Sonia Nettnin: Abuse of U.S. Prisoners Abroad

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Fri, 17 Jun 2005 19:58:35 +0400

Sonia Nettnin: Abuse of U.S. Prisoners Abroad

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http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0506/S00241.htm

 

Sonia Nettnin: Abuse of U.S. Prisoners Abroad

Friday, 17 June 2005, 12:44 pm

Article: Sonia Nettnin

Abuse of U.S. Prisoners Abroad

 

By Sonia Nettnin

 

Important Note: the following article is not intended for readers

under 18 years of age or for sensitive readers.

 

(Chicago) – Human rights lawyer and Unitarian Universalist Service

Committee's Stop Torture Permanently Campaign Director Jennifer

Harbury spoke about U.S. prisoners abroad and their experiences with

abuse and torture.

 

For the last 20 years Harbury worked for reforms in human rights

violations committed by the United States. She wrote about her

first-hand experiences in the book, " Searching for Everardo, " which

chronicles her efforts to save the life of her late husband, Mayan

resistance leader Efrain (Everardo) Bamaca Velasquez in the early

`90s. Moreover, she is the author of " Bridge of Courage. " Her

forthcoming third book documents the Central Intelligence Agency's

involvement with torture in Latin America and the Middle East.

 

According to the UUSC web site, the organization initiated the STOP

Campaign in 2004 " …in response to the human rights crisis created by

the U.S. torture and abuse of detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and

Guantanamo Bay. "

 

In her introduction Harbury said: " Anyone…who believes in the basic

value system of our (American) society were horrified by the torture

practices that occurred in Abu Ghraib, that maybe somehow we would

lose our national conscience. "

 

In the past, whenever she gave talks to Americans throughout the U.S.,

the universal reaction she experienced from audience members was

outrage. Some Republican voters expressed to her that they voted for a

particular candidate, but not for torture.

 

" We are facing a moral crisis, " Harbury said, who believes many

high-level officials decided to de facto legalized torture.

 

Her lecture focused on the U.S. Government's responses to the

political, legal and national security issues surrounding the Abu

Ghraib prison scandal. She summarized the government's responses as

follows: it was a few, rogue operators; second, the abuses within U.S.

prisons were just short of the legal limits of torture, but protected

by the established guidelines; and finally, in the aftermath of 09/11

U.S. administrative officials want to keep Americans safe.

 

First, Harbury answered with a rhetorical question: are these

explanations provoking the entire world and creating anti-American

sentiment?

 

The official response from U.S. officials that the torture at Abu

Ghraib happened as a result of a few contractors and Military

Personnel, " a few bad apples, " is false. The Abu Ghraib photographs

exhibited some of the torture practices, as well as the use of cruel

and degrading treatment. The UUSC web site references the Abu Ghraib

photograph of a hooded Iraqi with wires attached to his fingers. They

call this pose the " Vietnam position, " hence the phrase has warfare

meaning associated with it.

 

According to Harbury the abuse and torture practices used in prisons,

like Abu Ghraib, are methods refined by different intelligence

agencies over decades.

 

Torture Methods & Procedures

 

What is the definition of torture?

 

According to the U.N. Convention Against Torture (as explained on the

UUSC web site), `torture' is any act by which severe pain or

suffering, whether mental or physical, is intentionally inflicted on a

person by any government official or agent. This includes acts of

torture inflicted at the request of, or with the consent of,

government officials as well.

 

For instance, in a water-boarding session, they tie up the person,

submerge him in water then drown him into convulsions and

unconsciousness. Immediately after they use cardiopulmonary

resuscitation (CPR), until they revive him into consciousness.

 

Some other examples are denial of toilet privileges, prolonged

exposure to hot and cold by clothing removal and/or water, loud music,

sleep deprivation, " stress and duress " positions, and solitary

confinement. Usually, detainees subjected to torture will experience

these practices in combinations. She described one case where a man

sat naked, short-bolted to a floor for 24 hours. With the exception of

solitary confinement, they subjected him to these torture practices to

the point he pulled out clumps of his hair. The fact he acted on his

distress demonstrates that torture practices may cause mental breakdowns.

 

In Afghanistan a warlord threw a bomb at a U.S. military base. U.S.

Forces captured a man who had nothing to do with the incident. While

imprisoned they hit the man's leg over 100 times. As a result of his

" pulpification, " the man developed a blood clot in his leg and it

killed him.

 

When they slam prisoners' heads into walls, it is not uncommon for the

prisoners to die from it. During gang rapes they film the victim, and

then tell her they will show it to her parents, and/or air the tape in

her hometown's public square. The verbal threats terrorize the victim,

but public knowledge of her rape can stigmatize her within the community.

 

Harbury investigated prisoners who endured electric shock during their

tortures. Out of 23 cases in Guatemala and El Salvador, the survivors

testified to shock techniques. During their tortures, a North American

was either present in or around the cell.

 

In 2004, Harbury traveled to Israel and the Occupied Territories where

she worked with civil rights workers from B'Tselem, an Israeli human

rights center that examines human rights violations. Although she did

not describe specific torture examples, she said that Israel used

torture techniques deemed illegal by Israeli law, but the government

does not enforce it. A 1999 study from civil rights workers found that

80 per cent of prisoners experienced abuse and/or torture.

 

Harbury studied cases that involved suicide bombings. In the first

intifada there were 50 and during the second intifada there were close

to 150. Out of 50 cases she gathered she found that three of the

suicide bombers did not experience the loss of a family member. Her

overall conclusion was that Palestinians who grew up under extreme

security crackdowns, who lived in Gaza, Jenin and Ramallah, had one

common denominator: severe trauma, the loss of a family member.

 

During her research Harbury found that U.S. intelligent services

" outsourced " detainees or deportees for interrogations to countries

such as Egypt, Guatemala and Syria, and they call this transfer

practice " extraordinary rendition. " She assessed that they paid

informants associated with their networks to extract information out

of people.

 

When the Guatemala military imprisoned and tortured her late husband,

she worked to save his life. Three hunger strikes later, the last

strike on the lawn of the White House, U.S. officials and declassified

files informed her that a man named Roberto ordered her husband's

murder and someone received $34,000 U.S. dollars (not a routine

payment) from a remote outpost that had associations with the CIA. She

calls this procedure " torture by proxy. " The U.S. response is that

these countries assured the U.S. the transferred prisoners would not

experience torture. If they do, then it is not the fault of the U.S.

 

Does torture happen to U.S. citizens?

 

In Central America, they gang raped a nun who is a U.S. citizen and

she received cigarette burns. Then they hung her to a ceiling until

her hands and feet turned black. Even today, she has bad tendons in

her shoulders. When an agent arrived to save her, he dressed her and

took her out of the prison. While they were driving away he told her

to forgive these people because they were busy fighting Communism. The

next day she traveled to the U.S. Embassy where she told officials

that there were children in the prison.

 

According to Harbury there are at least 100 CIA ghost prisoners, which

means the International Red Cross does not know their names, their

imprisonment locations, the state of their health conditions, and

whether they are dead or alive.

 

Domestic and International Law on Torture

 

According to the UUSC web site, " the constitution prohibits torture in

any form within the United States. The use of torture by U.S. agents

or officials outside the U.S. is a felony, under both the Anti-Torture

Statute (18 U.S.C. 2340) and also the Federal War Crimes Act. "

 

The Geneva Conventions, created by people who saw the realities of

World War II and Auschwitz, prohibit the use of torture. Harbury

explained that the U.S. Government's stance is that the prisoner of

war status documented in the Third Geneva Convention does not apply to

enemy combatants. Her retort to this interpretation of the law is that

the Fourth Geneva Convention is for civilians, non-POWs. Under this

umbrella, anyone who commits sabotage against an occupying force

cannot be treated inhumanely.

 

The UUSC web site further explains " …the Convention Against Torture

bans the torture of any human being under any circumstances, even

during times of war. So does the International Covenant of Civil and

Political Rights. "

 

Despite these legal protections the enforcement of international law

fell short for these detainees and current U.S. mainstream media

coverage focuses on whether they received legal representation and due

process. If the world sees U.S. forces abuse and torture prisoners,

what happens to the safety of U.S. service men and women when they

fall into the hands of U.S. opposition?

 

Harbury shared her legal knowledge, research and personal experiences

with the application of U.S. policy abroad. The UUSC web site

references methods, such as FBI and police questioning or the use of

local religious leaders when they question a terrorist suspect, to

gather information that keeps the public safe. The international body

wrote the Geneva Conventions so people would adhere to them, not

abandon them. Harbury's findings raise questions for discussion about

the body politic and the organizations that critique them.

 

First and foremost, people need access to information so they can

determine the truth.

 

*************

 

Sonia Nettnin is a freelance writer. Her articles and reviews

demonstrate civic journalism, with a focus on international social,

economic, humanitarian, gender, and political issues. Media coverage

of conflicts from these perspectives develops awareness in public opinion.

 

Nettnin received her bachelor's degree in English literature and

writing. She did master's work in journalism. Moreover, Nettnin

approaches her writing from a working woman's perspective, since

working began for her at an early age.

 

She is a poet, a violinist and she studied professional dance. As a

writer, the arts are an integral part of her sensibility. Her work has

been published in the Palestine Chronicle, Scoop Media and the

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. She lives in Chicago.