UN torture investigator blasts US White House defense of waterboarding

[swag]

Source: Associated Press

GENEVA: The United Nations' torture investigator blasted the White House for defending the use of waterboarding on Wednesday, and urged the U.S. government to give up its defense of "unjustifiable" interrogation methods.

"This is absolutely unacceptable under international human rights law," said Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture. "Time has come that the government will actually acknowledge that they did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable."

On Tuesday, the Bush administration acknowledged publicly for the first time that waterboarding was used by U.S. government questioners on three terror suspects. Testifying before Congress, CIA Director Michael Hayden said the suspects were waterboarded in 2002 and 2003.

Nowak, who has clashed with the U.S. over his failed efforts to investigate at Guantanamo Bay, said he has received more allegations of waterboarding. But he said he did not have proof to back up those allegations, partly because the U.S. will not allow him to speak with high-level terror detainees who were previously held in CIA-run secret prisons.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/06/news/UN-GEN-UN-Waterboarding.php

[sakabatou]

1. Like * would ever comply...

[DCKit]

2. Damn ferners, telling us how to run an illegal war. n/t

[SpiralHawk]

3. k & r

for the honor of our nation. Call the amoral torturing republicon Commander AWOL on the global carpet for gross criminality and needless soul-stripping brutality.

[OwnedByFerrets]

8. What Honor...

Sorry, but we have NO honor left. We as a people, myself included, allowed this to happen. We are all guilty. And we still allow it to happen because complaining and rising up might cause us some discomfort.

[alfredo]

4. Need to write him and ask if bush should be charged with war crimes.

[email protected]


http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/torture/rapporteur/allegation.htm

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/torture/rapporteur/

[pingzing58]

5. Who gave Hayden permission to admit this and why now? Anyone have an idea?

[alfredo]

6. Possibly to diffuse congressional investigations.

[RuleOfNah]

7. "U.S. will not allow him to speak with"

Is that how the U.N. usually investigates war crimes?

Dear Regime; if you would be so kind we would like to investigate you for war crimes, at your convenience. X X X X X X X X X X - U.N.

:eyes:

[Solly Mack]

9. that admission was egg on the face for many

Reply of the Government of the
United States of America to the Report of the Five UNCHR Special Rapporteurs on
Detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
March 10, 2006

http://www.usmission.ch/Press2006/USFinalReplytoGITMOreport2006.pdf


U.S. Meeting with U.N. Committee Against Torture
May 5, 2006

http://www.usmission.ch/Press2006/0505BellingerOpenCAT.html


Opening Statement for U.S. Hearing at Committee Against Torture
May 5, 2006
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/68558.htm

The United States' Response to the Questions Asked by the Committee Against Torture
Geneva, Switzerland
May 8, 2006
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/68562.htm


United States Says U.N. Torture Report Ignored Crucial Data

http://useu.usmission.gov/Article.asp?ID=68625c0d-7e6d-4d75-b13d-882258e1a147



Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism

Human Rights Council
December 12, 2007

Delivered by Melanie Khanna
Deputy Legal Adviser
U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva

http://geneva.usmission.gov/Press2007/1212ScheininReport.html

below is the detailed response

United States Comments on the Report on the Mission to the United States of America of
the Special Rapporteur on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms While Countering Terrorism, Martin Scheinin

http://geneva.usmission.gov/Press2007/Scheinin-Response-HRC.pdf


There are a lot more reports...

[fascisthunter]

10. Technically Torture isn't Even Effective

it does nothing but make things worse. You can't trust any intel gathered from the use of torture. All it does is piss off others related to the individual getting tortured. Inflaming civilians like this does the opposite of winning the peace, which is very important when occupying a country. The first thing you want to do is win the peace. That way war is cheaper and less costly to lives.... but these freaks don't really want that. It's only purpose is to break a person into accepting blame for something they are not guilty of. Just look at how they broke Padilla. He would have said anything in court, permitting he can still physically speak! But what can a crippled mind say that could be considered accurate or trustworthy.

I've said this before and I will keep saying; Bush is an evil son of a bitch and I mean that literally. A very sick, twisted man spawned from a criminal family, that doesn't even have the capacity for empathy. Their lust and weakness for greed probably overwhelms any empathy they might have had.

[Supersedeas]

11. our government is guilty of War Crimes and cable news feeds us Britney updates!?!