The U.S. Does Do Torture, Evidently
11.08.2005
From The New Yorker, Via The Nation comes a very harrowing piece of journalism.
Titled, "A Deadly Interrogation: Can the CIA legally Kill a Prisoner", the article details events in an Abu Ghraib cell which led to the death of a suspect there. Im just going to lift some important bits first;
"Two years ago...an Iraqi prisoner in Swanner's custody, Manadel al-Jamadi, died during an interrogation. His head had been covered with a plastic bag, and he was shackled in a crucifixion-like pose that inhibited his ability to breathe."
"According to forensic pathologists who have examined the case, he asphyxiated. In a subsequent internal investigation, United States government authorities classified Jamadi's death as a Âhomicide."
"The C.I.A. had identified him [al-Jamadi] as a "high-value" target, because he had allegedly supplied the explosives used in several atrocities perpetrated by insurgents, including the bombing of the Baghdad headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross, in October, 2003."
"According to witnesses, Jamadi was walking and speaking when he arrived at the prison. He was taken to a shower room for interrogation. Some forty-five minutes later, he was dead."
"[The dossier on the case has been with the Attorney General for Eastern Disrtict of Virginia for a Year]A lawyer familiar with the case, who asked not to be named, said that the Swanner file seemed to be "lying kind of fallow."
"John Radsan, a lawyer formerly in the C.I.A's Office of General Counsel, says, "Along with the usual problems of dealing with classified information in a criminal case, this could open a can of worms if a C.I.A. official in this case got indicte's a big fat can of worms about what set of rules apply to people like Jamadi. The sixty-four-thousand-dollar question is: What has been authorized? Can the C.I.A. torture people? A case like this opens up Pandora's box."
The article goes on to explore what the CIA has been accused of and what it might be authorised to do to extract results and information from prisoners. From the looks of this and other detail in the article, there is at least one allegation and eight more cited astorture where toture may have been used.
Surely eight isnt that bad? It is. No equivocation can be facilitated here. No amount of lies about information, terrorists and hating freedom. One person is terrible, eight is terrible.
The Nation's conclusion and coining of another title for Dick Cheney;
"It is a fantasy to believe that the architects of these cruel, inhuman interrogation techniques will be held accountable by an Administration whose key figures, especially "The Vice President for Torture," are so deeply implicated in the policies that led to the metastasizing use of torture."
The decision of the Washington Post then to withhold its information from the story about torture prisons in Europe and Africa, in accordance with the wishes of the White House is indefensible. Again the main media players in the U.S. have covered themselves in shame. There appear to be genuine cases to answer and the releasing of information will secure the truth, be it innocence for the CIA or justice for the dead.
RR
Categories: Terrorism, Torture, USA, Bush,
Leave your response