Cartman's America: Do as I say. Not as I do.

[Solly Mack]

You will respect my moral authority
Current reality has rendered satire moot

Every year the U.S. State Department issues its annual report on the state of human rights around the world.The report addresses the various human rights abuses in each country.

These reports do not include the actions of the United States.

2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices


Burma

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

There are laws that prohibit torture; however, members of the security forces reportedly tortured, beat, and otherwise abused prisoners, detainees, and other citizens. They routinely subjected detainees to harsh interrogation techniques designed to intimidate and disorient.

Egypt

The government's respect for human rights remained poor, and serious abuses continued in many areas. These included limitations on the right of citizens to change their government; a state of emergency, in place almost continuously since 1967; torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees; poor conditions in prisons and detention centers; impunity; arbitrary arrest and detention, including prolonged pretrial detention; executive branch limits on an independent judiciary; denial of fair public trial and lack of due process; political prisoners and detainees; restrictions on civil liberties--freedoms of speech and press, including internet freedom; assembly and association; some restrictions on religious freedom; corruption and lack of transparency; some restrictions on NGOs; and discrimination and violence against women, including female genital mutilation.

Tunisia

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment


The law prohibits such practices; however, according to human rights organizations, security forces tortured detainees to elicit confessions and discourage resistance. The forms of torture and other abuse included: sleep deprivation; electric shock; submersion of the head in water; beatings with hands, sticks, and police batons; suspension, sometimes manacled,from cell doors and rods resulting in loss of consciousness; and cigarette burns. According to Amnesty International (AI), police and prison officials used sexual assault and threats of sexual assault against the wives of Islamist prisoners to extract information, intimidate, and punish.


2005 Report


Turkey


The following human rights problems were reported:


•some restrictions on political activity
•unlawful killings
•torture, beatings, and other abuses of persons by security forces
•poor prison conditions
•arbitrary detention
•impunity and corruption
•lengthy pretrial detention
•excessively long trials
•restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association
•restrictions on religious freedom
•violence and discrimination against women
•child abuse
•child marriage
•trafficking in persons
•restrictions on worker's rights
•child labor

HRA official who visited the detainees, said police beat the detainees, administered electric shocks to their genitals, forced them to strip and sprayed them with cold water, and placed guns to their heads and threatened to kill them. Kuzu claimed that the prosecutor declined to record the detainees' torture claims, and he claimed the detainees were denied access to prison medical facilities.

Human rights observers said that, because of reduced detention periods, security officials mainly used torture methods that did not leave physical signs, including repeated slapping, exposure to cold, stripping and blindfolding, food and sleep deprivation, threats to detainees or family members, dripping water on the head, isolation, and mock executions. They reported the near elimination of more severe methods, such as electric shocks, high-pressure cold water hoses, rape, beatings on the soles of the feet and genitalia, hanging by the arms, and burns.



Tunisia

The following human rights problems were reported:


• torture and abuse of prisoners and detainees
• arbitrary arrest and detention
• police impunity
• lengthy pretrial and incommunicado detention
• infringement of citizens' privacy rights
• restrictions on freedom of speech and press
• restrictions of freedom of assembly and association

Syria

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

...they were subjected to various forms of torture and ill-treatment, including having their fingers crushed, beatings to the face and legs, dousing with cold water, standing for long periods of time during the night, subjected to loud screams and beatings of other detainees, stripped naked in front of others, and not being allowed to pray and grow a beard.


Former prisoners, detainees, and reputable local human rights groups, reported that torture methods included electrical shocks; pulling out fingernails; burning genitalia; forcing objects into the rectum; beating, sometimes while the victim was suspended from the ceiling; alternately dousing victims with freezing water and beating them in extremely cold rooms; hyperextending the spine; bending the detainees into the frame of a wheel and whipping exposed body parts; and using a backward-bending chair to asphyxiate the victim or fracture the victim's spine. Torture was most likely to occur while detainees were held at one of the many detention centers operated by the various security services throughout the country, particularly while authorities attempted to extract a confession or information.



2004 Report

Morocco

In June, AI published a report that accused security authorities of systematic torture and ill treatment of suspects held at the Temara detention center. AI noted a sharp rise over the past 2 years in such cases in the context of "counter terrorism" measures as well as the failure of government authorities to investigate these reports.

AI and other human rights organizations reported torture and ill treatment during initial interrogations of prisoners, including beatings, electric shocks, and sexual abuse. Former detainees reported that they were held in secret detention and denied contact with lawyers or family. The AI report also documented accusations of arbitrary detention and forced confessions of detained terrorism suspects.



2003 Report


Libya

Reports of torture were difficult to corroborate because many prisoners were held incommunicado.

Methods of torture reportedly included: Chaining to a wall for hours; clubbing; applying electric shock; applying corkscrews to the back; pouring lemon juice in open wounds; breaking fingers and allowing the joints to heal without medical care; suffocating with plastic bags; depriving of food and water; hanging by the wrists; suspending from a pole inserted between the knees and elbows; burning with cigarettes; attacking with dogs; and beating on the soles of the feet.

...torture methods they described included electric shocks, beatings, sleep deprivation, intimidation by police dogs, and forcing one female suspect to undress and threatening to insert a lighted lamp into her vagina. These signed confessions were the prosecution's best evidence against the suspects.



2002 Report

Saudi Arabia

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Shar'ia (Islamic law) prohibits any judge from accepting a confession obtained under duress; however, there were credible reports that the authorities abused detainees, both citizens and foreigners. Ministry of Interior officials were responsible for most incidents of abuse of prisoners, including beatings, whippings, sleep deprivation, and at least three cases of drugging of foreign prisoners. In addition, there were allegations of torture, including allegations of beatings with sticks, suspension from bars by handcuffs, and threats against family members. Torture and abuse were used to obtain required confessions from prisoners



2001 Report


Tunisia

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

The Penal Code prohibits the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; however, security forces reportedly routinely used various methods of torture to coerce confessions from detainees. The forms of torture included electric shock; submersion of the head in water; beatings with hands, sticks, and police batons; cigarette burns, and food and sleep deprivation.

According to Amnesty International (AI) and defense attorneys, the courts routinely fail to investigate allegations of torture and mistreatment and have accepted as evidence confessions extracted under torture.

In its annual report for 2000, Human Rights Watch stated that despite the reduction of incommunicado detention from 10 to 6 days, torture continued to be a problem, due to a climate of impunity "fostered by a judiciary that ignored evidence of torture and routinely convicted defendants on the basis of coerced confessions."


2000 Report


Sudan

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

There continued to be reports that security forces used "ghost houses," places where security forces tortured and detained government opponents incommunicado under harsh conditions for an indeterminate time with no supervision by the courts or other independent authorities with power to release the detainees; however, reports of the use of "ghost houses" ceased during the latter half of the year.


1999 Report

c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Egypt

Egyptian human rights groups and victims reported a number of torture methods that are employed by state security personnel and the police. Detainees frequently are stripped; hung by their wrists with their feet just touching the floor or forced to stand for prolonged periods; doused with hot or cold water; beaten; forced to stand outdoors in cold weather; and subjected to electrical shocks. Some victims, including female detainees, report that they have been threatened with rape.


US - NOT listed in ANY of the State Department annual reports on human rights.

In a case from April 2003, for example, a Marine shown to have mock-executed four Iraqi juveniles (by making them kneel next to a ditch and firing his weapon to simulate an execution) was found guilty of cruelty and maltreatment and sentenced to thirty days hard labor without confinement and a fine of $6336. See United States Marine Corps, USMC Alleged Detainee Abuse Cases Since 11 Sep 01, Aug. 5,2004

2004 Mock Executions

Two other marines who used an electrical transformer to shock a detainee were found guilty of assault, cruelty and maltreatment, dereliction of duty, and conspiracy, but were sentenced to only eight months and one year respectively.

White House on head-slapping tactics: 'No torture'

"These tactics reportedly included head-slapping, simulated drownings and exposure to freezing cold."


Salon:Abu Ghraib Files

"...but Pappas has charged that Miller introduced the use of dogs and other harsh tactics at the prison."

"The CID photo archive confirms that a prisoner matching Qaissi's description -- he has a deformed left hand -- and known by the nickname "The Claw" was held at the prison and photographed by military police on the same night as the mock electrocution, but he was not the one standing on the box and attached to wires"

"No one at the CIA has been prosecuted, even though al-Jamadi's death was ruled a homicide."


" According to the Fay report, one of the most horrific incidents occurred on Oct. 7, when three military intelligence soldiers allegedly assaulted a female detainee. The unnamed detainee told investigators that she was taken to an empty cell, where a soldier held her hands behind her back while another soldier forcibly kissed her. She was then taken to another cell, where she was shown a naked male detainee and told that she would be stripped if she did not cooperate."

Rumsfeld: Worst Still To Come



"The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. we're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience."


How the CIA Broke the 9/11 Attacks Mastermind

"The al Qaeda mastermind, known as KSM, stubbornly held out for about two minutes -- far longer than any of the other "high-value" terror targets who were subjected to the technique, the harshest from a list of six techniques approved for use by the CIA and Bush administration lawyers, sources said.

"It was an extraordinary amount of time for him to hold out," one former CIA officer told ABCNews.com. "A red-headed female supervisor was in the room when he was being water-boarded. It was humiliating to him. So he held out."

Human Rights Watch’s Submission to the Committee Against Torture in Response to United States Positions


Accountability for Abuse (Articles 4, 5, 6, 7)


U.S. Position: The United States continues to argue that the instances of abuse and torture are limited to a few individuals, and that those involved have been held fully accountable for their unlawful acts.

Response: Having made numerous requests to the Department of Justice and Department of Defense for this information, Human Rights Watch welcomes the new openness and transparency with regard to these figures and urges the United States to provide details on those courts-martials that were not publicly reported. But, the underlying critique remains the same: the lack of real accountability for abuse. Even according to the government’s own figures, there have been 29 deaths in military custody that were ruled homicides, yet only 19 individuals received sentences of more than one year. Out of the 270 actions taken against service members, the vast majority received administrative and disciplinary sanctions -- often just a letter of reprimand placed in their file. Moreover, not a single officer has been charged on the basis of command responsibility, despite internal investigations and released

Government documents that show that many of the interrogation methods that led to widespread abuse at Abu Ghraib prison and in detention facilities elsewhere in Iraq and Afghanistan were first explicitly approved by the administration for use at Guantánamo Bay.1


The Right to Redress (Articles 13, 14)



U.S. Position: The United States argues that it sufficiently complies with its obligations to ensure redress for torture and abuse.



Response: Since the passage of the Detainee Treatment Act in December 2005, detainees at Guantánamo Bay have been precluded from raising claims in an independent court alleging torture or other abuse even after they are released from custody. Moreover, there are no mechanisms in place, of which we are aware, for detainees in Iraq or Afghanistan to seek redress for abuse. And certainly, the “disappeared” prisoners held by the United States in undisclosed locations worldwide have no mechanism for raising claims of torture or abuse before an independent body – such persons are even denied visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross.


Extraterritorial Reach of Article 3

U.S. Position: The United States takes the position that its Article 3 obligation not to send someone to a country where they will be in danger of being subjected to torture does not apply if a person is initially arrested or detained outside the territory of the United States. Rather, the United States argues that its legal obligation not to send someone to a country where they are in danger of being tortured only applies if the person is arrested or detained within the United States. In making this argument, the United States argues that the terms “expel,” “return,” and “extradite” refer to the act of sending an individual from one’s own country to another.

Response: The purpose and intent of Article 3 of the Convention is to prohibit member states from sending individuals to countries where they will be subjected to torture. That prohibition is clear; there is no basis for making the geographic location of where an individual is detained the triggering factor in its application. The United States also argues a general policy not to transfer individuals to countries where they are more likely than not to be subject to torture, regardless of where they are initially detained, and that therefore the issue as to the applicability of a legal obligation is irrelevant.



Diplomatic Assurances & Rendition to Torture (Article 3)


U.S. Position: The United States continues to promote its policy of relying on diplomatic assurances as a safeguard against a return to torture.


Response: Diplomatic assurances are unenforceable – and often unmonitored – promises by a receiving country that an individual returned to that country will not be subjected to torture. As is exemplified by the case of Maher Arar – a Canadian who was transferred to Syria, in reliance on diplomatic assurances, yet subsequently tortured anyway – these assurances often fail to protect transferred individuals from torture. Of particular concern, the United States accepts such assurances even without any monitoring provision. Moreover, when asked by Mr. Fernando Marino Menendez whether the United States would continue to rely on diplomatic assurances if the country had previously tortured an individual returned to its custody, in violation of prior diplomatic assurances, the United States answered that the past practices would be “highly relevant.” The answer should have been, “no.” Absent evidence of substantially changed conditions, no individuals should be transferred to a country that had previously subjected someone to torture or abuse.


My Comment: And considering the State Departments annual report on human rights abuses, it's not like the US doesn't already know which countries are most likely to torture people.


Incommunicado Detention and Forced Disappearances(Extraordinary Rendition) (Articles 2, 5, 13, 14, 16)


U.S. Position: The United States argues that there is no explicit prohibition on holding detainees incommunicado and denying the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to these detainees. In making this argument, the United States notes that the Fourth Geneva Convention recognizes that, in certain circumstances, spies and saboteurs shall be regarded as having forfeited their “rights of communication.”


Response: First, the United States is wrong in its interpretation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The “spies and saboteurs” provision that the United States refers to was designed for an obvious and valid purpose: to keep the capture of a spy secret and to prevent spies and saboteurs from passing on information to their side during a military occupation. Under this provision, the United States could legitimately limit detainee contacts with the outside world that would create a security risk. That would include, as is the practice with detainees at Guantánamo, censoring letters sent via the ICRC. It might even entail prohibiting all letters from a detainee in a specific case. But the ICRC does more than carry letters – it examines the health and well-being of detainees and their conditions of detention, and does so in a confidential manner. There is no justification for the denial of ICRC visits to check on the condition of an entire group of detainees.

Second, as a matter of the Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law, the ICRC must be granted regular access to all persons deprived of their liberty in an armed conflict.8According to the Geneva Conventions, visits may be refused for reasons of “imperative military necessity,” but only as an exceptional and temporary measure. The ongoing incommunicado of detainees held by the United States can no longer be described as either exceptional or temporary.

Third, if the United States is claiming that the detainees were not picked up during an international armed conflict, then human rights law applies. Here, it is important to note that the "ghost detainees" held by the United States are not merely being held incommunicado, they are "disappeared," a serious violation of international human rights law. 98See, e.g., Third Geneva Convention, article 126; Fourth Geneva Convention, article 7, par. 6 and article 143. 9 See Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances (1992),Enforced disappearances occur, in the sense that persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law" (emphasis added).



Waterboarding: Definition of Torture (Article 1)

U.S. Position: The United States continues to refuse to denounce waterboarding as torture.


Response: Waterboarding is torture. It is a form of mock drowning that causes severe physical suffering in the form of reflexive choking, gagging, and the feeling of suffocation. It may cause severe pain in somecases. If uninterrupted, waterboarding causes death by suffocation. It is also foreseeable that waterboarding, by producing an experience of drowning, will cause severe mental pain and suffering. Many victims of waterboarding suffer prolonged mental harm for years and even decades afterward. While the United States has stated that waterboarding will be prohibited under the new Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation, this manual will not be binding on CIA officers. The United States should explicitly prohibit waterboarding by all agents of the government – including civilian intelligence officers.

A GLOBAL REVIEW OF HUMAN RIGHTS:EXAMINING THE STATE DEPARTMENT'S 2004 ANNUAL REPORT

"First, the very idea of human rights presupposes that certain rights are fundamental, universal, and inalienable. They are too important to be taken away or circumscribed by governments. The right to life, religion, speech, assembly, and due process are the pillars of a free, sane, and compassionate society.

Second, the United States has a commitment to human rights that is unique in the history of the world".

Lying, hypocrisy, and denial are not unique.

Committing war crimes makes you war criminal.

Pretending it isn't happening makes you an enabler.

Doing nothing about it makes you complicit.

[Louis J Sheehan]

1. Heaven help future American POWS Louis J Sheehan

So much for the Geneva Conventions. Bush & Cheney can't see beyond their own noses.-- Louis J Sheehan

[Solly Mack]

8. They can't see beyond their own wallets and egos either

[Swamp Rat]

2. k&r

[Karenina]

3. And another!

Hi Swampie! Great work, Solly!

[Solly Mack]

6. Thanks! Karenina!!

[Solly Mack]

5. Thanks, Swamp Rat!

[izquierdista]

4. The purpose of the 'Country Reports'

Is not to report on the state of Human Rights around the world. It's a yellow pages of potential subcontractors for future works in planning.

"It's a cookbook!"

[Solly Mack]

7. !

[Ravy]

9. Thanks to Bush, we have ended torture WORLD-WIDE!!!!

Who knew it would be as easy as simply changing the definition....

[Solly Mack]

10. Oh..Snap!

There's that silver lining

Good one!!

[Solly Mack]

11. ...

...