[Ppnews] Report: 'indisputable' evidence of US torture

[Political Prisoner News]

  Report: 'indisputable' evidence of US torture

April 17, 2013 - 9:17AM
http://www.smh.com.au/world/report-indisputable-evidence-of-us-torture-20130417-2hz79.html


      David Lerman

Full Report: http://detaineetaskforce.org/report/

President George W. Bush's administration engaged in torture after the 
September 11, 2001, attacks, a bipartisan panel says, blaming "the 
nation's highest officials" for "allowing and contributing to the spread 
of torture".

    Torture was used against detainees in many instances and across a
    wide range of theatres.

The 560-page report by a task force of the Washington-based Constitution 
Project also takes aim at the Obama administration for maintaining 
secrecy on past abuses and failing to prosecute acts of torture.

The task force -- led by Republican Asa Hutchinson, a former Arkansas 
congressman and Homeland Security official under Mr Bush, and Democrat 
James Jones, a former Oklahoma congressman and US ambassador to Mexico 
in the Clinton administration -- offered what it called the most 
comprehensive report so far on prisoner interrogations.

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"It is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of 
torture," the report said.

The torture question dogged the Bush administration after the disclosure 
that three prisoners held by the CIA had been waterboarded, an 
interrogation technique that simulates drowning.

While the Bush administration denied the practice amounted to torture, 
the task force said the issue should no longer be subject to debate.

"The United States may not declare a nation guilty of engaging in 
torture and then exempt itself from being so labelled for similar if not 
identical conduct," the report said.

The group, which had no access to classified information or subpoena 
power, said the public record provided ample evidence of torture.

"Torture was used against detainees in many instances and across a wide 
range of theatres," Mr Hutchinson said at a news conference, citing 
instances of waterboarding, stress positions and sleep deprivation.

The report said much of the torture that occurred in Iraq, Afghanistan 
and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, "was never explicitly authorised". Still, 
it found the administration laid the groundwork for torture by declaring 
that the Geneva Conventions, which require humane treatment for 
prisoners of war, didn't apply to the war on terrorism.

"The administration never specified what rules would apply instead," the 
report said.

It faulted Justice Department lawyers for providing "novel, if not 
acrobatic" legal opinions that permitted torture and other mistreatment 
of prisoners.

The report also challenges the CIA's claim that only three al-Qaeda 
prisoners were waterboarded.

The task force confirmed an account first provided by Human Rights Watch 
that at least one Libyan militant was waterboarded by US forces in 
Afghanistan. It said a second Libyan militant was subjected to a 
"similar water-suffocation procedure" that didn't involve a board.

The two incidents "caused some consternation at the CIA, which had 
always maintained that only three people had been waterboarded", the 
report said.

Mr Jones faulted the Obama administration for keeping documents 
classified in a practice that he said serves only "to conceal wrongdoing".

Mr Obama, in his first term, decided against creating a commission to 
study the Bush administration's interrogation and detention policies, 
saying it was unproductive to "look backwards".

The task force, which interviewed scores of prisoners, military 
intelligence officers and interrogators, said its report "should not be 
the final word on how events played out". It called on the Obama 
administration to declassify as much information as possible to expose 
wrongdoing and correct past abuses.

The report was less definitive on whether torture provided any valuable 
information to US officials tracking potential terrorist plots.

Without access to classified information, the group said it couldn't be 
sure whether torture yielded any breakthroughs. The Senate Intelligence 
Committee produced a report on interrogations that remains classified.

Still, the task force said there was no "firm or persuasive evidence" to 
indicate that torture was beneficial and called on those who disagreed 
to offer some factual basis.

"The public record strongly suggests there was no useful information 
gained from going to the dark side" and engaging in torture, said David 
Irvine, a former Republican Utah state legislator and retired Army 
brigadier-general who served on the task force. "We have been badly 
misled by false confessions derived from brutal interrogations."

While most of the report's findings were unanimous, the task force could 
not agree on one key issue: how to address the indefinite detention of 
prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

A majority of the group said the indefinite detention was "abhorrent and 
intolerable" and called on the Obama administration to bring prisoners 
to court or deport them.


Read more: 
http://www.smh.com.au/world/report-indisputable-evidence-of-us-torture-20130417-2hz79.html#ixzz2QkX0QgNq
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