Detainees and Torture: investigation is overdue

by Linda M. Beale

It’s frightening how easily we can forget images of horror. Not so long ago, we saw those few photographs that made it past the military censors who control information about our occupation of Iraq as though it were a Forbidden City. The photos that got out demonstrated indecencies and abuses performed by American soldiers on prisoners in Abu Ghraib—dogs, nudity, sexual humiliation, chaining of detainees for days in their own urine and feces, and, yes, murders, acknowledged in official reports. We heard about some trials, and then everything was quiet. No commanders were punished. The Bush White House and the military claimed it was just a few rotten apples.

Then information started coming in that painted a different picture.  The same techniques were used in Quantanamo. The same military commander that used those techniques there was sent to Iraq to show the interrogators how to get more information out of the thousands of Iraqi “disappeared” that we have imprisoned there. Stories of similar abuses surfaced at other military prisons in Afghanistan and around the globe. Worse still (if possible), we learned that the United States has been engaging in a policy of “rendering” detainees to Egypt, Syria and other countries known to engage in torture—of course, with the farce of our claim that they promised not to torture. Remember, these are detainees, people who may well be completely innocent, people who have been arrested by the military and imprisoned without due process, literally on the say-so of the White House.

When the courts said that detainees at Quantanamo have a right to a hearing, the military finally began processing some of them through the military “tribunals” set up by the same people who wrote the legal memoranda defending executive violation of the Geneva Conventions. Defense lawyers complained about the process and claimed that the tribunals were “done deals” with no chance for a fair hearing and justice. The military brass and the White House scoffed, telling us this was all just an active defense lawyer’s legal maneuvering and there was no truth to it.

Well, wrong again. As with so many of this Administration’s denials, information is now surfacing that shows that the Administration again misrepresented the facts. Two prosecutors were convinced that the military’s process was unfair, and in fact viewed the process as a set up with only one conclusion possible.

Congress should act, and it should act now, to establish adequate procedural protections for all military detainees and to ensure that those who have breached the law—including the highest military brass and civilian chiefs—are sanctioned for their misconduct. It is time to enact a bill providing the freedom from unjust imprisonment that is the hallmark of a true democracy. It is time to open a real investigation into the rendition of prisoners to other countries and the allegations of tortured and “disappeared” detainees. If we are silent, we are complicit.

Comments

[LindaMBeale]

The commenter below (for some reason this comment got posted above the related comment) misses the pointof the VoBA posting by claiming that the people we have detained for years in military prisons outside the United States may face less comfortable futures in their own home countries or in Iraq or Afghanistan if we now turn them over to authorities there. Possible bad treatment by others (including the Iraqi and Afghanistan governments that we have put in place during our military occupation of those countries) doesn't justify violation of the Geneva War Conventions and U.S. constitutional requirements for due process by us. We claim to be a nation that understands and appreciates genuine freedom and we claim to be standing as a model to others. We cannot then continue to violate international agreements about appropriate treatment of military prisoners nor our own standards about what constitutes torture. At this point, we have many prisoners that we have captured at gunpoint in their own homes and have held for years on mere suspicion of illegal activity. We have finally released some held for more than 2 years, acknowledging their innocence. This is not the behavior of a country that values the rule of law, but rather is behavior that mimics the despotism of countries that we want to change to value the rule of law!

Ad hominen attacks ("stop whining, suck it up, and get a job") are completely out of place in a rational discussion about the abuses committed by our country. They tend to be inaccurate, misplaced, and irrelevant, as yours is. They add nothing to the debate at issue. And they distract from the real concerns that should be discussed, namely why this country claims to stand for the rule of law but fails to abide by its own rules of law. The current Administration has publicly and explicitly espoused the right of the person occupying the office of President to disobey any law that he chooses. That is not the rule of law, but is close to outright dictatorship. Congress must hold the Administration accountable.

[DUTCH]

I got an idea, send the prisoners to Iraq and Afghanistan and let those governments take care of them. My guess is that they will see real torture there and not be able to gain an average of 18 pounds during their stay. Or send them all back to their country of origin...but wait, those countries don't want them and would probably kill them. That would really upset my sensitive liberal heart. These are prisoners of war. We did not release any German or Japanese prisoners we took during WWII until after the conflict and after they had been tried for war crimes. Stop whining, suck it up, and get a job.