2003, Padilla had already spent 10 months in isolation at the brig. Ultimately, he was housed in the same cell, alone in his wing, for three years and seven months, according to court documents." " 'I'm not a psychologist, but if he is not profoundly psychologically disturbed from that experience then he is a stronger man than me,' says Steven Kleinman, a retired US Air Force Reserve colonel and former interrogator." "He [Padilla] has 'undergone a profound, tremendously prolonged psychological stress involving extended periods of utter isolation and deprivation,' the psychiatrist writes. Grassian's report concludes: 'Given the extensive research on this issue, much of it funded by the United States government, it follows necessarily that the United States government was well aware of the likely consequences of its conduct in regard to Mr. Padilla.' " "Officials have repeatedly said that the US doesn't use torture. 'The Department of Defense policy is clear – we treat all detainees humanely,' says Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Defense Department spokesman." 08-07 -09-06-06 Pentagon Issues New Guidelines on Interrogation (CNN News) "A new Army manual bans some prisoner interrogation techniques made infamous during the five-year-old war on terror, officials said Wednesday." 09-06 -09-15-06 Behind the Debate on Extreme Techniques of Coercion (MSNBC News) "A senior administration official, authorized to speak with reporters about the legal issues behind the administration's strategy yesterday on condition that he not be named, said the CIA interrogations at issue are in 'the gray area on the margins -- that ill-defined boundary -- of Common Article 3.' He was referring to a Geneva Convention provision that bars cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment, as well as 'outrages upon personal dignity.' " 09-06 -09-16-06 Bush Tries to Make Extreme CIA Techniques Legal (MSNBC News) "[CIA Director Michael V.] Hayden said in the memo that the clarifying language of the administration's bill would give him confidence that what he 'asked an Agency officer to do under the program is lawful.' " "The rival Senate bill on interrogations -- approved by the Armed Services Committee on Thursday and sharply criticized by Bush yesterday -- is silent on how the CIA should comply with the Geneva Conventions. Its intent, according to several government officials, is not only to avoid sending a signal to other nations that Washington is reinterpreting its treaty obligations, but to leave in place a historic understanding of international law, which would render unlawful many of the extreme interrogation techniques the CIA has been using." 09-06 -09-16-06 The Geneva Conventions (MSNBC News) Provides the Geneva Conventions, international agreements adopted by the United States regarding the humane treatment of prisoners and limits on the conduct of war. President Bush has proposed legislation to allow the Geneva Conventions to be re-interpreted by the CIA. 09-06 -09-17-07 White House Power vs. Individual Constitutional Rights (Christian Science Monitor) "At issue is whether the White House has the power to keep an alleged victim from seeking redress in US courts." "The [federal] judge threw out the [Masri] suit on state-secrets grounds, and a federal appeals court panel upheld the dismissal on the same grounds." "In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Masri is asking the justices to examine whether the government properly invoked the state-secrets privilege or simply used the privilege to avoid being held accountable for alleged torture and other illegal and unconstitutional activities." " 'The whole reason for the court system is to protect individual rights that wouldn't be protected in the political process,' says Amanda Frost, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, who also teaches at American University's Washington School of Law." 09-07 -09-19-06 Panel: Innocent Man Captured by CIA, Sent to Syria, and Tortured (MSNBC News) "Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday." 09-06 -09-27-06 Torture Bill Near Passage (MSNBC News) "While the bill would grant defendants more legal rights than they had under the administration's old system, it nevertheless would eliminate rights usually granted in civilian and military courts." "The measure also provides extensive definitions of war crimes such as torture, rape and biological experiments - but gives Bush broad authority to decide which other techniques U.S. interrogators can legally use. The provisions are intended to protect CIA interrogators from being prosecuted for war crimes." 09-06 -09-28-06 Torture Bill Passed by House and Senate (MSNBC News) "The provisions [defining war crimes] are intended to protect CIA interrogators from being prosecuted for war crimes." The Senate voted against an amendment by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that would have allowed terror suspects to file 'habeas corpus' petitions in court. Specter contends the ability to such pleas is considered a fundamental legal right and is necessary to uncover abuse." 09-06 -10-04-07 Bush Administration Approved Harshest Techniques (New York Times) "When the Justice Department publicly declared torture 'abhorrent' in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations." "But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency." 10-07 -10-15-06 Marine Legal Team Ordered Not to Discuss Gitmo Abuse Allegations (Fox News) "A paralegal and a military lawyer who brought forward allegations about prisoner abuse at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have been ordered not to speak with the press, lawyers and a military spokeswoman said Saturday." 10-06 -10-24-06 "20th Hijacker" May Never Be Tried Because of Abusive Interrogations (MSNBC News) "In interviews with MSNBC.com — the first time they have spoken publicly — former senior law enforcement agents described their attempts to stop the abusive interrogations. The agents of the Pentagon's Criminal Investigation Task Force, working to build legal cases against suspected terrorists, said they objected to coercive tactics used by a separate team of intelligence interrogators soon after Guantanamo's prison camp opened in early 2002. They ultimately carried their battle up to the office of Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, who approved the more aggressive techniques to be used on al-Qahtani and others." 10-06 -10-27-06 Vice-President Endorses Methods Regarded as War Crimes (MSNBC News) "Dick Cheney, US vice-president, has endorsed the use of 'water boarding' for terror suspects and confirmed that the controversial interrogation technique was used on Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the senior al-Qaeda operative now being held at Guantánamo Bay." " '[It's] a direct affront to the primary authors of the Military Commission Act in the Senate — John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Warner — all of whom have publicly stated that the legislation signed by the president last week makes water boarding a war crime,' said Jennifer Daskal, advocacy director at Human Rights Watch." 10-06 -11-18-06 Did President Bush Approve Torture? (Newsweek) "Leahy and other Dems also want to see a still secret Justice Department memo approving the use of particular interrogation techniques; critics have long suspected the document includes references to waterboarding and other methods that may constitute torture." 11-06 -12-07-07 CIA Destroys Requested Interrogation Tapes (CBS News) "A well informed source tells CBS News the videotapes of U.S. interrogations of two high level al Qaeda operatives were destroyed to protect CIA officers from criminal prosecution, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin." "A day after CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden told agency employees the tapes were destroyed in 2005, members of Congress, human rights groups and lawyers for accused terrorists said the tapes may have been key evidence that the U.S. government had illegally authorized torture." 12-07 -12-08-06 Suit Filed Against Rumsfeld on Torture Charges (ABC News) "U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas Hogan said that while torture is unacceptable, he was not sure whether the nine Iraqi and Afghan residents had a right to sue Rumsfeld in U.S. courts." " 'What you're asking for has never been decided by a court before,' Hogan said at a hearing in the high-profile case." 12-06 -12-15-06 "Vicious Killers" Released from Gitmo? (USA Today) "The Pentagon called them 'among the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth,' sweeping them up after Sept. 11 and hauling them in chains to a U.S. military prison in southeastern Cuba." "Since then, hundreds of the men have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to other countries, many of them for 'continued detention.' " "And then set free." 12-06 -Editorial: Americans Have a Right to Know the Standards the President Is Using (International Herald Tribune) "Americans have a right to know what standards their president has been applying to the treatment of prisoners. The image of the United States is at stake, as well as the safety of every man and woman who is fighting Bush's so-called war on terror." 11-06 -Editorial: The Scuffle Over Torture (MSNBC News) "So what do you call simulated drownings — waterboarding — and slapping and freezing, techniques that were approved in a 2005 secret Department of Justice legal opinion? If the Eighth Amendment prohibits American police from waterboarding suspects, common sense tells me it's illegal." "But legal or not, the important thing to remember is that torture doesn't work. When I was in the CIA I never came across a country that systematically tortures its citizens and at the same time produces useful intelligence. The objective of torture, invariably, is intimidation." "When Stalin asked the KGB to find out how to make an atomic bomb, the KGB didn't kidnap and torture American and British scientists. It recruited spies. And Stalin got his bomb." 10-07 -Editorial: The Scuffle Over Torture (Time.com) "So what do you call simulated drownings — waterboarding — and slapping and freezing, techniques that were approved in a 2005 secret Department of Justice legal opinion? If the Eighth Amendment prohibits American police from waterboarding suspects, common sense tells me it's illegal." "But legal or not, the important thing to remember is that torture doesn't work. When I was in the CIA I never came across a country that systematically tortures its citizens and at the same time produces useful intelligence. The objective of torture, invariably, is intimidation." "When Stalin asked the KGB to find out how to make an atomic bomb, the KGB didn't kidnap and torture American and British scientists. It recruited spies. And Stalin got his bomb." 10-07 09-21-06 Bush and Republicans Reach Agreement on Ban on Torture (CBS News) "The Bush administration and Senate Republicans announced agreement Thursday on terms for the interrogation and trial of terror suspects. " "The central sticking point had involved a demand from McCain, Warner and Sen. Lindsey Graham for a provision making it clear that torture of suspects would be barred." 09-06 09-28-06 Torture Bill Gives the President Vast Powers (MSNBC News) "The military trials bill approved by Congress lends legislative support for the first time to broad rules for the detention, interrogation, prosecution and trials of terrorism suspects far different from those in the familiar American criminal justice system." "The bill rejects the right to a speedy trial and limits the traditional right to self-representation by requiring that defendants accept military defense attorneys." "By writing into law for the first time the definition of an 'unlawful enemy combatant,' the bill empowers the executive branch to detain indefinitely anyone it determines to have 'purposefully and materially' supported anti-U.S. hostilities." 09-06 Guardian: Emerging News Related to U.S. and British Positions on Torture (Guardian Unlimited) Provides dozens of news stories. 12-05 Papers "No Government Can Justify Torture" (Bloomberg.com) "Iraq security forces are torturing detainees and the abuses are becoming 'routine and commonplace,' the Human Rights Watch said." " 'The Iraqi security forces obviously face tremendous challenges, including an insurgency that has targeted civilians,' Whitson said in the report published on the Human Rights Watch Web site. 'We unequivocally condemn the insurgents' brutality. But international law is unambiguous on this point: no government can justify torture of detainees in the name of security.' ''1-05 -01-16-05 New York Times: Bush Administration Blocks Legislation Limiting Torture (CNN News) "In its Thursday editions, The New York Times reported that as recently as last month, the White House urged Congress to scrap provisions in legislation that would have imposed new limits on 'extreme interrogation measures' by CIA intelligence officers." 2-04 -03-05-06 Court-Marshal of Willie Brand (CBS News) "Two Afghans detained during the war in Afghanistan were found beaten to death and chained from the ceilings of their cells. One was beaten so badly that the medical examiner created a new word, 'pulpified,' to describe his injuries." "Willie Brand, a soldier convicted of assaulting and maiming one of the prisoners, says he was only doing what he was trained to do when he helped inflict those injuries." "Brand's commanding officer, Capt. Christopher Beiring, says the shackling [of prisoners to the ceiling] was 'acceptable.' Besides, says Beiring, 'Several of my leaders knew (about the shackling) because … there was probably one or two like that on any given day. … If someone came through, whether they were a colonel or general, we left them (chained). They seen (sic) what was going on there.' " 03-06 -Editorial: A Victory for Law (WashingtonPost.com) "AFTER SEPT. 11, 2001, the Bush administration chose to set aside the standing legal procedures and treaties for fighting this country's enemies and make up rules of its own -- at the expense of violating human rights, tarnishing U.S. prestige around the world, and undermining the checks and balances of American democracy. Yesterday, at last, the Supreme Court responded. In a decision with vast implications, it invalidated a major part of the administration's ad hoc system, its special trials for terrorist suspects, and rejected its exclusion of many detainees from international protections against inhumane treatment." 07-06 -Editorial: Degrading America's Image (International Herald Tribune) "For more than seven decades, civilized nations have adhered to minimum standards of decent behavior toward prisoners of war - agreed to in the Geneva Conventions. They were respected by 12 U.S. presidents and generations of military leaders because they reflected America's principles and gave Americans some protection if they were captured in wartime." "It took the Bush administration to make the world doubt Washington's fidelity to the rules. And The Los Angeles Times, reporting Monday on a dispute over updating the U.S. Army rulebook known as the Field Manual, reminded us that there is good reason to worry." 06-06 -Editorial: Double Standard on Torture (Slate.com) "This [United States] double standard [on torture] is deeply flawed. Legal protections for fundamental rights of those we have locked up should not vary depending on the passport they hold. And this flaw raises a serious question not only about administration policy in the war on terror, but also about American constitutional doctrine." "The administration's treaty interpretation makes no sense. The Torture Convention is predicated on the principle that the conduct it prohibits is fundamentally incompatible with human dignity—and all human beings have equal dignity, regardless of their nationality, and regardless of where they are held. There is no evidence that Congress sought to limit the Torture Convention prohibition to conduct within our borders. Abraham Sofaer, who submitted the treaty to Congress on behalf of the first Bush administration, has written to Congress stating that the current administration's position is inconsistent with the original understanding of the convention and improperly turns an effort by Congress to give substantive definition to the terms "cruel, inhuman, and degrading" into a geographical loophole that frees U.S. officials to commit actions just short of torture when acting abroad." 11-05 -Editorial: Falluja Is a Name that Lives in Infamy (Guardian Unlimited) "The destruction of Falluja was an act of barbarism that ranks alongside My Lai, Guernica and Halabja." 11-05 -Editorial: How to Fix Gitmo (Time Magazine) "If the Bush Administration wants to try terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay in special military tribunals, it can't just declare them legal--it needs to work with the other branches of government to make them so. That in itself was a rebuke to the Administration's claim that it alone can decide how to defend Americans from terrorism. What the court did not say--despite the exultation of civil libertarians and the outrage of advocates of executive power--is that Guantánamo has to be closed. In fact, there are plenty of people who believe it's possible to comply with the court's ruling while protecting American citizens and extracting useful intelligence from detainees. In other words, there are ways to fix Guantánamo." 07-06 -Editorial: President Must Obey the Rule of Law (WashingtonPost.com) "Perhaps the greatest impact of the 185-page ruling [by the U.S. Supreme Court] is that it rejects Bush's claim that the necessity of waging the 'global war on terror' gives him extraordinary powers that lie beyond the jurisdiction of the courts. The ruling reminds him of 'the court's duty, in both peace and war, to preserve the constitutional safeguards of civil liberty.' " 07-06 -Editorial: Torture's Terrible Toll (MSNBC - Sen. John McCain) "Abusive interrogation tactics produce bad intel, and undermine the values we hold dear. Why we must, as a nation, do better." 11-05 -Torture Ineffective--And Presents Ethical Dilema (Guardian Unlimited) "Prisoner interrogations at Guantánamo Bay, the controversial US military detention centre where guards have been accused of brutality and torture, have not prevented a single terrorist attack, according to a senior Pentagon intelligence officer who worked at the heart of the US war on terror." "Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Christino, who retired last June after 20 years in military intelligence, says that President George W Bush and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have 'wildly exaggerated' their intelligence value." Editor's Note: Use of torture is a violation of international law according to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 39-46 of 10 December 1984. Article 2 states: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political in stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture." 10-04 ABC: Bush Administration Approves Water Boarding Torture (ABC News) "CIA Director Porter Goss maintained this week that the CIA does not employ methods of torture. In doing so, he opened a new debate over exactly what constitutes torture — especially when it comes to the harshest of the CIA's six secret interrogation techniques, known as 'water boarding.' " "The water board technique dates back to the 1500s during the Italian Inquisition. A prisoner, who is bound and gagged, has water poured over him to make him think he is about to drown." "Current and former CIA officers tell ABC News that they were trained to handcuff the prisoner and cover his face with cellophane to enhance the distress. According to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., himself a torture victim during the Vietnam War, the water board technique is a 'very exquisite torture' that should be outlawed." " 'Torture is defined under the federal criminal code as the intentional infliction of severe mental pain or suffering,' said John Sifton, an attorney and researcher with the organization Human Rights Watch. 'That would include water boarding.' " "The CIA maintains its interrogation techniques are in legal guidance with the Justice Department. And current and former CIA officers tell ABC News there is a presidential finding, signed in 2002, by President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and then Attorney General John Ashcroft approving the techniques, including water boarding." 11-05 Afghan Prison Worse Than Gitmo? (New York Times) " 'Bagram was never meant to be a long-term facility, and now it's a long-term facility without the money or resources,' said one Defense Department official who has toured the detention center. Comparing the prison with Guantánamo, the official added, 'Anyone who has been to Bagram would tell you it's worse.' " "After an Army investigation, the practices found to have caused those two deaths [of prisoners] — the chaining of detainees by the arms to the ceilings of their cells and the use of knee strikes to the legs of disobedient prisoners by guards — were halted by early 2003. Other abusive methods, like the use of barking attack dogs to frighten new prisoners and the handcuffing of detainees to cell doors to punish them for talking, were phased out more gradually, military officials and former detainees said." 02-06 Amnesty International Slams U.S. (CBS News) "The United States is riding roughshod over human rights by outsourcing key anti-terror work in Iraq to private contractors, who operate beyond Iraqi law and outside the military chain of command, Amnesty International said Tuesday." 05-06 Amnesty: Britain Gives Approval to Torture (Guardian Unlimited) "Tony Blair has been accused of undermining decades of British campaigning for international human rights by using the war on terror to give a 'green light' to torture. Amnesty International is to launch an unprecedented global campaign tomorrow against the British Government after ministers admitted they would use information gained by torture to prevent attacks on the United Kingdom." 11-05 CIA Operates Secret Prisons (CNN News) "Human rights groups have criticized the practice of 'rendition,' in which the CIA purportedly has been allowed to secretly transfer terrorist suspects overseas for interrogation." "Human Rights Watch spokesman Tom Malinowsky said the practice of holding suspects incommunicado in secret facilities has done 'enormous damage' to the reputation of the United States without producing useful intelligence." "If true, the arrangement suggests U.S. agents are engaged in activities 'that under U.S. law and in U.S. territory and by U.S. personnel would be clearly illegal,' said former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, who was once a federal prosecutor." "In October the Senate voted 90-9 to require American troops to follow interrogation standards set in the Army Field Manual and barred 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment' of prisoners in U.S. custody." "The provision was not included in a House bill, and the White House has threatened to veto a $440 billion Pentagon spending bill if the measure is part of the final legislation." "The administration says existing law already prohibits the mistreatment of prisoners in American custody and the amendment would restrict Bush's power as commander-in-chief." Editor's Note: Huh? 11-05 CIA Ordered to Turn Over Records (ABC News) "A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the CIA to comply with the Freedom of Information Act and turn over to watchdog groups records concerning the treatment of prisoners in Iraq." "The ACLU filed its lawsuit in October 2003 seeking information on treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The group is seeking the records to show that prisoner abuse by the United States is 'not aberrational but systemic.' " 2-05 Editorial: Bush Administration and the War Crimes Act of 1996 (Centre for Research on Globalization) "The War Crimes Act of 1996, a federal statute set forth at 18 U.S.C. § 2441, makes it a federal crime for any U.S. national, whether military or civilian, to violate the Geneva Convention by engaging in murder, torture, or inhuman treatment." "The statute applies not only to those who carry out the acts, but also to those who ORDER IT, know about it, or fail to take steps to stop it. The statute applies to everyone, no matter how high and mighty." 01-06 Editorial: War Crimes in Iraq (Truthout.org - Chomsky) "After several weeks of bombing, the United States began its ground attack in Falluja. It opened with the conquest of the Falluja General Hospital. The front-page story in the New York Times reported that 'patients and hospital employees were rushed out of rooms by armed soldiers and ordered to sit or lie on the floor while troops tied their hands behind their backs.' An accompanying photograph depicted the scene. It was presented as a meritorious achievement." "Some relevant documents passed unmentioned, perhaps because they too are considered quaint and obsolete: for example, the provision of the Geneva Conventions stating that 'fixed establishments and mobile medical units of the Medical Service may in no circumstances be attacked, but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.' Thus the front page of the world's leading newspaper was cheerfully depicting war crimes for which the political leadership could be sentenced to severe penalties under U.S. law, the death penalty if patients ripped from their beds and manacled on the floor happened to die as a result. The questions did not merit detectable inquiry or reflection." 04-06 Editorial: White House Opposes Law to Limit Cruel or Inhumane Treatment (Daily Sentinel - Teepen) "The White House is threatening to veto a $440 billion military spending bill unless the Senate scraps its amendment limiting the military in prisoner interrogations to, in essence, the techniques outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation." "This is not for once a markedly partisan issue. (Though if the provision makes it to the hyper-partisan House, that would probably change.) The Senate vote was 90-9, with 46 Republicans, including even Majority Leader Bill Frist, concurring. That is about as close to consensus as either congressional chamber ever gets, short of resolutions congratulating spelling bee winners." "Bush's attorney general and defense secretary have invented rationales that would excuse torture and have asserted the bizarre notion that the president, as commander in chief, is welcome to brush aside any law he wishes." "The Senate provision simply bars 'cruel, inhuman or degrading' treatment of prisoners. Through most of our history, that would have gone without saying." 11-05 Editorial: Young Iraqi Doctor's Experience (GlobalResearch.ca) "Dr. Salam Ismael is in Europe to testify about the human rights violations committed against his people in Iraq." 01-06 Ex-CIA Chief: Cheney for Torture (CNN News) "Former CIA chief Stansfield Turner lashed out at Dick Cheney on Thursday, calling him a 'vice president for torture' that is out of touch with the American people." "Turner's condemnation, delivered during an interview with Britain's ITV network, comes amid an effort by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, to pass legislation forbidding any U.S. authority from torturing a prisoner. McCain was tortured as a Vietnam prisoner of war." "Cheney has lobbied against the legislation, prompting Turner to say he's 'embarrassed that the United State has a vice president for torture. I think it is just reprehensible.' " 11-05 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights ) States how prisoners of war must be treated and includes 143 articles. For example, "Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria." 1-02 Guardian: Emerging News Related to U.S. and British Positions on Torture (Guardian Unlimited) Provides dozens of news stories. 12-05 Guardian: Six Stories of Torture (Guardian Unlimited) Provides information on six men who say they were tortured after being transported to a third country by Americans. 12-05 Guardian: U.S. Support for Torture Widespread--and Now Open (Guardian Unlimited) "Past administrations kept their 'black ops' secret; the crimes were sanctioned but they were committed in the shadows, officially denied and condemned. The Bush administration has broken this deal: post-9/11, it demanded the right to torture without shame, legitimised by new definitions and new laws." "Despite all the talk of outsourced torture, the real innovation has been in-sourcing, with prisoners being abused by US citizens in US-run prisons and transported to third countries in US planes. It is this departure from clandestine etiquette that has so much of the military and intelligence community up in arms: Bush has robbed everyone of plausible deniability. This shift is of huge significance. When torture is covertly practised but officially and legally repudiated, there is still hope that if atrocities are exposed, justice could prevail. When torture is pseudo-legal and those responsible deny that it is torture, what dies is what Hannah Arendt called 'the juridical person in man'. Soon victims no longer bother to search for justice, so sure are they of the futility, and danger, of that quest." 12-05 How the Bush Administration Has Allowed Torture (Newsweek) "In September 2002, former CIA Counterterrorism chief Cofer Black testified before Congress that 'there was a before 9/11, and there was an a fter 9/11. After 9/11 the gloves came off.' Nowhere did the Bush administration make that distinction more sharply than on the topic of torture. Now, with questions about secret prisons in the air and major torture legislation looming, a look back at that long road that led from the attacks on America to the abuses at Abu Ghraib." 11-05 International Outcry Greets Allegations of Abuse in Iraq (Guardian Unlimited) Ayad al-Samarrai, a senior official with the Iraqi Islamic party, a mainstream Sunni group, said "The party wanted an independent Iraqi inquiry established, with support from the US military and perhaps the UN, but with the powers to enter interior ministry buildings to investigate the widely reported accounts of abuse and torture. If no suitable Iraqi inquiry team could be set up, then an international investigation should be set up, he said. He said officials from Iraq's human rights ministry had tried to investigate but had been refused access by the powerful interior ministry." " 'All those who were released from this prison were Sunnis,' Mr Samarrai said. 'It looks like part of a plan to make this community terrified, or to push them to leave Iraq or to leave their homes, or to force them into violence as they will think it is the only way to protect themselves.' " 11-05 Is Torture Really Effective? (MSNBC News) "If we have no guarantee of getting information, if we have no reason to believe what someone tells us under duress is true, if we are allowed to decide the limits of such stress and duress techniques on a local level without oversight, and if we’re really not sure that the detainee even has the information we want— is there justification for the use of torture, or does it just become summary punishment administered perhaps by immature, misguided and untrained individuals (at best), or by manipulative self-serving sociopaths (at worst)?" 4-05 JFK Courage Awards Go to Murtha and Mora (CBS News) "U.S. Rep. John Murtha, an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, and Alberto Mora, a former Navy general counsel who clashed with superiors over abuse of terrorism detainees, were honored Monday as recipients of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award." " 'We need to be clear. Cruelty disfigures our national character,' Mora said. 'It is incompatible with our constitutional order, with our laws, and with our most prized values. Cruelty can be as effective as torture in destroying human dignity, and there is no moral distinction between one and the other.' " 05-06 NY Times: Padilla Charges Based on Torture (Guardian Unlimited) "The Bush administration decided not to charge Jose Padilla with planning to detonate a radioactive 'dirty bomb' in a US city because the evidence against him was extracted using torture on members of al-Qaida, it was claimed yesterday." 11-05 National Council of Churches: Torture Unacceptable (National Coucil of Churches) "The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches USA and Church World Service commended the U.S. Senate’s 'anti-torture provisions' in the 2006 Defense Appropriations bill." "But as the House of Representatives begins debate on the bill, some high ranking U.S. government officials have declined to support the provisions." " 'As delegates to the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches USA and Church World Service, we find any and all use of torture unacceptable and contrary to U.S. and international legal norms,' the delegates said." " 'We find it particularly abhorrent that our nation's law makers would fail to approve the pending legislation disavowing the use of torture by any entity on behalf of the United States government,' the statement said." 11-05 Newsweek: Bush May Not Have Given Up on Using Torture (MSNBC News) "Newsweek has obtained a draft of a less-known companion bill sponsored by two Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and Jon Kyl, and Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, in which the administration has won tougher language giving it the right to use information obtained from harsh interrogations overseas." "In theory, this would permit U.S. military tribunals to use evidence obtained through torture or abuse in the prisons of other countries. The new Graham draft also adds more restrictions on the rights of terror detainees to sue or launch an action against the U.S. government outside of a narrow appeals process." 12-05 Pattern of Abuse (Time.com) "A decorated Army officer reveals new allegations of detainee mistreatment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did the military ignore his charges?" "Majority Leader Bill Frist, Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner and John McCain, a former torture victim in Vietnam. A Senate Republican staffer familiar with both the Captain and his allegations told TIME he appeared 'extremely credible.' " 9-05 Prohibition Against Torture (United Nations) Article 2 of the United Nations' Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment states: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political in stability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture." 10-04 Report: CIA Uses Secret Prisons (CBS News) "The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement, the Washington Post reported." "The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents, the paper said Tuesday on its Web site." "The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism, the Post said. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions." 11-05 Report: Rumsfeld Allowed Guantanamo Abuse (MSNBC News) "Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld permitted abusive interrogations of a suspected Sept. 11 hijacker, according to a Salon report." 04-06 Rumsfeld Denies Access to U.N. Human Rights Investigators (ABC News) "Spurning a request by U.N. human rights investigators, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday the United States will not allow them to meet with detainees at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects." "Rumsfeld also told a Pentagon news conference that prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were staging a hunger strike that began in early August as a successful ploy to attract media attention." 11-05 Senate Leader Frist Not Concerned About Torture Allegations (MSNBC News) "Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he is more concerned about the leak of information regarding secret CIA detention centers than activity in the prisons themselves." "Frist told reporters Thursday that while he believed illegal activity should not take place at detention centers, he believes the leak itself poses a greater threat to national security and is 'not concerned about what goes on' behind the prison walls." 11-05 Statements Assert the President's Right to Ignore the Laws (Boston Globe) "The office of Vice President Dick Cheney routinely reviews pieces of legislation before they reach the president's desk, searching for provisions that Cheney believes would infringe on presidential power, according to former White House and Justice Department officials.""The officials said Cheney's legal adviser and chief of staff, David Addington, is the Bush administration's leading architect of the 'signing statements' the president has appended to more than 750 laws. The statements assert the president's right to ignore the laws because they conflict with his interpretation of the Constitution.""The Bush-Cheney administration has used such statements to claim for itself the option of bypassing a ban on torture, oversight provisions in the USA Patriot Act, and numerous requirements that they provide certain information to Congress, among other laws." 05-06 Testimony: Visiting General Urged Use of Dogs (ABC News) "A general visiting Abu Ghraib prison urged guards and interrogators to use dogs 'as much as possible' with detainees, a former supervisor testified Thursday." 05-06 Torture Defined (Wikipedia.org) "Torture is is the infliction of severe physical or psychological torment as an expression of cruelty, a means of intimidation, deterrent, revenge or punishment, or as a tool for the extraction of information or confessions." 12-05 Torture in Iraqi Prisons (CNN News) "Many of the more than 160 detainees who were held at an Iraqi Interior Ministry building were physically abused, Iraq's deputy interior minister said Tuesday." 11-05 Twenty-seven Iraqis Killed While in U.S. Custody (MSNBC News) "Twenty-seven detainees were killed in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan in suspected or confirmed homicide cases between August 2002 and November 2004, the Army said Friday in its first comprehensive accounting." 3-05 U.N. Urges U.S. to Close Gitmo and Stop Torture (Bloomberg.org) "In a report to be published today, a United Nations panel urges the U.S. to close the Guantanamo prison, stop all use of torture and use the courts to try terrorism suspects. There are about 400 detainees at Guantanamo, some of whom were captured when the U.S. ousted Afghanistan's Taliban regime following the 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S." 05-06 U.N.: Torture Still Widespread in China (Guardian Unlimited) "Human rights groups say brutality and degradation are common in Chinese prisons, where many of the victims are from the Tibetan and Uighur ethnic minorities, political dissidents, followers of the banned Falun Gong sect and members of underground churches." "Although China outlawed torture in 1996, its definition of illegal acts - those leaving physical marks - is so narrow that interrogators can employ a wide range of methods contravening UN standards." 12-05

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