[News] Torture in Cuba ... but it's not the Cubans who torture!

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Arthur Shaw: Torture in Cuba ... but it's not the Cubans who torture!

<http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=24043>http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=24043

VHeadline.com guest commentarist Arthur Shaw writes: Yes, torture takes 
place in Cuba, but it's not the Cubans who torture ... it's the Americans.

The Americans in Cuba should take their iniquities to the United States 
where they and their iniquities belong .. and those who condemn the 
friendship between Venezuela and Cuba would do well to examine the ethics 
of their own friends.

The American Civil Liberties Union got certain evidence from the US 
government using the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that documents 
the widely-reported allegations of torture which US commits against POWs in 
violation of US law, specifically the US Anti-Torture Act and the Geneva 
Convention, ratified by the United States in 1958.

<http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI.121504.5054.pdf>On Monday, 
July 12, 2004, an FBI agent (whose name is 
censored)<http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI.121504.5054.pdf> 
working in the Boston office of the Bureau, replies to an earlier request 
"Could you provide a short summary of what you observed?"

Here is the short summary of his observations which the unnamed agent 
provided:

"I am responding to your request for feedback on aggressive treatment and 
improper interview techniques used on detainees at GTMO. I did observe 
treatment that was not only aggressive, but personally very upsetting, 
although I can't say that this treatment was perpetrated by Bureau. It 
seemed that these techniques were being employed by the military, 
government contract employees and CENSORED."
    * "GTMO" is the US Naval Base at Guantanamo in Cuba which the United 
States illegally and imperialistically occupies.
    *
    * "Aggressive treatment" seems to be torture that the US perpetrates 
when the POW is not being interviewed. "Improper interview techniques" 
seems to be torture that occurs during interrogation.

It's surprising that the FBI agent from Boston found the torture which he 
observed "very unsetting." Perhaps the POWs, the victims of the torture, 
felt the same way as the visiting and observing agent.

The predictable dishonesty of the agent shines through when he says "I 
can't say that this treatment was perpetrated by Bureau."

Why can't he say?

Did he observe torture by FBI agents or not?

He refuses to say that he didn't observe it, only that he can't say he did.

Perhaps the agent wants to keep his summary short as requested. But the FBI 
agent can say who, outside of the Bureau, tortures POWs, he lists 
"military, government contract employees and CENSORED."
    * The "government contract employees" are US mercenaries.
    *
    * The "CENSORED" are most likely US intelligence agents, especially CIA 
officers.

<http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI.121504.5053.pdf>On Monday, 
August 2, 2004, a second epistle, by an unnamed FBI agent, about torture at 
Guantanamo was to the higher-ups (also 
unnamed)<http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI.121504.5053.pdf> at 
the Bureau. This epistle says however that Valene E. Caproni ,"(OGC) 
(FBI)", presumably someone in the FBI's office of general counsel, was 
crossed referenced with a copy of the document.

The unnamed FBI agent reports:

"On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee 
chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, 
food, or water. Most times they had urinated and defecated on themselves, 
and had been left there from 18, 24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air 
conditioning was turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the 
room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. When I asked the 
MPs what was going on, I was told that interrogators from the day prior had 
ordered this treatment, and the detainee was not to be moved. On another 
occasion, the A/C had been turned off, making the temperature in the 
unventilated room probably well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost 
unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had 
apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night. On 
another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but 
extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since 
the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal 
position on the floor."

The FBI agent adopts the fashionable term "detainee" rather than "POW" to 
refer to victims of torture by US authorities.

The FBI and the military police appear impotent to enforce US law against 
torture or against anything else, even in a place where the US government 
claims, however wrongfully, it has jurisdiction. Clearly, the oath they 
took to uphold and defend the US constitution doesn't mean anything to them.

Evidently, when someone ... detainee, POW, or whoever ... falls into US 
custody, there's no such thing as human rights.

In this US concentration camp, the "interrogators" (here unidentified) are 
either the law or individuals above the rule of law. From the July 12 
document discussed earlier, we know that the "interrogators" may be either 
FBI agents, military personnel, US mercenaries, and intelligence officers 
or some combination thereof.

On the three occasions or visits the FBI agent mentions, he observed, as 
forms of torture, starvation, extreme temperatures, compulsory 
incontinence, and loud, continuous rap music. According to the agent, the 
effects of the torture were devastating on the POWs.

The US also seems to like to chain the POWs it tortures in the "fetal 
position" for hours or days.

Perhaps the US wants the POWs to feel as helpless as a fetus in the womb.

The FBI agent doesn't say whether he observed a POW interrogation. If the 
foregoing forms of torture are used during the periods between 
interrogations, who knows what happens during an interrogation?

<http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI.121504.5016_5022.pdf>According 
a document dated May 5, 2002, an unnamed FBI agent actually interviewed 
"detainee 1722."

The agent reported:

"CENSORED stated he had been beaten unconscious approximately three or four 
weeks ago when he was still at Camp X - Ray. According to CENSORED an 
unknown number of guards entered his cell, unprovoked, and started spitting 
and cursing at him. The guards called him a "son of a bitch," and a 
"bastard," then told him he was crazy.

CENSORED rolled onto his stomach to protect himself, CENSORED stated a 
soldier named CENSORED jumped on his back abd started beating him in the 
face. CENSORED thenchoked him until he passed out CENSORED stated that 
CENSORED was beating him because CENSORED is a Muslim and CENSORED is a 
Christian. CENSORED indicated there was a female guard named CENSORED who 
was also beating him and grabbed his head and beat it into the cell floor.

CENSORED stated that all the soldiers were aware of his CENSORED and he was 
taken to the hospital following the beating; where he received an IV and 
treatment for his facial wounds. CENSORED claimed CENSORED who is a tall 
African-American male visited him at the hospital and told the doctors to 
immediately returm him to the camp. CENSORED reported the aforementioned 
incident to two Red Cross representatives at Camp Delta, who he identified 
as CENSORED and CENSORED. CENSORED stated he did not do anything to cause 
the guards to enter his cell, and did everything they instructed him to 
do...."

Other recently (published December 20, 2004, by the ACLU) released FBI 
evidence documents equally horrendous incidents and forms of torture that 
the United States perpetrates on Cuban soil.

Now, are these things ... forms of torture ... US policy or transgressions 
of US policy by a "few bad apples" at the bottom of the chain of command?

<http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI.121504.4940_4941.pdf>Fortunately, 
an FBI document dated May 22, 2004, clearly answers this question.

The document is from an unnamed FBI agent to three other unnamed FBI agents 
and to four named FBI agents: M. C. Briese, Gary M. Bald, T. G. Harrington, 
and Frankie Battle, all of (Div 13) (FBI), whatever that is.

Without beating around the Bush, the document reads:

"Although we have no reason to believe any of our personnel disobeyed our 
instructions and participated in interrogations that utilized techniques 
beyond the bounds of FBI practice but within the parameters of the 
Executive Order (e g sleep deprivation, stress positions, loud music, 
etc.), some of our personnel were in the general vicinity of interrogations 
in which such tactics were being used, and because of their proximity to 
the sites of these interrogations, heard and saw things which would be 
indicative of interrogations utilizing the techniques authorized by the 
Executive Order."

If that ain't clear enough, how about this passage from the same document:

"The things our personnel witnessed [but did not participate in] were 
authorized by the President under his Executive Order."

This too for clarity:

"I wish to make clear our personnel have been present at various facilities 
when interrogation techniques made lawful by the Executive Order, but 
outside the standard of FBI practice, were utilized. While our personnel 
did not participate in these interrogations, they heard/saw indications 
that such interrogations were underway."

If the author of the memo wanted to make something "clear" he overachieved 
his aim.

Bush is indeed a bad apple, but he isn't at the bottom of the US chain of 
command.

This so-called Executive Order that Bush signed authorizes FBI agents, US 
military personnel, mercenaries hired by the US, and US intelligence agent 
to violate US law, specifically the US Anti-Torture Act and the Geneva 
Convention, the latter is a treaty ratified by the United States.

Under Article VI, paragraph 2 of the US Constitution, both the law and the 
treaty are part of the "supreme law of the land" and no Executive Order 
signed by an election thief like Bush can override them.

As for the patently pusillanimous and utterly lamed contention of the FBI 
that its agents did not "participate" in the torture they witnessed, the 
FBI sounds like someone who argues "Oh yeah, I was there when this person 
got raped and otherwise abused, but I didn't partake in it."

Arthur Shaw
<mailto:belial4444 at aol.com>belial4444 at aol.com

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