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US Weathers Calls for Torture Probes at UN Rights Meet
GENEVA - The United States faced a barrage of calls to investigate allegations of torture and shut down Guantanamo Bay detention centre on Friday in its first review by the UN's top human rights assembly.
European countries joined appeals for a halt to the death penalty, and there was trenchant criticism of Washington's recent human rights record during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the detention and interrogation of terror suspects. European countries joined appeals for a halt to the death penalty, and there was trenchant criticism of Washington's recent human rights record during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the detention and interrogation of terror suspects.
It prompted a robust defence from senior US officials at the 47-member Human Rights Council, although US Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner acknowledged that they "were not satisfied with the status quo."
"Let there be no doubt, the United States does not and will not torture," State Department legal adviser Harold Koh told the council.
"This administration began by turning the page and unequivocally ensuring the humane treatment of all individuals in US custody in armed conflict," he insisted.
Cuban ambassador Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez called on the United States to "halt war crimes and the killing of civilians," while Venezuela's German Mundarain Hernandez recommended that Washington "put to trial those responsible for victims of torture."
China and Russia acknowledged progress in health and education, as well as attempts to tackle what the Russian ambassador called the "more odious" human rights violations during conflicts.
But they both urged the swift closure of terror detention centres, while Russia recommended "a careful investigation of the facts in the use of torture especially in Guantanamo and Bagram" air force base in Afghanistan.
The half-day public debate came just two weeks after whistleblowing website WikiLeaks published 400,000 classified US documents on the Iraq war, reviving concern about a lack of accountability for abuse.
Koh insisted that cases had been subject to disciplinary action, although he made no mention of the broader judicial prosecution demanded by human rights campaigners.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that former US president George W. Bush wrote in his new memoir that he personally gave the go-ahead for CIA officers to waterboard self-confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The Western reaction on allegations of torture and abuse was more muted.
European countries including Britain, as well as Australia, recommended a moratorium or abolition of the death penalty, while France urged President Barack Obama to "honour his promise" in 2009 to close Guantanamo.
Koh responded: "While the commitment has not wavered, the task is complex. President Obama cannot do it alone."
A total of 172 detainees remain there, out of 242 when Obama took office in 2008, he added, insisting on the need for help from Congress, the courts and US allies willing to host ex-detainees.
After Arab countries raised concerns about "Islamophobia" in the United States, Posner acknowledged that US Muslims had also highlighted "a pattern of intolerance and discrimination" during a civil society meeting.
"We're committed to addressing this and we're taking a number of steps to do so," he said.
The 36-strong US delegation underlined the country's constitutionally enshrined tradition on human rights and progress over the 20th century, but recognised that the US record was "not perfect."
"While there were some politically motivated conversations, overall the conversation was constructive dialogue on international human rights," delegation chief Esther Brimmer, assistant secretary at the State Department, told journalists afterwards.
Although no action is taken in the four-yearly "Universal Periodic Review" it exposes governments to examination by their peers and the UN. The US had refused to join the UN council under the Bush administration.
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58 Comments so far
Show AllThe legacy of torture under Bush-Cheney sends a terrible message to the world. We preach to the world about the superiority of our democracy while we waterboard and humiliate prisoners. Hopefully this will change n the Obama administration?
"Hopefully this will change n the Obama administration?"
So true. Obama has only been in power for two years, and it takes a long time to say the word "stop."
But after two years, I assume he will say "stop" ... as in "stop pussyfooting around and turn up the voltage."
You're a bit late. It has NOT changed. Where have you been for the last two years?
No change, NO hope; obomber IS just as much a mass murderer, torturer, as never elected war criminals bush/ cheney !
I don't think it's up to Obama. I think that he gets his tasklist from his bosses. Being president is a 4-year thing, you know, unless you serve the bosses well, in which case you get another 4 years. Then, it's over. You go make speeches for the bosses for a living.
The bosses, on the other hand, have been the bosses for generations, and they will remain the bosses forever. They will not let a little thing like Obama upset their grand design. Obama WILL behave, or he will be out of office, investigated, maybe impeached or assassinated.
Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy have all been assassinated. And they were all White.
Obama is a puppet on a string.
I can just see the biography title now: 'Barack Obama: A Political Life as a Presidential Bookmark.'
Obama is a puppet of power...has not dared to even say a word to challenge them..don't see him out front on any issue...why does anyone think this is a peoples democracy...like they say..you can vote all you want as long as I count the vote..but we remain in fantasy a land of our corporate making.
Forget "hope". The policy hasn't changed. Obama has wracked his share of of war crimes. Bush had Abu Ghraib and Obama has Bagram.
Not only is Obama borrowing Bush's mendacious mantra "the United States does not torture" but he has over reached even Bush in stating the President has the right to murder people without any legal process and he's been doing it quite regularly with his drones.
His attitude toward whistleblowers appears to be just as harsh as Bush's.
Human Rights violations in its war with Iraq and Afghanistan is its turning point in America's shame and decline, both morally and fiscally.
America is no longer regarded as a country of 'free and fair', a benchmark for others to follow and with that it loses it grip on world stage slowly but surely. Quite sad really, for what it once stood for, thanks to AIPAC and the leaders who followed it.
Oh sure Peter, Khalid's "self confession", as you call it, was given after he was tortured by waterboarding 188 times. I wonder what Bush and Cheney and anyone else would confess to after being tortured that long and horrifically! It is a great injustice and completely mis-leading to call this "self confessed" ! Also to refer to the victims of the US campaign of torture as " terror suspects". The ones who are the real terrorists, and not just 'suspected' torrorists, is the US military, the pentagon and the CIA!! Please stop being a vehicle for the transmission of the psychic virus, causing mass psychosis, that is spawned in the MIC and spread through the contaminated media!
The absurdity of the member's of the UN "Human Rights Committee" lecturing anyone on Human Rights could only please those that are brain dead.
Refusde reality in today's world at your peril.
It is you who is refusing reality, or rather, ignorant of it.
You insularity and ignorance of the world outside the USA and your swaggering, arrogant USAn exceptionalism, along with a hundred million other stupid USAns, would be worthy of only laughter and derision if it wasn't casuing so much human suffering and death. But considering this, it can only be regarded as vile and despicable.
I was going to predict that Mightymite would make that exact post.
For some people if there a nation like a Zimbabwe or a Burma where the Prison systems worse then that is "reason enough" to allow the United States of America be given a pass for having a prison system that is as bad as it is.
There are always people who feel that as long as they are not the WORST example, they must be a GOOD example.
This is the same mentality that elects Democrat or Republican in every election mo matter how BAD a Government they are.
This attitude also explains why so many watch a show like "Cops" or those other "reality shows" so popular today. It the "If there someone worse off then me then I must be a swell guy".
Its the path to mediocrity.
"There are always people who feel that as long as they are not the WORST example, they must be a GOOD example."
Actually, it goes further than that. This is hard to explain to a Canadian or other person outside the USA, but due to their extreme insularity, USAns tend to think that the WHOLE WORLD outside the US resembles Zimbabwe or Burma. Yes, somewhere deep inside they know that democratic, prosperous places like Canada or France exist, but they do a sort of "cognitive banishment" of these thoughts, because they clash so badly with the notion of US-exceptionalism - the US as absolutely the supreme model of perfectness.
You may have have noticed how USans will say: "the US must be the absolutely best place in the world - or why would so many Mexicans be dying in the desert to come up here". They deliberately fail to notice that no Canadians are sneaking across the border, or French, or British, or Germans, or, (anymore) middle easterners or Asians.
Oh, one exception. Here in Pittsburgh, the student body of the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University has become almost entirely composed of Chinese, Indians, Europeans - but almost no USAns! The USAns either don't meet the admissions standards, cannot afford the tuition, or have no access to financial assistance (a Dutch student confided to me that his government is paying 100 percent of the tuition plus a generous living allowance).
Neither Burma nor Zimbabwe have as large a percentage of their population incarcerated as does the USA. We lead the world in prison population and executions.
Hope you are enjoying your Kool-aid..
"'Let there be no doubt, the United States does not and will not torture,' State Department legal adviser Harold Koh told the council."
That's an admission that the U.S. DID torture. And the fact that the U.S. clearly has no intention of punishing the architects of torture -- not even leniently -- is enough to cast doubt on Koh's denial. In fact, Obama's embrace of the right to assassinate anyone suspected of being a terrorist, including U.S. citizens, without any semblance of due process, ought to be enough to completely deflate Koh's "robust" defense.
Finally, the U.S. torture policy has been, and is, a direct threat to all of our families here in the U.S., because it has provided powerful justification for terrorists to attack us. That's the real, but unstated, reason for the "robust" defense. It's really a HYPOCRITICAL defense, and not enough to give us reason to think the Obama administration will reverse the incalculable damage that has been done to our own security.
Jill November 5th, 2010 11:13 am -- Well stated.
I would question only your statement that "as to prosecution of Bush and Cheney for war crimes, this isn't a discretionary act, it is mandated by law." Criminal prosecutions have a discretionary aspect. If there's some law that makes it a crime not to prosecute Bush and Cheney, or otherwise removes discretion, let me know. That being said, these offenses are so heinous, and so damaging to not only the victims but ourselves, that I certainly think not prosecuting is an abuse of discretion.
I also think impeachment is a possibility. If the evidence of continuing torture is as strong as you suggest, it reminds me of Clinton's denials of having had "sexual intercourse with that woman." Except, of course, this is about a real issue, unlike Clinton's personal dalliance. What do you think of the possibility of getting someone in Congress to pursue articles of impeachment?
Jill November 5th, 2010 12:26 pm -- Thanks for fleshing out some of your earlier comments. I'm still wondering about "The failure to prosecute war crimes committed by your own government is an offense of the same order as the original war crime.'" You're missing a quotation mark there and it isn't clear who made the statement. I'd really like the nail this down.
On impeachment, I recall that Rep. Henry Gonzales wanted to impeach Bush I for invading Iraq. He really pursued it, but of course got nowhere. However, he's still revered here in South Texas.
Jill November 5th, 2010 1:12 pm -- I think you've raised an important point, even though we probably disagree on it. See my comment a short time ago to Bill from Saginaw regarding prosecutorial discretion. I didn't discuss Greenwald in that comment. Greenwald addressed the subject at http://bit.ly/9lcHAa. He mentions Kevin Jon Heller's argument that while Article 7(1) of the Convention requires the U.S. to submit waterboarding cases to "competent authorities," this doesn't mean that the competent authorities like the Department of Justice must actually prosecute. Article 7(2) provides that authorities act in the same manner as in any ordinary serious offense under the State's law. Greenwald says "perhaps" this is a meritorious idea, but beats around the bush and doesn't mention abuse of discretion.
It seems to me to be in the nature of prosecuting that there be discretion. That in no way supports the Bush/Cheney argument that not prosecuting these types of offenses can be justified by calling the decision "prosecutorial discretion," any more than a prosecutor could have used that to defend a decision not to prosecute, say, Tommy Lynn Sells or Jeffrey Dahmer. I don't think it makes sense to say that prosecutor A could be prosecuted by prosecutor B for not prosecuting torture suspects, because prosecutor B would have discretion not to prosecute (since failing to prosecute is not the crime of torture).
manning 120 -
I'll bet the new House speaker, John Boehner, will take you up on setting up some hearings on articles of impeachment if you ask him nicely, in the spirit of bipartisan compromise.
Bill from Saginaw
Bill from Saginaw November 5th, 2010 6:23 pm -- Too bad some of the energy the Tea Partiers can't be enlisted on behalf of impeachment for violation by Obama of anti-torture laws -- you don't seriously think Boehner would consider that, do you? I believe some impeachment efforts in the past were valuable, even if failures. I’ve always admired Henry B. Gonzalez for his impeachment resolution against Bush I back in 1991 (http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RfIoPGB.html).
Since you're in this thread, I also want to get your informed opinion on prosecutorial discretion. Jill quoted Jonathan Turley (http://bit.ly/cV5t3i) – “The failure to prosecute war crimes committed by your own government is an offense of the same order as the original war crime" – which she takes as implying that there’s no discretion under the applicable laws not to prosecute. She refers to various federal laws, mentioning specifically the Torture Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2340, and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which President Reagan signed.
I’m not convinced it’s accurate or legally appropriate to say there’s no discretion to decline to prosecute U.S. torture of detainees, whether we’re talking about low-level operatives or the “architects” of the policy. It seems to me the proper argument is that the failure of anyone with power to prosecute to do so is an abuse of discretion, just as it would be if a prosecutor refused to prosecute a serial killer.
"Let there be no doubt, the United States does not and will not torture," State Department legal adviser Harold Koh told the council.
"This administration began by turning the page and unequivocally ensuring the humane treatment of all individuals in US custody in armed conflict," he insisted.
____________________________*
You lie!
harold koh, another useful minority (korean american) shill for the neo-lib dems, replacing john yoo the convenient minority (korean american) shill for the neo-con gopers.
yup, south korean americans have come a long way to prove that they can outdo anyone in the global capitalist game.
This UN criticism is entirely valid.
AD
Obama supports torture.
Yes. Yes he does.
-TIA
Miggy-2 November 5th, 2010 1:10 pm -- Thanks for reminding us of these powerful words.
I can see a mass of people on the mall in DC carrying signs with Jackson quotations, together with specific references to Bush/Obama torture. Millions of citizens, if that made it into the MSM news, would read what Jackson said for the first time. And if we had someone up there where Glenn Beck held forth explaining in Jackson's words why we can't let U.S. torture go unpunished . . .
"Millions of citizens, if that made it into the MSM news, would read what Jackson said for the first time."
And for the first time millions that HAD read what he said wouldn't care in knowledge rather than ignorance. Really, the entire population of the US that cares about torture are members of this tiny, rarefied forum. The UN or Wikileaks or anything external to the US really doesn't matter to most Americans and know what, they really don't see the difference when they do care and when they don't. It just doesn't touch them and if it doesn't then they aren't going to change a thing.
JohnShade November 6th, 2010 10:51 am -- You say, "Really, the entire population of the US that cares about torture are members of this tiny, rarefied forum."
I don't think so. Attorneys representing Guantanamo prisoners, the Red Cross, the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Velvet Revolution, and Amnesty International come to mind. I think U.S. Muslims, who know that the men tortured as suspected terrorists have families, care about it.
Raising consciousness about this clearly is an uphill struggle, but I think it can be done.
This is what American exceptionalism is really all about.
In fact, the 'exceptionalism' has more to do with domestic mythology and global hypocrisy than with any of the deeds themselves which are, unfortunately, all too common.
At times, I think the U.S. inspires greater hatred for itself by its absurd pretences than by almost anything it actually does. From the outset, it rejected and actually rebelled against what it renounced as imperial 'tyranny' and the 'arbitrary' exercise of powers of detention, life and death that it now claims for its own imperium.
Of course, the current consequences (both global and domestic) are distinguished from the former intolerable ones as products of the Greatest Democracy on Earth (TM), notwithstanding the total lack of any real democratic input beyond the imperial seat where some scattered illusions thereof persist.
Exceptional? Perhaps in scope and degree, but hardly in essence.
Good points, RV.
Yes, along with Israel, the USA is unexcelled in rubbing people the wrong way with its swaggering arrogant pretensions.
Indeed, I have always thought that the "special relationship" between the USAns and Israelis is largely based on how the two consider themselves to be a "god-Chosen People".
What ought to be coupled with this is the number of prisoners in the USA, the highest in both absolute terms and percentage of population.
The often overcrowded and barbaric conditions in these US prisons ought to be highlighted. Even in California, not to mention places like Texas and Louisiana, conditions violate human rights standards every single day.
The US is a prison population is comprised of over half non-violent drug offenders - over a million people.
Not to mention the mental health issues. The USA has the highest rates of mental illness in the world.
The USA is number one in prisoners and mental health. This is seldom reported on.
I can easily understand why the u.s. has highest rates of mental health issues. Not only is the society schizophrenic with dissonance galore, but americans are over diagnosed - everything is pathologized in order to sell pharmaceuticals. Believe me. I am a psychologiest. It is really going on.
ready: "everything is pathologized in order to sell pharmaceuticals" BigPharma strikes again. Intersting that pharma products are heavily advertised on TV and other media here. This is illegal in the 27 countries of the EU and elsewhere.
readytotransform,
As a psychologist, what is your 'take' on the Obama phenomenon in general?
I have been involved in politics since the late '60's and have never witnessed anything quite like it.
The Obama 'team' swept into Iowa during the last caucus season and seemed to have an almost hypnotic effect on numerous people. Critical thinking skills noticeably diminished. Levels of sophistication/maturity demonstrably dropped. Intelligent, experienced people were transformed into defensive, uncritical 'followers' after one or two interactions with team Obama.
This was definitely not a traditional pol campaign. The organizers seemed to focus on ego-driven strategies, marketing on steroids. It involved race and class. The effect was cult-like. It was literally frightening to watch.
I'm not sure if this was planned and intentional (that would be my paranoid guess) or if it was a series of, as they say, unfortunate events. A confluence of peculiarities of american culture that produced a particular phenom. Regardless, in my mind it has very ominous potential.
Most Americans think torture is OK as long as it's done by the US government. Conscience is such a heavy burden that the typical US resident manages without it. Instead of conscience, Americans have religion.
Excellent observation, Steve.
Peter Capella writes: "The Washington Post reported on Thursday that former US President George W. Bush wrote in his new memoir that he personally gave the go ahead for CIA officers to waterboard self-confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed."
Later in the same article, discussing the recent UN Human Rights Council session, we are told "The 36-strong US delegation underlined the country's constitutionally enshrined tradition on human rights and progress over the 20th Century, but recognized that the US record was 'not perfect.'"
This is certainly a stark and glaring imperfection.
George W. Bush, like Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, and other upper echelon policy makers and legal advisors of the Bush/Cheney White House team, literally boast about their former roles in subverting the Bill of Rights, violating clearly established international law, and making the use of torture officially sanctioned US government policy. Waterboarding is torture. Period. So is standing hooded men on boxes, with electric cords rigged up to them, chaining naked prisoners in stress positions, systematic beatings, inducing sleep deprivation to the point of disorientation, and wink-and-a-nod use of mock (and/or real) executions. Bush now admits (Bush "self-confessed") that he personally approved the use of torture by the CIA as president.
George Bush will no doubt flash his classic smirk at the promotional book-signing events during the next several weeks. Some legacy, that.
John Kerry gave George W. Bush a complete pass on political accountability for torture, Abu Ghraib, and Gitmo during the 2004 presidential campaign. It was a complete non-issue. It was a moral values question considered unworthy of public discussion with the American people. Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have now just as quietly given this whole pack of sanctimonious sadists a complete pass on their criminal accountability as well.
I guess the 36-strong US delegation's references to this nation's constitutionally enshrined tradition on human rights and progress should be read and parsed very closely.
That was back in the 20th Century.
Bush and Cheney didn't take their oaths of public office, and then retire behind closed doors to secretly re-write the laws on torture, warrantless electronic eavesdropping, mass detention of suspects without trial, and all the rest - until the 21st Century.
Not perfect. Indeed, indeed.
Bill from Saginaw
--- US Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner ---
Do you know who this fellow really is?
Do some research. Most of these calloused killers have a track record in plain sight. It's part of the empire hubris. They don't even try to hide their barbarity any more.
It's getting to the point that being a member of the US state department is a pejorative in itself.
But don't worry, folks. As old mightymite says, everyone else does it too so it's alright to be governed by pedophiles, killers, liars, thieves and generally f__ked up prevaricators of all stripes.
Michael Posner is a true representative of modern elite thinking.
Show me one school, one bridge, built with the labor of torture, violence and war.
The White House was built by slaves. Does that count?
-TIA
lol! Doesn't count, because the W.H. is not used for positive purposes, but to sell out the American public to wealthy criminals, and to plot and plan aggression and theft accross the globe.
Would you let me lock you up in a little room for months and years at a time? Would you let me keep the lights on while you slept? Would you let me put your head underwater? If I did would your mom and dad approve of me? If I kept you up until you passed out would your children like that? If your son was a prisoner would you want me to keep him in a small cell? What do you call it?
"Let there be no doubt, the United States does not and will not speak the truth."
We must all understand once and for all that the US is no longer a leader in human rights. It is a despoiler of all that was good in its foreign relations. It is now an evil empire. Once we acknowledge that fact we can start to change it for the better. Lying to ourselves will not solve the problem. The US got rid of its disgusting perverts, Bush and Cheney. Now it has to cure the disease they spread throughout the world. Time to act gentlemen, time gentlemen, time.
"George W. Bush wrote in his new memoir that he personally gave the go-ahead for CIA officers to waterboard self-confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed."
so why isn't this piece of human offal in prison???
no answer expected...
Well you're gonna get one. Why is he not in jail you ask? You, me and every other American, live in a democracy, or what little of one we have left, yet even with such a slim edifice to hang onto, it remains nonetheless, a representative system of governance. Therefore, it actually is not his responsibility at all, but ours! We elect these bastards to do what is best for us, whether you voted for them or not. So even if they decide to do something crazy, like annihilate all life north of the border, it would be with our voting blessed approval. You want justice, throw yourself in jail.