Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Editorial: Hold accountable official torture
Willful official blindness to abuses of international standards of prisoner interrogation proves not only embarrassing but shameful.
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
The barbaric techniques employed to interrogate prisoners at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, and Abu Ghraib were sanctioned by top echelons in the Bush administration. The emerging evidence is so damning that even staunch Republican loyalists can no longer indulge willful blindness.
When photographic evidence of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib surfaced and confirmed what human rights groups had alleged, the administration insisted that it was the isolated work of renegade guards. Although Congress protested, the din quieted while additional reports of abuse, and even prisoner deaths, filtered in.
Army brass and the Pentagon passed off each as an abomination and not sanctioned practices. But evidence continues to emerge that interrogation tactics that fall far beyond the scope of acceptable American behavior are systemic.
Facts coming to light not only implicate Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as seeking to exact vengeance upon captives, but of a president demanding to remain unaccountable and unanswerable.
Here are just a few of the unfolding facts:
n The Bush administration filed sealed documents with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan in the case that the American Civil Liberties Union brought, aiming to keep hidden dozens of photographs. The ACLU is seeking information on treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.
The administration incredibly contends that releasing the pictures would violate the Geneva Conventions rules by exposing the prisoners to additional humiliation.
This is the same administration that declared its captives enemy combatants to duck the convention. Who is really being spared embarrassment?
n "Much ado about nothing," is the Pentagon's pat response to claims by prosecuting officers (with an insider's perch) that the "judicial" process was rigged against the four terrorist suspects. At least they are getting a day in court. An additional 506 prisoners, many held for almost four years, remain isolated without indictment.
n A military investigator, briefing the Senate Armed Services Committee, reported that Rumsfeld in 2002 approved 16 "aggressive" techniques for interrogating the alleged "20th" hijacker at Guantanamo Bay.
The "creative" techniques: snarling dogs, chains, shackles, women's underwear placed on prisoners' heads, lap dances and other sexual humiliation that would clash with Islamic teachings. The investigation led directly to the prison's commander, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who was not so much as reprimanded.
n Rumsfeld's nudity and shackles rules were revised in April 2003 after military lawyers protested, yet Miller exported the techniques to Abu Ghraib. Maj. David DiNenna, the former warden, testifying in an abuse case against two guards accused of terrorizing prisoners with dogs, said, "We understood that [Miller] was sent over by the secretary of defense."
n As that testimony was unfolding, the administration played hardball with the Senate Armed Services Committee. Vice President Dick Cheney was dispatched to warn off Sens. John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham.
The presidential edict: Stop investigating prisoner abuse, do not insist on civilized rules for interrogating prisoners and do not interfere with the president's now-unrestricted power over prisoners.
The Republican senators apparently can no longer swallow the bile that the administration spews. They didn't go far enough when calling to limit interrogation techniques to those found in the Army manual. Even so, the administration will balk. The senators should hold fast.
