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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/mariner04142008.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/mariner04142008.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Apri1 14,
2008<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5><b>What Happens
When the Gloves Come Off?<br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Rendition to
Jordan</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5>By
JOANNE MARINER<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">"W</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>hy 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.<br><br>
"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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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."<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000"><b>Abusive
Methods<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>"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."<br><br>
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."<br><br>
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:<br><br>
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.<br><br>
According to al-Tabuki, the torture was so severe that he lied to please
his interrogators:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>"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."<br><br>
</dl>After spending approximately a year in detention in Jordan without
charge, Al-Tabuki was reportedly sent to Saudi Arabia, where he was
released.<br><br>
<br>
<font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">Denials<br><br>
</b></font>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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Even more unbelievably, given the weight of credible evidence that
contradicts their position, they also denied that torture was practiced
in intelligence detention.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
Joanne Mariner </b>is a human rights attorney.<br><br>
<br><br>
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