January, 22 2009, 11:06am EDT
Historic Orders Signal Clean Break With Bush Administration Policies
Today President Obama signaled an abrupt departure from the Bush Administration's polices of torture, unjust trials, and prolonged detention without criminal charge by issuing three executive orders to establish a single standard of humane treatment, end secret detentions, and set a date certain for closing Guantanamo, Human Rights First said.
"President Obama promised to reject the false choice between our safety and our ideals as a nation. Today he's making good on that promise.
WASHINGTON
Today President Obama signaled an abrupt departure from the Bush Administration's polices of torture, unjust trials, and prolonged detention without criminal charge by issuing three executive orders to establish a single standard of humane treatment, end secret detentions, and set a date certain for closing Guantanamo, Human Rights First said.
"President Obama promised to reject the false choice between our safety and our ideals as a nation. Today he's making good on that promise. These orders mark a clean break from the Bush Administration's policies of torture, unjust trials and prolonged detention without charge. Those policies fueled terrorist recruitment and stained the reputation of the United States. Today is the beginning of the end of that sorry chapter in our nation's history," said Elisa Massimino, Executive Director and CEO of Human Rights First. "The message this sends to the world could not be clearer - the United States is ready to reclaim its role as a nation committed to human rights and the rule of law," Massimino added.
"That President Obama chose to have at his side the group of military leaders that has been working through Human Rights First over the last several years to end the Bush Administration's policies of torture and abuse of prisoners speaks volumes about their importance in this debate. The country owes these distinguished military leaders a debt of gratitude for their moral clarity and perseverance in this fight," said Massimino.
Over the past several years, Human Rights First has worked with a group of retired military leaders who advocate for adherence to the Army Field Manual in all interrogations, including those conducted by the CIA. In December, the group met with Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder, White House Counsel Greg Craig and members of the presidential transition team. Today the group stood with President Obama as he signed these historic orders.
Executive Order on Interrogation
Today's Executive Order on interrogation takes off the table the secret cruel interrogation techniques that were authorized for use by the CIA, such as forced standing, forced nudity and exposure to frigid temperatures. It also puts an end to secret CIA detentions and requires that the International Committee of the Red Cross be given notification of, and access to, all prisoners in the custody of U.S. intelligence agencies. And, finally, it expunges any ambiguity created by flawed Justice Department memoranda written to justify a policy of official cruelty by ordering all U.S. personnel to immediately cease relying on all such past legal advice.
"Not only will today's order improve America's image around the world," said Massimino. "It will also make our troops safer by telling the world that the United States will not employ any interrogation techniques it would consider illegal if used by the enemy against captured Americans."
Executive Order on Guantanamo
The Executive Order on Guantanamo immediately suspends all military commission proceedings and orders the closure of the Guantanamo detention facility within one year. It further directs the Attorney General to lead a process of individualized case reviews, on a rolling basis, to determine which prisoners may be transferred to third countries and which detainees may be prosecuted in accordance with U.S. law.
"By announcing an end to the policies that brought us Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, President Obama has ripped down al Qaeda's recruiting poster," said Massimino. "The firm and definitive one-year deadline for closing Guantanamo creates time pressure to resolve the inevitable challenges fixing this mess poses, while allowing enough time to address those problems in a thoughtful way consistent with national security," said Massimino. "It will inspire public confidence and encourage international cooperation over the coming year."
"The next step is to permanently dismantle the entire military commission system and to prosecute the cases that should be tried in the regular federal courts," said Gabor Rona, International Legal Director of Human Rights First who is currently on the ground at Guantanamo Bay. "Merely tinkering with the existing military commissions or establishing another ad hoc and inferior justice system for terrorism cases would be a costly mistake," added Rona.
Since 2002, only two military commission trials have been completed at Guantanamo, and those trials focused more attention on the deeply flawed military commission process than on the alleged crimes of the defendants. By contrast, since 9/11, more than 100 international terrorism cases have been prosecuted in the federal courts. Human Rights First's In Pursuit of Justicestudies those cases and finds that the federal justice system has adapted to the challenges of terrorism prosecutions and has successfully balanced the need to protect sensitive national security information with defendants' fair trial rights.
For more information, please contact:
In Guantanamo, Gabor Rona, International Legal Director, RonaG@humanrightsfirst.org
In Washington, D.C., Devon Chaffee, Advocacy Counsel, (212) 370-3316, ChaffeeD@humanrightsfirst.org
In New York, Deborah Colson, Acting Director, Law & Security, (212) 845-5247, ColsonD@humanrightsfirst.org
Human Rights First is a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in New York and Washington D.C. Human Rights First believes that building respect for human rights and the rule of law will help ensure the dignity to which every individual is entitled and will stem tyranny, extremism, intolerance, and violence.
LATEST NEWS
UN Chief Warns of Israel's Syria Invasion and Land Seizures
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the "urgent need" for Israel to "de-escalate violence on all fronts."
Dec 12, 2024
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
While Israel argues that its invasion of Syria does not violate a 1974 armistice agreement between the two countries because the Assad dynasty no longer rules the neighboring nation, Dujarric said Guterres maintains that Israel must uphold its obligations under the deal, "including by ending all unauthorized presence in the area of separation and refraining from any action that would undermine the cease-fire and stability in Golan."
Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has illegally occupied it ever since, annexing the seized lands in 1981.
Other countries including France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia have criticized Israel's invasion, while the United States defended the move.
"The Syrian army abandoned its positions in the area... which potentially creates a vacuum that could have been filled by terrorist organizations," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at a press briefing earlier this week. "Israel has said that these actions are temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent actions... We support all sides upholding the 1974 disengagement agreement."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Sanders Says 'Political Movement,' Not Murder, Is the Path to Medicare for All
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," he said. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together."
Dec 12, 2024
Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
"Look, when we talk about the healthcare crisis, in my view, and I think the view of a majority of Americans, the current system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, and it is wildly inefficient—far too expensive," said Sanders (I-Vt.), whose position is backed up by various polls.
"The reason we have not joined virtually every other major country on Earth in guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right is the political power and financial power of the insurance industry and drug companies," he told Jacobin. "It will take a political revolution in this country to get Congress to say, 'You know what, we're here to represent ordinary people, to provide quality care to ordinary people as a human right,' and not to worry about the profits of insurance and drug companies."
Asked about Thompson's alleged killer—26-year-old Luigi Mangione, whose reported manifesto railed against the nation's expensive healthcare system and low life expectancy—Sanders said: "You don't kill people. It's abhorrent. I condemn it wholeheartedly. It was a terrible act. But what it did show online is that many, many people are furious at the health insurance companies who make huge profits denying them and their families the healthcare that they desperately need."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system."
"What you're seeing, the outpouring of anger at the insurance companies, is a reflection of how people feel about the current healthcare system," he continued, noting the tens of thousands of Americans who die each year because they can't get to a doctor.
"Killing people is not the way we're going to reform our healthcare system," Sanders added. "The way we're going to reform our healthcare system is having people come together and understanding that it is the right of every American to be able to walk into a doctor's office when they need to and not have to take out their wallet."
"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
Sanders—one of the few members of Congress who regularly talks about Medicare for All—isn't alone in suggesting that unsympathetic responses to Thompson's murder can be explained by a privatized healthcare system that fails so many people.
In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
Khanna—a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, led in the House of Representatives by Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—made the case that you can recognize those stories without accepting the assassination.
"You condemn the murder of an insurance executive who was a father of two kids," he said. "At the same time, you say there's obviously an outpouring behavior of people whose claims are being denied, and we need to reform the system."
Two other Medicare for All advocates, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), also made clear to Business Insider that they oppose Thompson's murder but understand some of the responses to it.
"Of course, we don't want to see the chaos that vigilantism presents," said Ocasio-Cortez. "We also don't want to see the extreme suffering that millions of Americans confront when your life changes overnight from a horrific diagnosis, and people are led to just some of the worst, not just health events, but the worst financial events of their and their family's lives."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
"Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far," she continued. "This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the healthcare to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone."
After facing some criticism for those comments, Warren added Wednesday: "Violence is never the answer. Period... I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Reports Target Israeli Army for 'Unprecedented Massacre' of Gaza Journalists
"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of Reporters Without Borders.
Dec 12, 2024
Reports released this week from two organizations that advocate for journalists underscore just how deadly Gaza has become for media workers.
Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
The organization has also filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court "for war crimes committed by the Israeli army against journalists," according to the roundup, which includes stats from January 1 through December 1.
"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."
Bruttin added that "many of these reporters were clearly identifiable as journalists and protected by this status, yet they were shot or killed in Israeli strikes that blatantly disregarded international law. This was compounded by a deliberate media blackout and a block on foreign journalists entering the strip."
When counting the number of journalists killed by the Israeli army since October 2023 in both Gaza and Lebanon, the tally comes to 155—"an unprecedented massacre," according to the roundup.
Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
IFJ lists out each of the slain journalists in its 139 count, which includes the journalist Hamza Al-Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, Wael Al-Dahdouh, who was killed with journalist Mustafa Thuraya when Israeli forces targeted their car while they were in northern Rafah in January 2024.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular