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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: ACLU Rachel Myers, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; media@aclu.org |
U.S. Pressured Germany Not to Prosecute CIA Officers for Torture and Rendition
Wikileaks Release Reveals Meeting About ACLU Client Khaled El-Masri
New York - November 29 - The Bush administration pressured Germany not to prosecute CIA officers responsible for the kidnapping, extraordinary rendition and torture of German national Khaled El-Masri, according to a document made public Sunday night by Wikileaks. The document, a 2007 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, describes a meeting during which the then-deputy chief of the U.S. mission to Germany, John M. Koenig, urged German officials to "weigh carefully at every step of the way the implications for relations with the U.S." of issuing international arrest warrants in the El-Masri case.
In 2003, El-Masri was kidnapped from Macedonia and transported to a secret CIA-run prison in Afghanistan where he was held for several months and tortured before being dumped on a hillside in Albania. The American Civil Liberties Union brought a case in the U.S. on El-Masri's behalf in 2005, charging that former CIA director George Tenet violated U.S. and universal human rights laws when he authorized agents to abduct and abuse El-Masri. Lower courts dismissed the lawsuit on state secrecy grounds, and in 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. In 2008, the ACLU filed a petition on El-Masri's behalf against the United States with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, but the government has failed to respond. To date, no top U.S. officials have been held accountable for their role in the Bush administration torture program.
The following can be attributed to Ben Wizner, Litigation Director of the ACLU National Security Project:
"We have long known that both the Bush and Obama administrations have shielded perpetrators of torture and rendition from accountability for their illegal acts. We now know that U.S. diplomats have also sought to shut down accountability efforts abroad. The United States' employment of diplomatic pressure to influence the legal proceedings of a democratic ally was improper and unseemly, particularly where the goal of that interference was to shield U.S. officials from accountability for torture.
"Even as many of our closest allies have acknowledged and addressed their official complicity in the Bush administration's human rights abuses, the United States has yet to reckon with its legacy of torture. The best way to restore our standing in the world, reassert the rule of law and strengthen our democracy is to support, not obstruct, meaningful accountability for torture."
The cable released by Wikileaks concerning El-Masri is available online at: cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2007/02/07BERLIN242.html
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9 Comments so far
Show AllDoes this surprise anyone? The USA has decided they can torture with impunity. Lawless. They signed the treaty NOT TO TORTURE. Above the international law?
Isn't it about time for the USA to get out of Germany and several other countries they invaded. The second world war was over for 55 years.
When they move in they stay. Grenada is the only country they got out of completely. No resources the USA can claim?
This is simply one more nail in the coffin of American morality. Americans are simply some of the most perverse subhumans on the face of the earth. I definitely believe that and unfortunately these documents prove I'm right without question. I truly wish I were wrong. Some might say oh it's just government officials who are evil or have lost their way, but no, just look at the bulk of Americans and tell me they aren't crazed animals as they stampede on Black Friday, not caring if they kill someone while doing it. A pox on all of them.
America as a country is very sick indeed.
"The best way to restore our standing in the world, reassert the rule of law and strengthen our democracy is to support, not obstruct, meaningful accountability for torture."
I love the ACLU, and belong to it. But let's not leave out an important point. Supporting meaningful accountability for torture is the best way to protect ourselves and our families from retaliation against us (even those of us who want such accountability) by torture victims and their families and supporters.
Could not agree with you more,and i'm sure at this moment some poor soul is manacled to some pipe ,looking into the air and wondering when and who might come to their aid,and it is reasonable to asssume that those who might be coming, have themselves locked up in their dungeons, some poor soul looking into the air wondering ,when and who might come to their aid, and on it goes.
So stopping this going on and on ,is make those that will be coming, have no dungeons like them in their home base, and that comes about by signing into law that nobody is above the law ,and the law says quite clearly that to torture anyone is illegal ,so America why do you still not allow American's that come in on a white horse, but leaves just as much shit from their white stallion's droppings.
So pressure must be brought to bear on America to sign up to the international treaty on standards of behaviour and become a signatory to (sorry the wording of document involved alludes me) anyway it is a widely known doc and that is the most important issue to stop torture.
Indeed.
The ACLU needs to stand up--we need them.
For Archie:
You are apparently in a mental coma, but you are also right in what you say. I only wonder what it is you are doing to straighten things out. Are you waiting for someone else to correct our problems? If so,good luck.
I am over 80 years old and have seen a lot. I am also a Korean War veteran with a lot of experience in my life.
You young guys have to save us, but you don't really demonstrate that you are capable of doing so. That is my real fear.
You can continue to publish your inane remarks, but what are you going to do to make a DIFFERENCE?
The ACLU occasionally serves to defend this or that narrow legal right, but it is little more than a distraction for genuine humanitarians. I recall going to one of their meetings a couple years ago, with illegal wars raging and who knows how many black ops and other heinous activities in progress, hundreds of millions of impoverished and oppressed humans worldwide, but the whole meeting proceeded without a mention of them. Instead, there were presentations about the really pressing issues of our time, like equal access to the military for gays and bullying in the schools. It was surreal, and their level of self-satisfaction on the eve of imperialist Armageddon had me steaming. I let my opinion be known, which only left me shunned. I went home despondent, but a little wiser about just how impossibly impotent liberalism is.
Just look at their self-description at the end of the article. Apparently, had it not been struck down by a civil war, they would still be 'protecting' the right to hold slaves! ACLU is an organization whose real dedication is to preserving American imperialism by giving it a left cover.
Genuine humanitarians will much better spend their time building the international communist movement, starting with the necessary Leninist party.
Prosecute these animals!
Good grief..................