Durbin: What about Rendition Tapes?

Since we're talking about destroying tapes of interrogations, why limit it to those made in secret CIA prisons? The Chicago Tribune reports today that Abu Omar, a suspected terrorist abducted in Italy and flown to Egypt by the CIA, says that "his captors made audiotapes of his extensive interrogations in an Egyptian prison that recorded 'the sounds of my torture and my cries.'"

That raises several questions, says Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), and he asked them in a flurry of letters today.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he asks whether she knows if interrogations of detainees rendered by the United States to foreign countries were recorded, and if so, whether any have been reviewed "to verify compliance with diplomatic assurances not to torture detainees?"

In his letter to CIA Director Michael Hayden, he asks whether he knows of any such recordings and whether the CIA has any -- and whether, well, they've already destroyed them.

And his letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey requests that the Justice Department's investigation into the destruction of the tapes include possible tapes of interrogations of rendered detainees -- and they're possible destruction.

link: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004892.php

this line of inquiry.

they didn't know people would be tortured when using _________ rendition and shipped off to other countries.


List of countries the US State Department say abuse human rights


"Every year the U.S. State Department issues its annual report on the state of human rights around the world.The report addresses the various human rights abuses in each country.

These reports do not include the actions of the United States.



Extraterritorial Reach of Article 3

U.S. Position: The United States takes the position that its Article 3 obligation not to send someone to a country where they will be in danger of being subjected to torture does not apply if a person is initially arrested or detained outside the territory of the United States. Rather, the United States argues that its legal obligation not to send someone to a country where they are in danger of being tortured only applies if the person is arrested or detained within the United States. In making this argument, the United States argues that the terms “expel,” “return,” and “extradite” refer to the act of sending an individual from one’s own country to another.

Response: The purpose and intent of Article 3 of the Convention is to prohibit member states from sending individuals to countries where they will be subjected to torture. That prohibition is clear; there is no basis for making the geographic location of where an individual is detained the triggering factor in its application. The United States also argues a general policy not to transfer individuals to countries where they are more likely than not to be subject to torture, regardless of where they are initially detained, and that therefore the issue as to the applicability of a legal obligation is irrelevant.



Diplomatic Assurances & Rendition to Torture (Article 3)


U.S. Position: The United States continues to promote its policy of relying on diplomatic assurances as a safeguard against a return to torture.


Response: Diplomatic assurances are unenforceable – and often unmonitored – promises by a receiving country that an individual returned to that country will not be subjected to torture. As is exemplified by the case of Maher Arar – a Canadian who was transferred to Syria, in reliance on diplomatic assurances, yet subsequently tortured anyway – these assurances often fail to protect transferred individuals from torture. Of particular concern, the United States accepts such assurances even without any monitoring provision. Moreover, when asked by Mr. Fernando Marino Menendez whether the United States would continue to rely on diplomatic assurances if the country had previously tortured an individual returned to its custody, in violation of prior diplomatic assurances, the United States answered that the past practices would be “highly relevant.” The answer should have been, “no.” Absent evidence of substantially changed conditions, no individuals should be transferred to a country that had previously subjected someone to torture or abuse.


My Comment: And considering the State Departments annual report on human rights abuses, it's not like the US doesn't already know which countries are most likely to torture people.










2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices


Burma

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

There are laws that prohibit torture; however, members of the security forces reportedly tortured, beat, and otherwise abused prisoners, detainees, and other citizens. They routinely subjected detainees to harsh interrogation techniques designed to intimidate and disorient.

Egypt

The government's respect for human rights remained poor, and serious abuses continued in many areas. These included limitations on the right of citizens to change their government; a state of emergency, in place almost continuously since 1967; torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees; poor conditions in prisons and detention centers; impunity; arbitrary arrest and detention, including prolonged pretrial detention; executive branch limits on an independent judiciary; denial of fair public trial and lack of due process; political prisoners and detainees; restrictions on civil liberties--freedoms of speech and press, including internet freedom; assembly and association; some restrictions on religious freedom; corruption and lack of transparency; some restrictions on NGOs; and discrimination and violence against women, including female genital mutilation.

Tunisia

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment


The law prohibits such practices; however, according to human rights organizations, security forces tortured detainees to elicit confessions and discourage resistance. The forms of torture and other abuse included: sleep deprivation; electric shock; submersion of the head in water; beatings with hands, sticks, and police batons; suspension, sometimes manacled,from cell doors and rods resulting in loss of consciousness; and cigarette burns. According to Amnesty International (AI), police and prison officials used sexual assault and threats of sexual assault against the wives of Islamist prisoners to extract information, intimidate, and punish.


2005 Report


Turkey


The following human rights problems were reported:


•some restrictions on political activity
•unlawful killings
•torture, beatings, and other abuses of persons by security forces
•poor prison conditions
•arbitrary detention
•impunity and corruption
•lengthy pretrial detention
•excessively long trials
•restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association
•restrictions on religious freedom
•violence and discrimination against women
•child abuse
•child marriage
•trafficking in persons
•restrictions on worker's rights
•child labor

HRA official who visited the detainees, said police beat the detainees, administered electric shocks to their genitals, forced them to strip and sprayed them with cold water, and placed guns to their heads and threatened to kill them. Kuzu claimed that the prosecutor declined to record the detainees' torture claims, and he claimed the detainees were denied access to prison medical facilities.

Human rights observers said that, because of reduced detention periods, security officials mainly used torture methods that did not leave physical signs, including repeated slapping, exposure to cold, stripping and blindfolding, food and sleep deprivation, threats to detainees or family members, dripping water on the head, isolation, and mock executions. They reported the near elimination of more severe methods, such as electric shocks, high-pressure cold water hoses, rape, beatings on the soles of the feet and genitalia, hanging by the arms, and burns.



Tunisia

The following human rights problems were reported:


• torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees
• arbitrary arrest and detention
• police impunity
• lengthy pretrial and incommunicado detention
• infringement of citizens' privacy rights
• restrictions on freedom of speech and press
• restrictions of freedom of assembly and association

Syria

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

...they were subjected to various forms of torture and ill-treatment, including having their fingers crushed, beatings to the face and legs, dousing with cold water, standing for long periods of time during the night, subjected to loud screams and beatings of other detainees, stripped naked in front of others, and not being allowed to pray and grow a beard.


Former prisoners, detainees, and reputable local human rights groups, reported that torture methods included electrical shocks; pulling out fingernails; burning genitalia; forcing objects into the rectum; beating, sometimes while the victim was suspended from the ceiling; alternately dousing victims with freezing water and beating them in extremely cold rooms; hyperextending the spine; bending the detainees into the frame of a wheel and whipping exposed body parts; and using a backward-bending chair to asphyxiate the victim or fracture the victim's spine. Torture was most likely to occur while detainees were held at one of the many detention centers operated by the various security services throughout the country, particularly while authorities attempted to extract a confession or information.



2004 Report

Morocco

In June, AI published a report that accused security authorities of systematic torture and ill treatment of suspects held at the Temara detention center. AI noted a sharp rise over the past 2 years in such cases in the context of "counter terrorism" measures as well as the failure of government authorities to investigate these reports.

AI and other human rights organizations reported torture and ill treatment during initial interrogations of prisoners, including beatings, electric shocks, and sexual abuse. Former detainees reported that they were held in secret detention and denied contact with lawyers or family. The AI report also documented accusations of arbitrary detention and forced confessions of detained terrorism suspects.



2003 Report


Libya

Reports of torture were difficult to corroborate because many prisoners were held incommunicado.

Methods of torture reportedly included: Chaining to a wall for hours; clubbing; applying electric shock; applying corkscrews to the back; pouring lemon juice in open wounds; breaking fingers and allowing the joints to heal without medical care; suffocating with plastic bags; depriving of food and water; hanging by the wrists; suspending from a pole inserted between the knees and elbows; burning with cigarettes; attacking with dogs; and beating on the soles of the feet.

...torture methods they described included electric shocks, beatings, sleep deprivation, intimidation by police dogs, and forcing one female suspect to undress and threatening to insert a lighted lamp into her vagina. These signed confessions were the prosecution's best evidence against the suspects.



2002 Report

Saudi Arabia

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Shar'ia (Islamic law) prohibits any judge from accepting a confession obtained under duress; however, there were credible reports that the authorities abused detainees, both citizens and foreigners. Ministry of Interior officials were responsible for most incidents of abuse of prisoners, including beatings, whippings, sleep deprivation, and at least three cases of drugging of foreign prisoners. In addition, there were allegations of torture, including allegations of beatings with sticks, suspension from bars by handcuffs, and threats against family members. Torture and abuse were used to obtain required confessions from prisoners



2001 Report


Tunisia

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The Penal Code prohibits the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; however, security forces reportedly routinely used various methods of torture to coerce confessions from detainees. The forms of torture included electric shock; submersion of the head in water; beatings with hands, sticks, and police batons; cigarette burns, and food and sleep deprivation.

According to Amnesty International (AI) and defense attorneys, the courts routinely fail to investigate allegations of torture and mistreatment and have accepted as evidence confessions extracted under torture.

In its annual report for 2000, Human Rights Watch stated that despite the reduction of incommunicado detention from 10 to 6 days, torture continued to be a problem, due to a climate of impunity "fostered by a judiciary that ignored evidence of torture and routinely convicted defendants on the basis of coerced confessions."


2000 Report


Sudan

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

There continued to be reports that security forces used "ghost houses," places where security forces tortured and detained government opponents incommunicado under harsh conditions for an indeterminate time with no supervision by the courts or other independent authorities with power to release the detainees; however, reports of the use of "ghost houses" ceased during the latter half of the year.


1999 Report

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Egypt

Egyptian human rights groups and victims reported a number of torture methods that are employed by state security personnel and the police. Detainees frequently are stripped; hung by their wrists with their feet just touching the floor or forced to stand for prolonged periods; doused with hot or cold water; beaten; forced to stand outdoors in cold weather; and subjected to electrical shocks. Some victims, including female detainees, report that they have been threatened with rape.