[Ppnews] Interviews in Guantanamo - Foreign Agents Violated Human Rights

[Political Prisoner News]

Interviews Of Terror Suspects Challenged
Foreign Agents Violated Human Rights, U.N. Says

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/26/AR2009022603325.html

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 27, 2009; A10

BERLIN, Feb. 26 -- A United Nations special investigator has 
concluded in a report scheduled for release Friday that foreign 
intelligence agents sent to question U.S.-held terrorism suspects at 
Guantanamo Bay had violated international human-rights laws.

According to an 
<http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/ssi/world/scheinin_report.pdf>advance 
copy of the report, obtained by The Washington Post, Martin Scheinin, 
a Finnish diplomat and the U.N. special investigator for human 
rights, said foreign agents visiting Guantanamo or secret U.S. jails 
overseas committed "an internationally wrongful act" even if they 
merely observed interrogations.

"They were acting in breach of their legal obligations in regard to 
the prohibition on torture and arbitrary detention," Scheinin, who is 
also a law professor at the European University Institute in 
Florence, said in a telephone interview.

The U.S. military has allowed intelligence and law enforcement agents 
from at least 18 countries to interrogate Guantanamo inmates since 
the detention center opened in 2002, according to the Center for 
Constitutional Rights, a New York-based group that provides legal 
representation to many Guantanamo prisoners.

According to the group, interrogators from Tunisia, Libya, 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/china.html?nav=el>China, 
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Jordan verbally threatened citizens of 
their countries held at Guantanamo, warning them that they would be 
abused at home if they didn't cooperate. Other countries that have 
sent interrogators to Guantanamo include 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/germany.html?nav=el>Germany, 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/france.html?nav=el>France, 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/greatbritain.html?nav=el>Britain, 
Italy, Spain and Morocco, the center says.

A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the U.N. report or 
Scheinin's comments. U.S. military officials have said that prisoners 
at Guantanamo are treated humanely and in accordance with international law.

Scheinin praised President Obama's pledge to close Guantanamo by the 
end of the year. But he said the Obama administration and Congress 
should not ignore alleged abuses committed in the pursuit of 
terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, urging them to 
press charges against anyone suspected of breaking U.S. laws against 
torture or other crimes.

"We have had a witch hunt for alleged terrorists for the past 7 1/2 
years," he said. "Now I think the witch hunt is over and it is time 
for the law to step in."

The report does not contain fresh details about operations at 
Guantanamo or the presence of foreign intelligence agents there. But 
Scheinin said countries that sent agents to Guantanamo should hold 
them -- or their superiors -- legally accountable. He said 
investigations should be conducted at the national level instead of 
creating an international tribunal.

He also said he was confident that national governments or 
prosecutors could dig up details on visits by foreign intelligence 
agents, noting that Pentagon officials have kept logs of their 
presence and sometimes taped interrogations.

"These documents exist," he said. "There is a paper trail."

In his report, Scheinin said intelligence agents were also complicit 
in human-rights violations if they participated in interrogations in 
other countries where the suspects were abused. For example, he cited 
evidence that U.S., British and Australian agents questioned 
prisoners in 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/pakistan.html?nav=el>Pakistan 
who were being held "incommunicado" and tortured by the Pakistani 
intelligence services. Some of the prisoners were later transferred 
to Guantanamo.

"We still have to ask: How much did they engage in interrogations 
that relied on torture or other unacceptable methods?" he said in the 
interview. "I think we have seen the tip of the iceberg and much more 
is to come."

The U.N. report recommended that countries strengthen oversight of 
intelligence agencies by giving legislatures and other official 
watchdogs more power to conduct investigations and compel spies to 
divulge information. It criticized several countries, including the 
United States, for invoking a state-secrecy privilege to fight 
lawsuits filed by former prisoners who allege they were tortured or 
abused while in custody.

Scheinin said lawmakers and watchdogs in some European countries have 
been thwarted in their investigations for similar reasons. "They 
haven't failed to do their job," he added, "but there is a firewall 
in place, and it has been very difficult to get through that firewall 
set up to protect intelligence services."




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20090227/01224722/attachment.html>