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NEWS: US deploying 30 officials (none from CIA) to defend torture (FT)
[The U.S. national security state is deploying a delegation of 30 to defend
its human rights record before the United Nations committee on torture on
Friday, the *Financial Times* (UK) reported Thursday.[1] -- Reporter Frances
Williams noted that this is "the first time since the September 11 attacks on
the U.S. sparked the 'war on terror'" that the U.S. has formally defended
itself in an international forum. -- While the U.S. delegation, headed by
John Bellinger, legal adviser at the State Department, includes officials from
the defense, justice, and homeland security departments, it has no
representative from the Central Intelligence Agency. -- "Jennifer Daskal,
U.S. advocacy director of Human Rights Watch in New York, said yesterday that
senior U.S. officials were still refusing to classify 'water-boarding' -- a
near-drowning technique used in the Spanish Inquisition -- as torture,"
reporter Frances Williams observed. --Mark]
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/4437/
1.
World
International Economy
WASHINGTON TO DEFEND RECORD ON TORTURE BEFORE U.N.
By Frances Williams
Financial Times (UK)
May 4, 2006
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b80cf032-db92-11da-98a8-0000779e2340.html
GENEVA -- Washington will on Friday be called upon to defend its record on
torture before an international forum for the first time since the September
11 attacks on the U.S. sparked the "war on terror."
The U.S. has sent a 30-strong delegation to Geneva to answer questions from
the United Nations committee against torture concerning abusive treatment of
detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
In what one U.N. human rights official said was "the longest list of issues I
have ever seen," the committee has also asked the U.S. to supply detailed
information about secret detention centers, "extraordinary renditions," and
other apparent violations of the U.N. convention on torture it ratified in
1994.
Other questions posed by the committee concern suggestions that the U.S.
president can authorize, or waive punishment for, torture in the interests of
national security.
The U.S. has consistently denied permitting torture to extract information
from terrorism suspects and has blamed most abuses on low-ranking army
personnel.
"The U.S. government does not permit, tolerate, or condone torture, or other
unlawful practices, by its personnel or employees under any circumstances," it
said in its report to the committee last year in preparation for the hearing
today and Monday.
But human rights groups, which have also submitted evidence to the committee,
argue that U.S. policies and practices are in breach of international law.
The torture convention outlaws all forms of torture and inhumane treatment
whatever the circumstances, forbids sending people to countries where they
risk torture, and requires prosecution and punishment of all those responsible
for torture up the chain of command.
In a report to the committee this week, U.K.-based Amnesty International said
there was evidence of "widespread torture and other cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment of detainees."
It accused Washington of creating a climate in which torture and ill-treatment
could flourish, by trying to narrow the definition of torture and failing to
hold senior officials responsible.
Jennifer Daskal, U.S. advocacy director of Human Rights Watch in New York,
said yesterday that senior U.S. officials were still refusing to classify
"water-boarding" -- a near-drowning technique used in the Spanish Inquisition
-- as torture.
Ms. Daskal noted that the U.S. delegation, headed by John Bellinger, legal
adviser at the State Department, included officials from the defense, justice,
and homeland security departments, but had no representative from the Central
Intelligence Agency, which had been involved in "clearly abusive"
interrogations.
The 10 expert members of the U.N. committee against torture meet twice yearly
to review periodic reports on compliance by the 141 states that are parties to
the 1987 convention. Though the committee has no powers of sanction, its
conclusions -- due for publication on May 19 -- are widely regarded as
authoritative.
