Europe Shames U.S. Congress

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Europe Shames U.S. Congress

CIA war crimes in Europe are now under official investigation there,

but not here

by Nat Hentoff

May 14th, 2006 9:19 PM

 

After 9-11, within the frame-work of the fight against terrorism, the

violation of human and fundamental rights was not isolated, or an

excessive measure confined to a short period of time, but rather a

widespread regular practice by the CIA in which the majority of

European countries are involved.

 

Giovanni Claudio Fava, chief investigator for a European Parliament

report on the CIA's " extraordinary renditions " in Europe—following

three months of hearings, April 26

 

This is not a story about the CIA's secret prisons around the world,

but rather a probe by the European Parliament that Congress's

Republican leadership has refused to authorize here—into CIA

" rendition " kidnappings throughout Europe of suspects sent to

countries known for torturing prisoners. (A number of the victims

testified at the European Parliament hearings.)

 

One of the crimes committed by the CIA in these renditions is a

violation of U.S. Code 2441, the War Crimes Act of 1996 condemning

torture—and the international Covenant Against Torture.

 

This European inquiry was started after the Washington Post's Dana

Priest revealed last November that the CIA had secret prisons in

Eastern Europe—a sequel to her many stories about the CIA's far from

secret " renditions. " She won a Pulitzer Prize for that November

story—as well as an investigation of her and her sources by the

Justice Department.

 

There are CIA agents who have feared for a long time that these

scabrous chickens would come home to roost. In December 2005, Michael

Scheuer—who had recently left the CIA after having begun the

" rendition " program under the Clinton administration—spoke openly

about it on 60 Minutes.

 

He supports the " renditions, " but as for what happens to those

kidnapped after they're sent by the CIA to Jordan or Syria or Egypt or

Morocco, Scheuer said: " It's very convenient. It's finding someone

else to do your dirty work. . . . If you make a mistake [about whom

you've kidnapped], you make a mistake. "

 

Scheuer was asked: " Doesn't that make the United States complicit in

the torture? " The answer: " You'll have to ask the lawyers. "

 

Starting in 2002, when lawyers in the Justice Department were advising

the president to expand the " renditions " that Clinton had started,

some of their internal memoranda expressed concern that someday, an

independent prosecutor here would charge those responsible for the

kidnappings and torture with war crimes. But the lawyers assured the

president that there was " a reasonable basis in law " that the 1996 War

Crimes Act would not apply. Bush, with no background in American or

international law, went right along.

 

What Michael Scheuer said on 60 Minutes and elsewhere is not likely to

happen again—nor are the criticisms of the CIA by a growing number of

its retired agents. The CIA has now warned former employees to have no

contact with reporters unless approved by the agency; and as the April

26 Financial Times noted, those ex-agents who have consulting

contracts with the CIA could lose their pensions if they speak freely.

 

Says former CIA official Larry Johnson, a critical blogger on these

matters at tpmcafe.com

" They are trying to intimidate the press and trying to intimidate

employees. Anybody who has been critical of the Bush administration is

getting letters. "

 

But the CIA can't shut up the European Parliament; the Council of

Europe, a human rights organization; or reporters enthusiastically on

the case in Britain, Italy, Sweden, Germany, and elsewhere, including

Eastern Europe.

 

Moreover, European Parliament investigator Giovanni Fava and his

committee come to Washington this month. He has some additional

questions for Bush administration officials, members of Congress, and

human rights groups here about the renditions around Europe. Also

among those inquiries are other possible CIA crimes, including

torture, in the CIA's secret prisons.

 

My suggestion to Tim Russert of Meet the Press and others who preside

over Sunday morning programs that profess to get inside the news is

that they invite Giovanni Fava—either in person or from wherever he is

in Europe—to present his documented evidence on CIA renditions in a

debate with obstructionist senator Pat Roberts, chair of the Senate

Intelligence Committee, who keeps blocking any investigations of those

who have been tortured with the complicity of the CIA and, at the top

of the command, the president.

 

With Congress in a quagmire, here is a powerful example of an

investigation by an American human rights organization into other

criminal government behavior that the Congress avoids: By the Numbers:

Findings of the Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project, produced by

Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and the Center for Human

Rights and Global Justice at New York University Law School.

 

This report is not about renditions by the CIA or its secret prisons.

Its focus is on allegations of abuse (including torture) of detainees

in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantánamo—and most

importantly, " what actions, if any, the U.S. government has taken in

response. "

 

There will be more of the findings of this long-needed Detainee Abuse

and Accountability Project in future columns, but to begin: " The DAA

Project has documented over 330 cases in which U.S. military and

civilian personnel are credibly alleged to have abused or killed

detainees. (Emphasis added.)

 

" These cases involve more than 600 U.S. personnel and over 460

detainees. . . . These numbers are conservative. . . . Only 54

military personnel—a fraction of the more than 600 U.S. personnel

implicated in detainee abuse cases—are known to have been convicted by

court-martial. . . . Many sentences have been for less than a year,

even in cases involving serious abuse. "

 

A crucial finding: " No U.S. military [superior] officer has been found

accountable for criminal acts committed by subordinates under the

doctrine of command responsibility [that] a superior is responsible

for the criminal acts of subordinates if the superior knew or should

have known that the crimes were being committed and failed to take

steps to prevent them or to punish the perpetrators. "

 

At the top of the United States chain of command is the commander in

chief, the president. Homicides, as this report documents, have been

committed on his watch.

 

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