[Ppnews] Rendition to Jordan

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/mariner04142008.html

Apri1 14, 2008


What Happens When the Gloves Come Off?


Rendition to Jordan

By JOANNE MARINER

"Why Jordan?" The question puzzled Abu Hamza al-Tabuki, a Saudi 
citizen who claims that US agents arrested him in Afghanistan in 
December 2001 and, after interrogating him in Pakistan, flew him in a 
private jet to Jordan. Because he was not Jordanian and had no past 
connection to Jordan, he did not understand why he was sent there.

"Why wasn't I sent to America since I was arrested by Americans?" 
al-Tabuki asked, in a narrative he sent to contacts in Jordan after 
he was released.

The best answer to al-Tabuki's question can probably be found in the 
directives, memoranda, and internal cables that relate to the CIA's 
rendition program, many of which remain classified. The documents of 
this sort that have been released publicly not only assert that 
normal human rights rules do not apply in the "war on terrorism," 
they purport to authorize torture.

The statements of current and former US officials are another good, 
albeit conflicting source of information. While Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice has insisted that the United States "does not 
transport, and has not transported, detainees from one country to 
another for the purpose of interrogation using torture," other 
officials have told a very different story.

Cofer Black, who served as the Director of the CIA's Counterterrorist 
Center from 1999 until May 2002, did not mince words in giving his 
perspective. Describing the detention of "terrorists and their 
supporters," he said that "there was a before 9/11 and there was an 
after 9/11. After 9/11 the gloves come off."

Why were detainees like al-Tabuki sent to Jordan? Human Rights Watch 
has just released a report on CIA renditions to Jordan that details 
more than a dozen rendition cases. The report concludes that nearly 
all of the detainees whom the CIA transferred to Jordanian custody 
were subject to interrogation using torture. The Jordanians, the 
report explains, served as proxy jailers and interrogators for the CIA.


Abusive Methods

"Just about everyone [in the custody of the Jordanian intelligence 
service] was beaten with sticks," a Jordanian former prisoner told 
Human Rights Watch. "People were beaten on their feet. They did it in 
the basement."

As torture expert Darius Rejali has explained, this torture method, 
known as falaqa, is extremely painful. "Depending on the weight of 
the rod and the intensity and frequency of the blows," he has 
written, "this practice can yield mildly swollen feet to broken bones 
that damage a person permanently."

In the written account that al-Tabuki gave of his time in Jordanian 
custody, he describes his experience with the falaqa technique and 
other forms of abuse:

And from the first day, they began to interrogate me using the 
methods of terror and fear, torture and beating, insults and verbal 
abuse, and threatening to expose my private parts and rape me. I was 
repeatedly beaten, and insulted, along with my parents and family. 
Every time they took me, they blindfolded me; however, I was able to 
peek through the blindfold and see my interrogators, as well as many 
details of the prison building. As soon as I reached the torture 
room, the torturers began to violently beat me. They would tie my 
feet and beat me with a heavy stick. After which, my flesh in my feet 
would tear apart, they would untie the rope and order me to run 
across the courtyard, over saltwater. Throughout this, they would 
throw questions at me and demand answers to them, while kicking and 
beating me all over with sticks, including my sensitive parts.

According to al-Tabuki, the torture was so severe that he lied to 
please his interrogators:

"They tortured me a great deal in order to make me confess to them 
about the American targets that al-Qaeda was planning to hit, even 
though I had no knowledge about that. They even forced me, through 
torture, to make up fictitious targets, about which they could report 
to the Americans."

After spending approximately a year in detention in Jordan without 
charge, Al-Tabuki was reportedly sent to Saudi Arabia, where he was released.


Denials

Al-Tabuki's story was one of more than a dozen that Human Rights 
Watch collected. We interviewed several Jordanian former detainees 
who gave independent and consistent accounts of having communicated 
with prisoners who had been delivered to Jordan from US custody. 
Their accounts were corroborated by information provided by lawyers 
representing detainees at Guantanamo (several of whom were previously 
held in Jordan), flight logs of CIA-linked aircraft, and other 
secondary source materials.

Yet no matter how compelling the evidence, the Jordanian government 
continues to deny its involvement in the CIA program. In a meeting 
with Human Rights Watch last year, senior Jordanian government 
officials stated categorically that Jordanian intelligence had never 
held prisoners rendered by the United States.

Even more unbelievably, given the weight of credible evidence that 
contradicts their position, they also denied that torture was 
practiced in intelligence detention.

If only this were so. Still, the Jordanians' evident embarrassment at 
being confronted with these accusations serves a purpose. By shining 
a spotlight on abuses, we may not be able convince governments to 
admit them, much less to publicly repudiate them -- but we do make it 
less likely that they will happen again.

Joanne Mariner is a human rights attorney.




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