June 20, 2005
Former President Clinton on GITMO: Close it or Clean it Up
As did former President Jimmy Carter last week, former President Bill Clinton added his voice to the debate mounting in the U.S. and abroad over the future of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, calling for the U.S.-run facility in Cuba to "be closed down or cleaned up."
During an interview with the U.K.'s Financial Times, in addition to ethical concerns President Clinton cited practical reasons for the irreproachable treatment of detainees opining,
�If we get a reputation for abusing people it puts our own soldiers much more at risk and second, if you rough up somebody bad enough, they'll eventually tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to stop doing it."
Amid the public relations nightmare fomented by alleged and confirmed instances of detainee abuse, the White House appears to be divided over the issue of Guantanamo's future, with President George Bush hinting at the facility's possible scale-down or closure. Nevertheless, senior officials including Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretatary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld remain steadfast in their position that the prison facility is essential, no practical alternative to Guantanamo exists, and "enemy combatants" detained at the camp continue to provide valuable intelligence, crucial to winning the ;'War on Terror.'
October 28, 2004
Rights Group: Torture Conditions Persist, Independent Probe Needed to End Abuses
Six months after the world was alerted to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Amnesty International contends conditions for torture persist in U.S. policy for overseas detentions. On Wednesday, the human rights organization renewed its plea for a comprehensive, independent investigation into “all aspects of the USA’s ‘war on terror’ detentions,” urging an end to the torture of detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In a 200-page report entitled Human Dignity Denied. Torture and Accountability in the ‘War on Terror,' Amnesty International called for "an independent commission of inquiry into all the (U.S.) interrogation and detention policies.”
“Many questions remain unanswered, responsible individuals are beyond the scope of investigation, policies that facilitate torture remain in place, and prisoners continue to be held in secret detention,” said Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. “The failure to substantially change policy and practice after the scandal of Abu Ghraib leaves the US government completely lacking in credibility when it asserts its opposition to torture.”
The report delineates patterns of human rights violations that took place in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. A 12-Point Program forms the basis of the report, reflecting Amnesty International’s key findings on how best to prevent torture. Corresponding with each of the 12 Points, the report illustrates how the U.S. failed to meet basic human rights safeguards under the pretext of ensuring national security, ostensibly contributing to an environment conducive to torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. The report cites in excess of 65 specific recommendations, among which is a plea for President Bush “to make public and revoke any measures or directives that have been authorized by him or any other official that could be interpreted as authorizing 'disappearances,' torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, or extrajudicial executions.”
A week before the presidential elections, UPI reports, Amnesty International criticized the candidates for sidestepping the issue during the campaign, urging them to commit to ending such treatment of detainees.
“In their presidential debates, President Bush and Senator Kerry failed to address the U.S.A.’s treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and in secret locations elsewhere...Each candidate should now promise that, if elected, he will take prompt action to address this issue head on.”
September 13, 2004
Latest Hersh Book Alleges Administration Knew of Detainee Abuses
The New York Times reports that in his latest book "Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib" (HarperCollins), author and investigative journalist Seymour Hersh asserts that senior White House officials failed to heed repeated warnings of detainee abuse at U.S.-run detention facilities in Iraq and Cuba.
Specifically, Hersh writes that a C.I.A. analyst who visited Guantanamo in 2002 filed a report documenting abuses, drawing the attention of a deputy to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. In a Chapter Excerpt posted to the publisher’s website, Hersh explains that upon receipt of the "devastating findings" Dr. Rice’s deputy, retired four-star General John A. Gordon
"…was deeply troubled and distressed by the analyst's report, and by its implications for the treatment, in retaliation, of captured American soldiers. Gordon, according to a former Administration official, told colleagues that he thought "it was totally out of character with the American value system," and "that if the actions at Guantánamo ever became public, it'd be damaging to the President." The issue was not only direct torture, but the Administration's obligations under federal law and under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, ratified by the United States in 1994, that barred torture as well as other "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." The C.I.A. analyst's report, in Gordon's view, provided clear evidence of degrading treatment. Things in Cuba were getting out of control."
Yet as The Times article reports, Hersh’s book contends that once the matter was brought to the National Security Advisor's attention, and it was discussed with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, “no significant change resulted.”
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Dr. Rice denied Hersh’s allegations, averring
“In the fall of 2002, we were made aware that there were some concerns that people might have been held at Guantanamo who didn’t meet the definition of unlawful combatant. There were also early on some concerns about conditions of overcrowding. But nothing that suggested, to my recollection, that there were abuses, anything -- abuses going on at Guantanamo, and certainly nothing that would suggest the kind of thing that went on in Abu Ghraib. What we did when we learned that there might be people who were being held there who didn’t meet the standard is that we went back, we looked at the cases, we put together a process to try and make sure that the right people were being held. So we have worked hard on Guantanamo to improve conditions there, to make sure that the right people are being held. But no, I do not recall being told of anything concerning prisoner abuse.”
Hersh - who won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting of Vietnam’s My Lai massacre - authored a series of exposes for The New Yorker including “Torture at Abu Ghraib” , "Chain of Command" and “The Gray Zone,” describing in vivid detail the abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. Military Police at Abu Ghraib. He accuses the Pentagon of implementing a “secret system” to seize and interrogate terrorist leaders. Such furtive system of detention and interrogation Hersh claims, paved the way for prisoner abuses.
In anticipation of Hersh's latest book - released today - the Defense Department issued a statement decrying the “numerous unsubstantiated allegations and inaccuracies which he has made in the past based upon unnamed sources.“ The Pentagon then added “If any of Mr. Hersh’s anonymous sources wish to come forward and offer evidence to the contrary, the department welcomes them to do so.”
July 23, 2004
Poll: Public Rejects Nearly All Forms of Torture or Coercion
The Associated Press reports today that results of a nation-wide poll show 66% of respondents said that the U.S. should abide by the international law that “governments should never use physical torture,” while 29% found that standard “too restrictive.”
Entitled “Americans on Detention, Torture, and the War on Terrorism,” the poll was conducted by The Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) and Knowledge Networks (KN) at the Center for International and Security Studies at University of Maryland, School of Public Affairs. The poll was conducted with a nation-wide sample of 892 American adults between July 9-15th, with a margin of error +/-3.3%.
Among the poll’s findings, 88% of respondents favored having international laws governing detention. Large majorities endorsed requiring registration of all detainees (92%), providing access by the Red Cross (93%), allowing communication with family members (77%) and the right to a hearing (81%).
Even if there is reason to believe a detainee is withholding information that could prove critical to preventing another terrorist attack in the U.S., a majority of those polled rejected most forms of coercion. Within the context of the poll, coercion is defined as “methods formally approved by the Department of Defense including using threatening dogs (rejected by 58%) and forcing detainees to go naked (75% rejected). Other forms rejected by even larger majorities included sexual humiliation (89%) and holding a detainee’s head under water (81%).” The only coercive technique consistently endorsed by a majority of those polled was sleep deprivation.
As principal investigator Steven Kull observes, “Basically, the public supports the system of international laws restricting torture and coercion, though it would consider making some limited exceptions if there was high confidence that a catastrophic outcome would be prevented.”