UN rapporteur on torture says amnesty for CIA abuses illegal

18 Apr, 2009 - Cafe Sentido

J.E. Robertson

The UN rapporteur on torture responded to the announcement by US pres. Barack Obama that CIA agents who engaged in practices the Justice Dept. had authorized as legal would not be prosecuted by saying that such an amnesty would violate US treaty obligations under international law. Manfred Nowak told the Austrian newspaper Der Standard that any acts of torture must be investigated and those involved prosecuted.

Amid the furore over revelations about torture authorized by the Bush administration, some human rights advocates have argued that there should be no attempt to “turn the page” and that if administration officials who sanctioned torture or agents who committed the acts have a defense, the courts exist precisely so that legal defense can be tested.

Nowak noted specifically that “The United States, like all other states that are part of the U.N. convention against torture, is committed to conducting criminal investigations of torture and to bringing all persons against whom there is sound evidence to court”. The memos released this week are considered by many to be evidence of a criminal conspiracy and there is some pressure in the US to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate further.

The US roundly rejected the “just following orders” argument at the Nuremburg trials, which helped establish, in part, the precedent in international justice that certain war crimes are unlawful no matter what any sovereign state may claim. It has also been noted that one of the techniques used, simulated drowning known as “waterboarding”, was prosecuted by the US against Japanese agents after WWII.

Among the revelations that have emerged from the four Justice Dept. memos released this week is the implication that waterboarding was used far more widely than initially claimed by Pres. Bush, when he first admitted to authorizing it, and that for several years there were no guidelines whatsoever to how it should be applied or to limit the potential traumatic effect (a claim that had been a key part of the Bush administration's arguments that its actions were not technically torture).

Obama has spoken passionately against the use of torture and moved swiftly to ban any future incidence of its use, signing an executive order banning abusive interrogations on his second day in office. But he has been unwilling to commit to prosecuting officials who “acted on good faith”, having been instructed that specific acts were in fact legal.

As the legal arguments involved in the memos are widely considered by law scholars to be hollow, or to rely on the claim (already rejected by the Supreme Court) that the president has indivisible authority to reject or override any law in times of war, it has been observed that the memos appear to argue that the techniques described are legal because the government will not apply any relevant laws to those situations where they are practiced.

This, of course, is not a legal argument per se, but a circular argument based on and in support of efforts to circumvent the law. Human rights groups have repeatedly argued, as has the ACLU, and various US judges who have heard related cases, that such circular reasoning is evidence of a deliberate effort to circumvent existing laws.

It is on these grounds that the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón was asked by prosecutors to consider an indictment against six former US officials who served under the presidency of George W. Bush and were involved in the shaping of “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Garzón will be removed, because he is also hearing a case against one of the alleged victims of those techniques, but the prosecution is expected to continue.

Nowak, the UN's special rapporteur on torture, also noted that if the US does not pass laws precluding the prosecution of individuals involved in torture, US prosecutors would be within their authority to bring cases and judges would be able to rule on the merits of the cases. Nowak's comments may win Obama favor among some supporters of Bush's policies, but their meaning may also give Obama cover, should US prosecutors find their way to a case linked to alleged torture.

Wiretap recorded Rep. Harman promising to intervene for AIPAC

Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

Harman was recorded saying she would "waddle into" the AIPAC case "if you think it'll make a difference," according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

In exchange for Harman's help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, "This conversation doesn't exist."

Harman declined to discuss the wiretap allegations, instead issuing an angry denial through a spokesman.

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US suicidal veterans surpassing KIAs

From Iran's Press TV :

At least 13 American soldiers have committed suicide in March as post traumatic syndrome is increasing suicide tendency among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

The latest figure has brought to 56 the number of US soldiers' suicide cases in 2009, according to figures released by the US Army, a press TV correspond reported on Monday.

According to US medics, with 23 soldiers committing suicide in January, the number of those killed themselves was higher than the number of soldiers killed in combat-related incidents.

Eighteen other suicide cases were also reported in the US military in February.

Based on the report, an increasing rate of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are among leading causes of suicide in the US troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is while the US Army has reportedly pressured its medical staff against diagnosing Iraq war vets with PTSD, in a bit to cut medical costs.

"High agitation and constant state of high alert" are some of the most common stress symptoms among wounded soldiers treated in Washington DC's Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

At least 10 to 15 percent of troops who receive treatment at the center suffer from PTSD.

According to Iraqi officials' estimates, some 600 US troops, including senior officers, have committed suicide in Iraq since the invasion of the country in 2003. Half of the suicide attempts have been successful.

Official figures reported 72 suicides in 2003, 67 in 2004, 83 in 2005 and 97 others in 2006.

Israelis warn of Eritrea flashpoint

Security sources say Israel and Iran are conducting rival intelligence operations in Eritrea, the poor African state on the Red Sea.

The Israelis fear Eritrea could be a flashpoint if Iranian Revolutionary Guards continue to ship arms to militants in Gaza via the Eritrean port of Assab. Israel is said to have two Eritrean bases, one a “listening post” for signals intelligence, the other a supply base for its German-built submarines.

In Sudan in February, Israeli drones thought to be based in Eritrea attacked an arms convoy bound for Hamas militants in Gaza, and several Revolutionary Guards escorting the convoy were reportedly killed.

Since 1993, when he received medical treatment in Israel, the Eritrean dictator, President Isaias Afewerki, has had a low-key relationship with the country. Butlast year a state visit he made to Tehran thawed relations with Iran, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sang Afewerki's praises. To Israel's dismay, he announced closer economic and trade ties with Iran, and military ties followed suit. The Iranians have now established a naval base overlooking the Bab el Mandeb strait, through which 3.3m barrels of oil flow every day.

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Secret police intelligence was given to E.ON before planned demo

Government officials handed confidential police intelligence about environmental activists to the energy giant E.ON before a planned peaceful demonstration, according to private emails seen by the Guardian.

Correspondence between civil servants and security officials at the company reveals how intelligence was shared about the peaceful direct action group Climate Camp in the run-up to the demonstration at Kingsnorth, the proposed site of a new coal-fired power station in north Kent.

Intelligence passed to the energy firm by officials from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) included detailed information about the movements of protesters and their meetings. E.ON was also given a secret strategy document written by environmental campaigners and information from the Police National Information and Coordination Centre (PNICC), which gathers national and international intelligence for emergency planning.

At first officials at BERR refused to release the emails, despite a request under the Freedom of Information Act from the Liberal Democrats. The decision was reversed on appeal and although large sections have been blacked out, they show:

• BERR officials passed a strategy document belonging to the "environmental protest community" to E.ON, saying: "If you haven't seen this then you will be interested in its contents."

• Government officials forwarded a Metropolitan police intelligence document to E.ON, detailing the movements and whereabouts of climate protesters in the run-up to demonstration.

• E.ON passed its planning strategy for the protest to the department's civil servants, adding: "Contact numbers will follow."

• BERR and E.ON tried to share information about their media strategies before the protest, and civil servants asked the energy company for press contacts for EDF, BP and Kent police.

Last night the disclosures were criticised by environmentalists, MPs and civil liberty groups, adding to the growing controversy over the policing of protests.

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