UK Docs Prove Torture Began BEFORE Bybee Memo: THE US IS NOW OBLIGATED TO INVESTIGATE

[kpete]

“Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment by the United States Authorities” … BEFORE the Bybee Memo
By: emptywheel Wednesday February 10, 2010 9:29 am


As Bill Egnor has reported http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/29109?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter(and Jim White mentioned here) http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/02/09/9th-circuit-to-jeffrey-white-get-back-to-work-on-eff-foia/#comment-219568a court in the UK has forced the government to release a passage of an earlier court ruling that it had fought to suppress. Assuming the passage has been released in complete form, the key passage concludes that the sleep deprivation that Americans subjected Binyam Mohamed to while held incommunicado in Pakistan was “at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities.”

Now, this revelation is critical not just because it shows British Courts concluding that, at the very least, the United States violated the Convention Against Torture. As Jim White notes in his diary on this, the US is now obligated by the Convention Against Torture to investigate this act.

But note two details of the passage.

*****It was reported that a new series of interviews was conducted by the United States authorities prior to 17 May 2002 as part of a new strategy designed by an expert interviewer.

Mohamed was subjected to sleep deprivation, the British Government tells us, more than 75 days before the Bybee Two memo authorized such treatment.

............

This proves the entire myth told to explain the torture memos (and Abu Zubaydah’s treatment) to be a lie.

Updated with link to Jim White’s diary.

more:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/02/10/cruel-inhuman-and-degrading-treatment-by-the-united-states-authorities-before-the-bybee-memo/

......................


This is not a simple case of a politician or other public figure making an accusation against the United States. This is a British High Court rendering a decision after examining evidence. The language chosen is significant. Although "could readily be contended" perhaps could be interpreted as leaving a bit of wiggle room, that possibility is slapped down entirely by "at the very least" before launching into the highly significant "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment". This final phrase, often shortened to CIDT, is important because it is a key element of the UN Convention Against Torture, which actually has the full name "Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment". Finally, this torture has been carried out "by the United States authorities".

Here is a portion of President Ronald Reagan’s statement on submitting the Convention Against Torture to the Senate after he signed it in 1988:

The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention . It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.

Here is Article 12 of the CAT:

Article 12

Each State Party shall ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction.

Barack Obama and Eric Holder now are required to act. A decision of a British High Court certainly would qualify as "reasonable ground to believe" that CIDT has occurred in the case of Binyam Mohamed and that it was at the hands of "United States authorities".

more:
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/29095

......................

The Bybee Memo, also known as the Torture Memo and the 8/1/02 Interrogation Opinion,<1> was a document prepared by the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in response to a CIA request to the White House.<2> It was submitted on August 1, 2002 and officially titled Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President, from Jay S. Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Re: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. §§2340-2340A.<1><3>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bybee_Memo

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Big K&R -- finally the truth sees the light of day! nt

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[EFerrari]

12. I know Binyam's material is new but didn't we already know

that torture preceded the memos? Abu Zubaydah?

[Solly Mack]

13. Yes...with Abu Zubaydah, the time-line showed the torture came first

I believe I did a post about that a while back

[EFerrari]

14. Thank you. So this is another repeat "first time" story.

But, maybe different because a government is involved directly? I hope so.

[Solly Mack]

15. It helps to further corroborate that the torture came first, I think

It does make a difference that a government (UK) was forced to give up the information..especially a government with info that includes material directly from the CIA

ETA the link

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Solly%20Mack/539

Based on when the torture first started, AZ was tortured 5 months prior to the Bybee memo.

[EFerrari]

19. Thanks for adding the link. It will help people retrieve their memory

of what we already knew and are, imo, actively encouraged to "forget".

[Solly Mack]

20. I share that opinion

:(

[leveymg]

31. AZ was captured 03/28/02. Bybee memo dated 08/01/02. First DOJ e-mail on subject 04/02.

AZ was shot three times during his capture in Thailand. The initial batch of information was obtained while he was still in initial recovery after surgery. This was obtained more by deception more than force, when his captors pretended to be Saudi intelligence officers. AZ willingly revealed to them the names of a group of the principal financial backers of the 9/11 plot, believing that the bigwigs would help him. Among those named was the son of the co-Director of Saudi intelligence, and the head of the Pakistani Air Force. There was a rash of "accidents" and "medical emergencies" that took their lives later that year.

The information that AZ later provided under water boarding and other torture was not nearly as important. Repeated partial drowning (83 times) without blood-oxygen monitoring, extended sleep deprivation, and psychological torture are the last thing you do to a prisoner if you want accurate information. Yet, that's what was done to him and to other "high-value" AQ prisoners who had contact with the Agency before the USS Cole and 9/11 attacks.

[EFerrari]

36. Thank you. And, iirc, the UN Special Rapporteur already said

that the US is obliged to investigate under the Torture Convention.

19 April 2009 01:01 UK
CIA torture exemption 'illegal'


US President Barack Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA agents who used torture tactics is a violation of international law, a UN expert says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8006597.stm

[OnyxCollie]

41. In regard to the prison ships mentioned in your journal.

They were the subject of a boast in the Pentagon talking points acquired through FOIA that David Barstow (NYT) used to reveal the Pentagon pundits. The Pentagon was boasting about prison ships about four years before they were denying their existence.

I tried to find the quotes, but I don't have time to go through all the pages.

[Winterblues]

3. It will not be investigated nor prosecuted...

They got away with it and they are gleeful about it. In fact Cheney is going to get the entire hour on Meet the Press this Sunday to spew his torture crap..If I had my druthers it would have been Cheney instead of Murtha that will be buried this week..

[kpete]

4. not without the right attitude about the law

but I believe this will be a difficult challenge to bury, peace, kp

[riderinthestorm]

24. I agree with this unfortunately. Obama's Admin isn't ever going to do anything about this. nt

[icee]

34. Right. The US is simply too weak and has no morals.

[NorthCarolina]

49. Sadly, I agree with you. eom

[mmonk]

5. Thanks kpete. Bookmarking.

[fascisthunter]

6. "Barack Obama and Eric Holder now are required to act."

Either way:

:popcorn:

[avaistheone1]

21. How can they run when they now know?

[fascisthunter]

35. I don't know that answer

but from prior issues, I have seen those who know, turn a blind eye or make up excuses for not holding certain people accountable. I have very little confidence that anything will happen, but then again, this is all new for me, so who knows what will transpire.

[noise]

45. The OPR report was watered down

The British ruling indicates that the OLC opinions were basically a conspiracy against US law. Yoo and others seemingly fit their opinions to condone a pro torture policy.

I would guess everybody in D.C. knows the Bush OLC opinions were garbage but would rather pretend the CIA/OLC/Bush White House acted in good faith. After all, it would be so inconvenient to disrupt the status quo.

[jtrockville]

7. and justice for all

[Overseas]

8. K&R . Yes please !! //nt

[santamargarita]

9. What do we have to do to get this bunch prosecuted?

President Obama has to change his inner circle of advisers, starting with all of them.

[flyarm]

10. More great reporting by Emptywheel and Firedoglake..and Kpete..thanks for posting! eom

[annabanana]

11. Yes Yes Yes....

We must at least TRY to remove the stain.

Out Damned Spot

[bertman]

16. "THE US IS NOW OBLIGATED TO INVESTIGATE". Fat chance. nt

[defendandprotect]

17. K&R -

[librechik]

18. They've been obligated for this and more all along. Didn't expect the Bushies to do anything

now, sadly, I don't expect Obama to do anything either. Who in THE WORLD has the power to make the US do the right thing?

[rudy23]

22. I guess they'll figure out a way to unobligate themselves. nt

[leftstreet]

23. K&R

[Wilms]

25. k&r n/t

[Hubert Flottz]

26. "Let Freedom Rain"

[Wizard777]

27. Has the US Government ever taken on an obligation to investigate without an obligation to exonerate?

:shrug:

[Demeter]

28. Good News!

It's about time the conspiracy of silence and collaboration was broken.

[G_j]

29. K&R

[spanone]

30. wake up america.....if one president gets away with it a precedent will be set

you fucking know it

[Soylent Brice]

32. K&R

and bookmarked.

[quakerboy]

33. Not holding my breath

Maybe someday we will have the gonads to prosecute our own for torture and war crimes. But it think its more than amply clear that that day is not today.

[amborin]

37. K&R

[slipslidingaway]

38. knr - Contact the White House link ....

Email
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: [phone]

[OnyxCollie]

39. K&R. nt

[kpete]

40. UPDATE****

The Evidence Demonstrates That Torture Began Before It Was Sanctioned by the DOJ in August 2002

That such tactics were being used by US agents in April 2002, four months before the ten previously banned techniques - including sleep deprivation and waterboarding - were approved by lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), should come as no surprise. As I pointed out in an article last April, "CIA Torture Began In Afghanistan 8 Months Before DoJ Approval," lawyers for Rafiq Alhami, a Tunisian prisoner in Guantánamo, demonstrated in court submissions that the CIA was torturing prisoners in Afghanistan from December 2001.

In a lawsuit, Alhami stated that he was held in three CIA "dark sites," where "his presence and his existence were unknown to everyone except his United States detainers," and where, at various times, he was "stripped naked, threatened with dogs, shackled in painful stress positions for hours, punched, kicked and exposed to extremes of heat and cold." He also stated that his interrogators "sprayed pepper spray on his hemorrhoids, causing extreme pain."

Nevertheless, Alhami's statements, which reflect similar statements made by other prisoners held in secret CIA prisons at this time, were largely ignored last April, and it is to be hoped, therefore, that the official confirmation of Binyam Mohamed's torture in April and May 2002 will put pressure on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate how it came to pass that prisoners were tortured - or, at least, subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment - so many months before the OLC provided what senior Bush officials referred to as their "golden shield," providing a twisted rationale for the torture and abuse that followed in the memos issued on August 1, 2002.

http://www.truthout.org/details-british-residents-brutal-torture-cia-officers-released56831

[JoeyT]

42. But that was way back there!

We've got to look forward now!
Stop living in the past. :silly:

[sellitman]

43. K & R I'm not holding my breath though.

Seems almost like there is some collusion going on between Presidents.

[Joe Chi Minh]

44. The CIA are going to wag their fingers at Obama and make him wear a dunce's hat.

PS: Thank you for the heart, dear friend.

[closeupready]

46. SHOULD happen, but WON'T happen.

n/t

[Juche]

47. What happens if/when they don't act?

Do US officials who refuse to act run the risk of international prosecution for obstruction of justice? I'd be in favor of that (even if it ensnared Obama), but are there any real consequences for the people who try to cover this up?

[Uncle Joe]

48. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[KoKo]

50. K&R..

[malaise]

51. Oops - truth will out

K & R

[WillyT]

52. Kick !!!

But too late to Rec...

x(

[Name removed]

53. Deleted message

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