Accountability and transparency American style:

CIA torture-death probe abandoned

by Daya GAMAGE

Gul Rahman died in the early hours of November 20, 2002, after being shackled to a cold concrete wall in a secret CIA prison in northern Kabul, Afghanistan, known as the Salt Pit. He was suspected of links to the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Rahman is the only detainee known to have died in a CIA-run prison.

Gul Rahman who died in a CIA prison	US Attorney General Eric Holder

Al-Jamadi, another enemy combatant under interrogation in the hands of Americans, died in 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. A military autopsy declared al-Jamadi’s death a homicide.

At Abu Ghraib prison, instead of turning al-Jamadi over to the Army, CIA officers took him to a shower stall. They put a sandbag over his head, cuffed his hands behind his back and chained his arms to a barred window. When he leaned forward, his arms stretched painfully behind and above his back.

The Obama administration’s Attorney General Eric Holder on August 30 officially announced that no one would be prosecuted for the deaths of these prisoners, one in Afghanistan in 2002 and another in Iraq in 2003, eliminating the last possibility that any criminal charges will be brought as a result of the brutal interrogations carried out by the CIA.

In its refusal to investigate the Bush-era torture practices and US President Barak Obama himself declaring that he prefers to look forward, not backward, the Obama administration announced on June 30, 2011 that it would shut down 99 investigations into deaths of prisoners in US custody during the “war on terror,” leaving only two investigations with the potential to develop into criminal prosecutions.

What Eric Holder announced was the dismissal of the last two remaining torture-death investigations under the watch of the CIA.

Holder had previously ruled out any charges related to the use of waterboarding and other methods that most human rights experts consider to be torture. His announcement closes a contentious three-year investigation by the Justice Department.

“Based on the fully developed factual record concerning the two deaths, the department has declined prosecution because the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt,” the Holder statement said.

It said the investigation “was not intended to, and does not resolve, broader questions regarding the propriety of the examined conduct.”

No successful prosecutions

“It is hugely disappointing that with ample evidence of torture, and documented cases of some people actually being tortured to death, that the Justice Department has not been able to mount a successful prosecution and hold people responsible for these crimes,” said Elisa Massimino, President of Human Rights First. “The American people need to know what was done in their name.”

She said her group’s own investigation of the deaths of prisoners showed that initial inquiries were bungled by military and intelligence officers in charge of prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rendition of enemy combatants meaning sending terrorist suspects who are in the custody of the United States to their home countries which are notorious for their torture chambers was an established practice in the Bush-Cheney administration.

The Bush administration itself developed an ‘enhanced interrogation’ regimen that was widely accepted as torture.

The simulated drowning technique called waterboarding, an established torture method, was supported by Dick Cheney.

Then comes transparency and accountability under the Obama administration.

The United States, which stands for transparency and accountability in other nations, monitoring those nations’ domestic battles has shown absolute minimal preparedness when it comes to its own transparency and accountability.

Shunning accountability and transparency as an attempt to suppress the brutality of enhanced interrogation, which is widely known as torture, prisoner rendition and other violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) has now become an official policy.

US call for accountability

At a press conference in the premises of the American Embassy in Colombo, on May 4, 2011 winding up his three-day visit, the Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs of the US State Department Robert Blake said, “The United States has continually expressed to the Government of Sri Lanka the importance of implementing a credible and independent process to ensure accountability.

“Domestic authorities have responsibility to ensure that those responsible for violations of international humanitarian law are held accountable.

“International mechanisms can become appropriate in cases where states are either unable or unwilling to meet their obligations.”

Previously on March 14, 2011, Blake, addressing the Asia Society in New York that discussed the developments in Sri Lanka, warned, “Accountability is an essential part of any reconciliation process.

“Without it an enduring peace will remain elusive as unhealed wounds fester. Primary responsibility for implementing a credible and independent process through which individuals who may have violated human rights and international humanitarian law are held accountable for their actions lies with Sri Lanka itself.

“Our strong preference is that the Sri Lankan government establish its own transparent process that meets international standards. However, in the absence of such a mechanism, there will be mounting pressure for an international mechanism.”

Bringing pressure and forcing Sri Lanka to undertake accountability for what occurred during the final stages (January-May 2009) of the battle between the Tiger cadre and the Sri Lankan military has been the cornerstone policy of the US State Department since the demise of the LTTE which has helped pro-separatist/Tamil Tiger lobbies in Washington and in European capitals to help build a global voice to isolate Sri Lanka to achieve to bifurcate the nation that the LTTE failed for 26 years.

Truth, accountability in US

This State Department ‘accountability and transparency’ call led Sri Lanka to face scrutiny in Geneva before the UN Human Rights Council last June.

“Truth, accountability, reform and reconciliation are milestones in the road to security. And they are milestones that must be reached in that order.

“For truth is the foundation of all else. Without it, accountability is abusive, reform is blind, and reconciliation is hollow. And accountability and reform are preconditions for reconciliation as well.

“For, without them, the victims have no reason to believe that the crimes will not be revisited, upon them or upon others, in the future. Consequently, they will continue to be on guard.

Worse yet, they may feel that the period of abuse has not really ended, and they will not be delivered from the temptation to retaliate.”

The above paragraph was taken from a study done by the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas at the University of California at Davis.

The study was ‘Truth, Accountability, Reform and Reconciliation: The Road to Security and the Restoration of American Values.’

The Davis study highlights the violation of International Humanitarian Laws and universally-accepted human rights practices by the United States since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in Washington and New York.

The University of California, Davis study undertaken by academics and professionals in their final report outlines the violation of IHL and universally-accepted human rights as:

“According to credible information, the practices and policies enacted since 9/11 have involved international alliances with criminal armed groups; human trafficking; civilian arrests without warrants; denial of the writ of habeas corpus; secret detention; life-threatening, open-air, holding pens; medical neglect; interference of interrogation on medical treatment; fatal, disabling, and disfiguring beatings; hanging by the wrists; threats of death or bodily harm; mauling by military dogs; torture by proxy (extraordinary rendition); controlled drowning (waterboarding); sensory deprivation; sensory assault; forced nudity; temperature and dietary manipulation; sleep deprivation; disorientation in space and time; positional torture (stress positions and prolonged standing); binding torture (tight shackling or cuffing); solitary confinement; indefinite detention; severe humiliation; sexual assaults; assaults with excreta; forced feeding; interference with religious practices; verbal abuse, and the exploitation of cultural idiosyncrasies and personal phobias.”

The study declares: “These policies and practices are outrages upon human dignity, and are subject to criminal prosecution under both national and international law.”

This is exactly what the recent announcement of US Attorney General Eric Holder dismissed - the dismissal of accountability, transparency and truth the United States always urges other nations to adhere to.

The Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas report says:

“What are the prospects that these recommendations will be heeded? At present, they are next to nil.

Invoking pragmatism, President Obama has called on us to look forwards rather than back, thus failing to realise that we cannot look forwards without looking back. Restoring our values, repairing our image, and curbing terrorism are goals that we must achieve in the future.

“Yet, none of these goals may be reached if we do not face the past first and objectively assess what has been done in the name of the American people.

As far as we can see, this can best be done through an independent, non-partisan, transparent, and thorough investigation into the facts, circumstances, and policies employed in response to the September 11 attacks.”

Courtesy: Asian Tribune