[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [SRRTAC-L:9697] Torture meets the press

[Al Kagan]

>Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2002 09:57:47 -0800 (PST)
>From: Rory Litwin <rlitwin at earthlink.net>
>To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
>Subject: [SRRTAC-L:9697] Torture meets the press
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>Title in the Washington Post:
>
>U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations
>'Stress and Duress' Tactics Used on Terrorism Suspects Held in 
>Secret Overseas Facilities
>
>Same article in the Sydney Morning Herald:
>
>US turns to torture to crack prisoners of war
>By¬ÝDana Priest and Barton Gellman
>December 27 2002
>
>
>
>Deep inside the forbidden zone at the United States-occupied Bagram 
>air base in Afghanistan are a cluster of metal shipping containers 
>protected by a triple layer of concertina wire.
>
>The containers hold the most valuable prizes in the US-led war in 
>Afghanistan - suspected al-Qaeda operatives and Taliban commanders.
>
>Those who refuse to co-operate inside the secret CIA interrogation 
>centre are sometimes kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black 
>hoods or spray-painted goggles, intelligence specialists familiar 
>with CIA interrogation methods say.
>
>At times they are held in awkward, painful positions and deprived of 
>sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights - subject to what are 
>known as "stress and duress" techniques.
>
>Those who co-operate are rewarded by interrogators whose methods 
>include feigned friendship, respect, cultural sensitivity and, in 
>some cases, money. The most hardened cases are turned over - 
>"rendered", in official parlance - to foreign intelligence services 
>whose practice of torture has been documented by the US Government 
>and human rights organisations.
>
>
>US officials have said little publicly about interrogation methods, 
>but interviews with former intelligence officials and 10 current 
>national security officials, some of whom have seen the handling of 
>prisoners, provide insight into how the US Government is conducting 
>this part of the war. The picture that emerges is of a 
>brass-knuckled quest for information, often in concert with allies 
>of dubious human-rights reputation, in which the traditional lines 
>between right and wrong, legal and inhumane, are evolving and 
>blurred.
>
>While the US Government publicly denounces the use of torture, all 
>of the national security officials interviewed defended the use of 
>violence against captives as "just and necessary", and they were 
>confident the American public would back their view. The CIA, which 
>has responsibility for interrogations, declined to comment.
>
>"If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you 
>probably aren't doing your job," said one official who has 
>supervised the capture and transfer of accused terrorists. "I don't 
>think we want to be promoting a view of zero tolerance on this."
>
>The off-limits patch of ground at Bagram is one of a number of 
>secret overseas detention centres where US due process does not 
>apply. Another is Diego Garcia, an island in the Indian Ocean that 
>the US leases from Britain.
>
>In other cases, usually involving lower-level captives, the CIA 
>hands them to foreign intelligence services, notably those of 
>Jordan, Egypt and Morocco, with a list of questions the agency wants 
>answered.
>
>These "extraordinary renditions" are done without resort to legal 
>process and usually involve countries with security services known 
>for using brutal means.
>
>According to one official who has been directly involved in 
>transferring captives the understanding is: "We don't kick the 
>[expletive] out of them. We send them to other countries so they can 
>kick the [expletive] out of them."
>
>Nearly 3000 suspected al-Qaeda members and their supporters have 
>been detained worldwide since September11, 2001. Some officials 
>estimated that fewer than 100 captives have been transferred to 
>third countries. But thousands have been arrested and held with US 
>assistance in countries known for brutal treatment of prisoners, the 
>officials said.
>
>At a joint hearing of the House and Senate intelligence committees 
>in September, Cofer Black, then head of the CIA Counterterrorist 
>Centre, spoke cryptically about the agency's new forms of 
>"operational flexibility" in dealing with suspected terrorists. "All 
>you need to know is that there was a before 9/11, and there was an 
>after 9/11," Mr Black said. "After 9/11 the gloves come off."
>
>The Washington Post


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu