Group Says U.S. Sent Up to 150 to Possible Torture Sites
FPF: 'Global Terror by Secret US Death Squads' -
Gulfstream executive jets and hooded US agents:
Url.: http://207.44.245.159/article7069.htm
Where is the outrage of all those so called 'moral leaders'?
Their silence is a huge crime against humanity.- Silence means Consent: if you don't speak up, you accept what is happening.
************************************************************************
Group Says U.S. Sent Up to 150 to Possible Torture Sites
Human Rights Watch also criticizes the military's
investigations of the way it treats foreign detainees.
By Richard A. Serrano - Times Staff Writer
04/24/05 "Los Angeles Times" - - WASHINGTON — A civil liberties group investigating allegations of prisoner abuse will report today that since the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. agents have secretly transported up to 150 detainees to countries that may practice torture.
Such transporting, known as rendition, is more widespread than the government has reported, according to Human Rights Watch. In a report issued a year after the earliest revelations of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, the group said the renditions, along with abuses of foreign detainees by U.S. forces, were possible violations of international law.
The group also said an Army investigation clearing top U.S. military commanders of wrongdoing in the scandal at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad established the need for an outside inquiry.
"This just proves the military can't investigate itself," said Reed Brody, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch, which monitors civil rights issues around the world. "It seems like another in a long line of attempts at self-absolution."
Brody's organization and the American Civil Liberties Union are among the groups that have sought the appointment of a special counsel to investigate U.S. detention practices since a string of Pentagon inquiries found few cases of wrongdoing, especially in higher military ranks or among civilian officials.
Revelations on Friday that an upcoming report by the Army inspector general would exonerate Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former chief U.S. commander in Iraq, and three other top officers proves the inadequacy of the military's probes, the rights groups said.
"These findings only show that the president must appoint a special counsel — who is not beholden by rank or party and who is able to look up the military chain of command," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero in a statement Saturday.
The Human Rights Watch report comes amid growing concern on Capitol Hill over sending prisoners to countries such as Syria and Egypt, which are widely believed to torture prisoners for interrogation purposes.
The Bush administration has acknowledged that renditions have occurred, but officials at the CIA and elsewhere have not definitively said how many captives may have been detained by the United States in one country, then clandestinely flown to a third nation.
Former CIA Director George J. Tenet has said his agency took part in more than 70 renditions before Sept. 11, but he has not made clear whether any involved sending detainees to countries that permitted torture.
His successor, CIA Director Porter J. Goss, testified in February before the Senate Intelligence Committee that experts did not believe prisoner abuse was an effective way to get information.
According to Goss, when prisoners are transferred, the U.S. "seeks assurances" that they will not be mistreated.
Last week, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W. Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged a separate congressional review of how the CIA detained and interrogated prisoners.
Human Rights Watch said its determination that there were 100 to 150 renditions was based on its own investigative work and media reports from around the world.
The organization cited some examples as part of the release of today's report:
• Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was picked up by U.S. authorities at a New York airport, flown to Jordan and driven to Syria, the group said. After being released 10 months later, he described "repeated torture, often with cables and electrical cords, during his confinement in a Syrian prison."
• Swedish officials turned over two Egyptians, Ahmed Agiza and Mohammed al-Zari, to U.S. officials. The men were allegedly hooded, shackled and drugged, placed aboard a U.S. government-leased plane and flown to Egypt. "The two men were reportedly tortured, including in Cairo's notorious Tora prison," Human Rights Watch said.
• Osama Moustafa Nasr of Milan, Italy, has complained that Americans seized him and flew him to Egypt.
There, he has said, the secret police beat him so badly that he lost hearing in one ear.
The organization said it did not know how many other cases there might be or what
had happened to most of the other detainees "rendered" to other countries.
"These are the only ones we can document," Brody said.
[End item] - 2005 Los Angeles Times - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cfnjb
Footnotes/links:
How to make a legal 'citizens arrest':
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5cag9
Tokyo Tribunal - Citizens find Bush guilty of war crimes:
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6sw7m
United Nations - Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment - Url.: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
Geneva convention violation - War crimes ? - Url.:
http://www.investigate911.com/texecutioner.htm
Former PM 'Wim Kok' and other Dutch Govt's War criminals in Court: Url.: http://tinyurl.com/662pp
Sued: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Over U.S. Torture Policies: - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/3tgo3
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/4bm9d
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
-0-
Gulfstream executive jets and hooded US agents:
Url.: http://207.44.245.159/article7069.htm
Where is the outrage of all those so called 'moral leaders'?
Their silence is a huge crime against humanity.- Silence means Consent: if you don't speak up, you accept what is happening.
************************************************************************
Group Says U.S. Sent Up to 150 to Possible Torture Sites
Human Rights Watch also criticizes the military's
investigations of the way it treats foreign detainees.
By Richard A. Serrano - Times Staff Writer
04/24/05 "Los Angeles Times" - - WASHINGTON — A civil liberties group investigating allegations of prisoner abuse will report today that since the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. agents have secretly transported up to 150 detainees to countries that may practice torture.
Such transporting, known as rendition, is more widespread than the government has reported, according to Human Rights Watch. In a report issued a year after the earliest revelations of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, the group said the renditions, along with abuses of foreign detainees by U.S. forces, were possible violations of international law.
The group also said an Army investigation clearing top U.S. military commanders of wrongdoing in the scandal at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad established the need for an outside inquiry.
"This just proves the military can't investigate itself," said Reed Brody, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch, which monitors civil rights issues around the world. "It seems like another in a long line of attempts at self-absolution."
Brody's organization and the American Civil Liberties Union are among the groups that have sought the appointment of a special counsel to investigate U.S. detention practices since a string of Pentagon inquiries found few cases of wrongdoing, especially in higher military ranks or among civilian officials.
Revelations on Friday that an upcoming report by the Army inspector general would exonerate Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former chief U.S. commander in Iraq, and three other top officers proves the inadequacy of the military's probes, the rights groups said.
"These findings only show that the president must appoint a special counsel — who is not beholden by rank or party and who is able to look up the military chain of command," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero in a statement Saturday.
The Human Rights Watch report comes amid growing concern on Capitol Hill over sending prisoners to countries such as Syria and Egypt, which are widely believed to torture prisoners for interrogation purposes.
The Bush administration has acknowledged that renditions have occurred, but officials at the CIA and elsewhere have not definitively said how many captives may have been detained by the United States in one country, then clandestinely flown to a third nation.
Former CIA Director George J. Tenet has said his agency took part in more than 70 renditions before Sept. 11, but he has not made clear whether any involved sending detainees to countries that permitted torture.
His successor, CIA Director Porter J. Goss, testified in February before the Senate Intelligence Committee that experts did not believe prisoner abuse was an effective way to get information.
According to Goss, when prisoners are transferred, the U.S. "seeks assurances" that they will not be mistreated.
Last week, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W. Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged a separate congressional review of how the CIA detained and interrogated prisoners.
Human Rights Watch said its determination that there were 100 to 150 renditions was based on its own investigative work and media reports from around the world.
The organization cited some examples as part of the release of today's report:
• Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was picked up by U.S. authorities at a New York airport, flown to Jordan and driven to Syria, the group said. After being released 10 months later, he described "repeated torture, often with cables and electrical cords, during his confinement in a Syrian prison."
• Swedish officials turned over two Egyptians, Ahmed Agiza and Mohammed al-Zari, to U.S. officials. The men were allegedly hooded, shackled and drugged, placed aboard a U.S. government-leased plane and flown to Egypt. "The two men were reportedly tortured, including in Cairo's notorious Tora prison," Human Rights Watch said.
• Osama Moustafa Nasr of Milan, Italy, has complained that Americans seized him and flew him to Egypt.
There, he has said, the secret police beat him so badly that he lost hearing in one ear.
The organization said it did not know how many other cases there might be or what
had happened to most of the other detainees "rendered" to other countries.
"These are the only ones we can document," Brody said.
[End item] - 2005 Los Angeles Times - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cfnjb
Footnotes/links:
How to make a legal 'citizens arrest':
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5cag9
Tokyo Tribunal - Citizens find Bush guilty of war crimes:
Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6sw7m
United Nations - Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment - Url.: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html
Geneva convention violation - War crimes ? - Url.:
http://www.investigate911.com/texecutioner.htm
Former PM 'Wim Kok' and other Dutch Govt's War criminals in Court: Url.: http://tinyurl.com/662pp
Sued: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Over U.S. Torture Policies: - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/3tgo3
FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/4bm9d
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/66dmo
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
-0-
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