cuz water torture ain't really torture ya know..

[Guest guest]

i find the last line particularly chilling...

 

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1206/dailyUpdate.html

 

 

 

World > Terrorism & Security

posted December 6, 2005 at 11:00 a.m.

 

Rendition not foolproof

 

Rice defends practice but records show serious mistakes have been made.

 

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

 

After weeks of pressure to make a statement, US Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice Monday strongly defended the practice of rendition,

" the covert capture [in foreign countries] and transfer of terrorism

suspects without the involvement of a court, " saying it was a vital

tool in the war on terror. The Boston Globe reports that Ms. Rice said

the US does not " send anyone to a country to be tortured. "

" The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport

anyone, to a country when we believe he will be tortured, " she said.

" Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred

persons will not be tortured. "

Rice said that rendition had helped European countries stop terror

attacks. But European allies continue to protest rendition, and point

to reports of a network of secret prisions in countries that were once

part of the former Soviet bloc. The Globe writes that Rice's tough

stance was " designed to shore up flagging support for the Bush

administration's tactics without signaling any significant change in

course. "

ABC News, citing unidentified current and former CIA agents, reported

Monday night that 11 " high value " Al Qaeda terrorists had been held at

a former Soviet air base in Eastern Europe and were spirited to a site

in North Africa just before Ms. Rice's arrival in Europe.

 

Of the 12 high value targets housed by the CIA, only one did not

require water boarding [what the CIA describes as " an enhanced

interrogation technique " ] before he talked. Ramzi bin al-Shibh broke

down in tears after he was walked past the cell of Khalid Sheik

Mohammed, the operational planner for Sept. 11. Visibly shaken, he

started to cry and became as cooperative as if he had been tied down to

a water board, sources said.

 

The problem for the US has been that, along with the disclosure of the

existence of the " secret prisons, " there have been several high-profile

cases that have highlighted US mistakes, such as US agents grabbing the

wrong person, wrongly imprisoned subjects of rendition alleging they

had been tortured in the countries where they had been taken, and

allegations that the CIA lied to a European ally about a rendition.

 

The Washington Post reported Sunday on the case of Khaled Masri, a

German citizen who had been the subject of a rendition and then

wrongfully imprisoned for five months. When the US ambassador to

Germany finally told the German interior minister about the mistake,

the Post reports that he asked the German government not to disclose

that it had been told about the US mistake, even if Mr. Masri went

public with what happened to him. Apparently US officials feared

exposure of the rendition program, and also possible legal action.

 

The Post reports that the Masri case shows how pressure on the CIA to

apprehend Al Qaeda members after 9/11 led to an unknown number of

detentions based on slim or faulty evidence, and just how hard it is to

correct these mistakes in a system " built and operated in secret. "

 

One [uS] official said about three dozen names fall in that category

[those mistakenly detained] The list

includes several people whose identities were offered by Al Qaeda

figures during CIA interrogations, officials said. One turned out to be

an innocent college professor who had given the Al Qaeda member a bad

grade, one official said.

" They picked up the wrong people, who had no information. In many, many

cases there was only some vague association " with terrorism, one CIA

officer said.

 

Tuesday the Post also reported on the case of radical Islamic cleric

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, an Egyptian refugee known as Abu Omar. In

March 2003, the CIA told Italian authorities about the whereabouts of

the cleric, saying they had " reliable reports " that he had fled to the

Balkans. In fact, Italy alleges that the CIA tip was a " deliberate lie "

designed to stop efforts by Italian antiterrorism police to find Abu

Omar.

The strategy worked for more than a year until Italian investigators

learned that Nasr had not gone to the Balkans after all. Instead,

prosecutors here have charged, he was abducted off a street in Milan by

a team of CIA operatives who took him to two US military bases in

succession and then flew him to Egypt, where he was interrogated and

allegedly tortured by Egyptian security agents before being released to

house arrest.

The lead prosecutor in Milan, Armando Spataro, called the rendition of

Mr. Omar " a serious crime against Italian sovereignty and human

rights, " and that it had compromised antiterrorism efforts in Europe.

Mr. Spataro said that if Omar had not been kidnapped, he would probably

be in a jail in Italy, " subject to a regular trial, and we would have

probably identified his other accomplices. " Prosecutors and judges in

Milan have issued arrest warrants for 22 alleged CIA operatives,

including the head of the CIA substation in Milan.

US officials, meanwhile, say that they did brief their Italian

counterparts about their actions. They say this notification would

probably be undocumented. " The price of doing business is if you get

caught, you're on your own, " said one former intelligence official.

 

Reuters reported Sunday that despite these widely publicized cases,

European officials are reluctant to " pick a fight with the US " at this

time. On the one hand, the Europeans are trying to repair relations

with the US. On the other hand, some European officials " face awkward

and persistent suggestions that they may have known and approved of

secret US operations taking place on their soil. "

 

In Sweden, a parliamentary ombudsman's report last March heavily

criticised the national security services for allowing the CIA in 2001

to fly two Egyptian asylum seekers from Sweden to Egypt, where they

were held incommunicado for five weeks and alleged they had been

tortured. The report said the Swedish security service and airport

police displayed " a remarkable subordinance to the American officials. "

An editorial in the San Jose Mercury News argues that Ms. Rice is not

helping the US when she lectures European allies on torture and tells

them they should butt out of US conduct at its once-secret detention

centers, eight or more of which are believed to be on European soil.

While the Bush administration continues to claim it does not condone

torture, it opposes a ban on torture that is moving through Congress.

Rice joins Vice President Dick Cheney and others in showing

exasperation at the proposal and at the criticism of other nations.

Europeans have lived under the threat of terrorist attacks far longer

- and have been victims far more frequently - than Americans. In

spite of that, they continue to support the international law banning

torture. Why? Because they believe torture has no place in a civilized

society, and if Europeans were to practice it, they would be no better

than the enemy.

 

Finally, the Associated Press reported Tuesday that a new poll shows

that Americans and citzens of eight countries that are allies of the US

are deeply divided on the question of rendition. Almost two-thirds of

those polled in the eight countries [Canada, Mexico, South Korea.

Spain, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy] don't want the United

States conducting secret interrogations of terror suspects on their

soil, while almost two-thirds of Americans support such interrogation

in the US.

 

 

 

 

 

Being a pacifist between wars is as easy as being a vegetarian

between meals. " --Ammon Hennacy