Impunity Watch: North America

Guantanamo Detainee Case Moves Forward

By Gabrielle Meury
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, U.S.- Yemeni prisoner Salim Hamdan’s lawyers plan to argue that nearly three dozen interrogation statements should be thrown out. Hamdan was interrogated at least 30 times by the U.S. government. Two interrogations took place on the battlefield in the context of gathering military intelligence. Hamdan’s lawyers reported that no one told him until more than two years after his November 2001 capture that he was the subject of a criminal investigation that could lead to a life sentence.

Hamdan said in an affidavit that interrogators beat him if they did not like his answers.
“What use is a privilege against self-incrimination at trial if the prosecution can simply coerce incriminating statements during a period of indefinite pretrial custodial detention and then- while the defendant sits silent at trial- call to the stand witness after witness who will provide hearsay testimony regarding what Mr. Hamdan allegedly said before he was advised of his right to remain silent?”

The U.S. claims that Hamdan delivered weapons to al-Qaida and its associates and trained at terrorist camps. Hamdan’s lawyers admit that he was a driver for bin Laden, but say that he never joined al-Qaida or had advanced knowledge of any attacks.

Yesterday Colonel Morris, the former chief prosecutor for terrorism cases, testified on behalf of Hamdan.  Davis said that senior officials in President Bush’s administration urged him to move high-profile trials along quickly for political reasons. Davis also said that Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes once took issue with the possibility that some defendants could be acquitted. “He said, ‘We can’t have acquittals, we’ve been holding these guys for years. How can we explain acquittals? We have to have convictions.’”

For more information, please see:

Sydney Morning Herald- Guantanamo has driven inmate crazy, lawyer says – 28 April 2008

Associated Press- Bin Laden former driver refuses to participate in trial- 28 April 2008

Reuters- Bin Laden’s driver wants own words banned in trial- 29 April 2008

AFP- Ex-Prosecutor calls Guantanamo tribunals tainted: reports- 29 April 2008

BRIEF: CIA Moves to Prevent the Release of 7,000 Documents

WASHINGTON, United States - Amnesty International, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Human Rights Clinic at NYU's Law School filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act in district court last year for the release of documents relating to the CIA torture program.  The CIA is refusing to release the documents and has filed a motion to avoid doing just that.  The documents are thought to contain memos, e-mails, and other various records all relating to a CIA program involving forced disappearances, secret detention and torture.

The CIA is arguing that the documents relate to communications between the CIA and Justice Department Attorneys and conversations with the White House.  The Centre for Research on Globalization stated the CIA is "seemingly protected behind an impenetrable wall of impunity built by the Bush Administration in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the CIA is now attempting to shield its top officers from legal and congressional scrutiny by refusing to release these documents."

The CIA apparently stated in its New York federal court filings that the programs of will continue.  The Center for Constitutional Rights says that at least thirty people are being held in secret by the CIA and their future is unknown.  The Washington Post says the Justice Department told Congress "that American intelligence operatives attempting to thwart terrorist attacks can legally use interrogation methods that might otherwise be prohibited under international law."  In a March 5th letter the Justice Department wrote, according to the Washington Post, the Bush administration has endorsed a case-by-case evaluation of which techniques violate the Geneva Convention standards and which do not.

For more information, please see:

Centre for Research on Globalization - CIA Stonewall:  Agency Won't Release 7,000 Documents Related to Torture Program - 27 April 2008

Washington Post - CIA Foresaw Interrogation Issues - 24 April 2008

New York Times - Letters Give C.I.A. Tactics a Legal Rationale - 27 April 2008

BRIEF: United States Accepts the ICC

WASHINGTON, United States – The United States will consider “aiding the Hague tribunal in its investigation” of the atrocities in Darfur. 

On April 25, 2008, a senior Bush administration official said that the United States “now accepts the ‘reality’ of the International Criminal Court.” 

John Bellinger, the State Department’s chief lawyer, stated that the United States “must acknowledge” the International Criminal Court’s “large body of international support.”  Furthermore, Bellinger suggests that many countries will choose the International Criminal Court as the “preferred mechanism” of punishing war crimes over an individual countries effort. 

In 2002, President Bush “unsigned” the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court’s founding treaty, in order to safeguard United States military actions from the reach of the Court. 

For more information, please see:

The Wall Street Journal – U.S. Accepts International Criminal Court – 26 April 2008

Council of Foreign Relations – Bellinger’s Speech on the United States and the International Criminal Court – 25 April 2008

BRIEF: Internet Sites Used to Track Wanted War Criminals

WASHINGTON, United States – It has been one year since the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Harun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb for crimes against humanity committed in the Darfur region of Sudan. 

On April 27, 2008, two Internet sites, Facebook and Google, launched efforts to help the International Criminal Court enforce these warrants and bring the guilty parties to justice.

Facebook launched the Wanted For War Crimes Watch List.  The list serves to educate readers about the war criminals and includes links to “indicted war criminals still on the run.”  Facebook users are encouraged to come forward with “sightings” and reports on the war criminal’s “last known location.” 

Google Maps and Google Earth have been used to locate, target and map the movement of Harun and Kushayb. 

With the use of this mapping technology (Google) combined with the “social networking site” (Facebook), the creators of Wanted For War Crimes Watch List hope to reach the “billions of people surfing the World Wide Web.”  This reach could produce enough pressure on the Sudanese government that they will be forced to turn over Harun and Kushayb. 

For more information, please see:

Voice of America News – Facebook, Google Join Hunt for Sudanese War Crime Suspects – 27 April 2008

Wanted For War Crimes

President Bush Confirms Approval of Harsh Interrogation Tactics

By Gabrielle Meury
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

President Bush has repeatedly denied that the administration condones torture. However, emerging evidence has shown that Bush’s definition of torture contradicts the Geneva convention as well as other international human rights conventions.

The ACLU released an FBI email in December of 2004 after obtaining it through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The email is dated May 22, 2004, and discussed the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib and sought guidance on whether FBI agents in Iraq were obligated to report the US military’s harsh interrogation of inmates when that treatment violated FBI standards but fit within the guidelines of a presidential Executive Order. According to the email, Bush’s Executive Order authorized interrogators to use military dogs, “stress positions,” sleep “management,” loud music and “sensory deprivation though the use of hoods, ect.” to extract information from detainees in Iraq. This email is validated by news reports last week that senior White House officials, including Dick Cheney and then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, met secretly to discuss specific interrogation methods to be used against detainees.

ABC news reported that these top advisers signed off on how the CIA could interrogation top al-Qaeda suspects. On April 18, 2008, Bush confirmed the report, stating, “I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.”

In reaction to Bush’s comment, the ACLU requested that Congress appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether the President and other officials broker federal and international laws, “including the War Crimes Act, the federal Anti-Torture Act, and federal assault laws.” Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, said the fact that President Bush admitted he approved of high-level meetings so members of his Cabinet could brainstorm about brutal interrogation methods confirms the worst fears. “We have always known that the CIA’s use of torture was approved from the very top levels of the U.S. government, it is a very sad day when the President of the United States subverts the Constitution, the rule of law, and the American values of justice.”

For more information, please see:

ACLU- FBI email- 22 May 2004                           

Middle East Online- Bush’s Torture Quote Undercuts Denial- 18 April 2008                  

Baltimore Chronicle- Bush’s Torture Quote Undercuts Denial- 15 April 2008

Aljazeera Magazine- Bush’s Torture Quote Undercuts Denial- 24 April 2008

BRIEF: Guantanamo Detainees Allegedly Drugged During Interrogations

MASSACHUSETTS, United States – Guantanamo Bay detainees have alleged that they were “forcibly drugged” during interrogations while in United States custody.  Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), author of the report “Break Them Down,” has called upon Congress and the Department of Justice to investigate these allegations. 

“Break Them Down” is a “groundbreaking report” in which Physicians for Human Rights documents the “systematic use of psychological torture” by United States officers during interrogations of terror suspects.  Physicians for Human Rights has continually documented these instances of torture since 2005. 

Physicians for Human Rights’ report claims that medications may have been used to chemically restrain detainees, facilitate interrogations as well as “therapeutic purposes” without informed consent from the detainee. 

Under the War Crimes Act and the Anti-Torture Statute, the use of “mind-altering substances” or other procedures “calculated to profoundly disrupt the senses or personality” during an interrogation is a crime. 

These allegations also raise questions about the “role of health professionals” in the interrogation of detainees and the violation of the codes of medical ethics. 

For more information, please see:

Physicians For Human Rights – Allegations of Drugging in US Interrogations – 22 April 2008

Washington Post – Detainees Allege Being Drugged, Questioned – 22 April 2008

BRIEF: No CIA Prisons in Romania According to Report

BUCHAREST, Romania – A recent Romanian report, adopted by a special parliamentary committee in a 56 to 6 vote, denies that the government of Romania hosted secret prisons, or “black sites,” operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) within the country.

The report explicitly denies allegations levied by the European Union’s executive commission that Romanian lawmakers permitted the CIA to operate secret prisons for the purpose of interrogating suspected terrorists within their jurisdiction.  In addition to the EU accusation, Dick Marty, a Swiss investigator, and Human Rights Watch laid blame on Romania and Poland for allowing the CIA to establish and maintain secret prisons in their respective countries between 2002 and 2005.

Human rights groups contend the use of extraordinary renditions by the CIA to transport terrorist suspects to secret prisons as well as enhanced interrogation techniques, including shackling naked prisoners in isolation, violate the European Convention on Human Rights and Romanian domestic law.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune - Romanian Lawmakers’ Report Denies that the CIA Allowed Secret Detention Centers – 22 April 2008

Hot News – Romanian Senate:  No CIA Prisons in Romania – 22 April 2008

The Washington Post - CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons – 2 November 2005

Military Chief Duped Over Aggressive Interrogation Methods

By Gabrielle Meury
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, United States- The United States' most senior general was “hoodwinked” by top Bush administration officials determined to push through aggressive interrogation techniques for terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. These techniques led to the US military abandoning its ban on the cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners. General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff from 2001 to 2005, wrongly believed that inmates at Guantanamo and other prisons were protected by the Geneva conventions and from abuse.

A book published by University College London law professor Philippe Sands, Torture Team, is scheduled for release in May. Portions of the book were published by the UK Guardian on April 19. Sands writes that new techniques, approved by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, were actually developed by inexperienced Guantanamo lawyers and pushed through by senior Bush administration lawyers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and William Haynes.

Sands reveals that senior Bush administration figures authorized previously outlawed measures with the aid of inexperienced military officials at Guantanamo. Myers wrongly believed that the interrogation techniques had been taken from the army’s field manual. The interrogation techniques recommended by Haynes and authorized by Rumsfeld in December 2002 were not, as Myers believed, from the US army field manual. The techniques included hooding, sensory deprivation and physical and mental abuse. Sand establishes that pressure for aggressive and cruel treatment of detainees came from the top and was sanctioned by the most senior lawyers. Myers was cut out of important communications, meetings, deliberations and plans.

Larry Wilkerson, a former army officer and chief of staff to Colin Powell, US secretary of state at the time, told the Guardian, “Haynes, Feith, Yoo, Bybee, Gonzalez  broke the law; they violated their professional ethical code. In future, some government may build the case necessary to prosecute them in a foreign court, or in an international court."

For more information, please see:

Guardian, UK - Top US general “hoodwinked” over aggressive interrogation - 18 April 2008

Guardian, UK - Top Bush aides pushed for Guantanamo torture - 19 April 2008

Jurist - Bush lawyers “hoodwinked” military chief into allowing Guantanamo torture: book - 19 April 2008

Washington Post - “Duped about torture” - 21 April 2008

BRIEF: Three Inmates Move to Set New Execution Dates after Recent Supreme Court Decision

Houston, United States - The Supreme Court recently found that use of lethal injection by the state of Kentucky is constitutional.  No sooner had the Supreme Court decided to consider the constitutionality of the issue did inmates begin moving for new execution dates.

Thomas Arthur from Alabama, Earl Wesley Berry of Mississippi, and Carlton Turner of Texas are death row inmates who had their executions blocked last year while the Supreme Court considered the challenge to the Kentucky lethal injection procedure.  Now that the Supreme Court has found the method of execution to not be cruel or inhumane, the states are seeking to carry out the executions of the three death row inmates and the three inmates have "used up all their appeals."

Critics of death by lethal injection have argued that it is when lethal injection is administered incorrectly or in insufficient dosages that the act becomes cruel and unusual punishment.  The process involves three drugs.  If the drugs are administered wrong the inmate can suffer horrible pain.  Even worse, the second drug paralyzes the inmate making it impossible for them to signal their feelings.

For more information please see:

Yahoo! News - Supreme Court Rejects Appeals for Three Condemned Inmates - 21 April 2008

All Headline News - Supreme Court Lifts Stay of Execution for Inmates in Three States - 21 April 2008

BRIEF: Secret Service is Sued over Guantanamo Bay Terror Arrrests

GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - Five British men are preparing to sue the Secret Serivces over their detainment in Guantanamo Bay.  The five men include, Moazzam Begg, Richard Belmar, Ruhal Ahmed, Sherfiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal.  Ahmed, Rasul and Iqbal are known as the "Tipton Three." Moazzam Begg is a British muslim who was finally released from Guantanamo Bay in 2005 without any compensation or apology.

The Tipton Three are claiming their religious rights were violated by their U.S. captors.  The three men, and fellow detainee Jamal Al-Harith, all from Manchester, United Kingdom are asking U.S. Defense Attorney, Donald Rumsfeld, and ten other U.S. military commanders for a reported 5.4 million pounds.

Currently the parties' appeal was dismissed but their lawyers, who are American, plan to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

For more information please see:

Red Orbit - Five Sue Secret Services over Terror Arrests - 20 April 2008

YouTube - Moazzam Begg, Released Guantanamo Detainee Speaks Out - 09 May 2007