The question of waterboarding reemerged soon after the US government revealed
that the CIA had applied the torture technique on a number of occasions.
Last week, the US Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey told the House Judiciary
Committee that Justice Department lawyers conclude the CIA's use of
waterboarding in 2002 and 2003 was legal, and therefore the department cannot
investigate whether a crime had occurred.
"That would mean that the same department that authorized the program would now
consider prosecuting somebody who followed that advice," he said.
However, he said in his testimony that he would consider it as torture, if it
were ever done to him.
Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, described the
testimony as an example of "the gold standard of double standards."
"Everyone in the world knows that waterboarding is torture and illegal," Cox
said. "The US government admits having done it. Yet the highest law enforcement
official in the land refuses to investigate this scandal."
CIA Director Michael Hayden confirmed Tuesday that al-Qaida prisoners Khalid
Sheik Mohammed; Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Husseing and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri had
been waterboarded at a secret detention site. He tried to justify the
unjustifiable by saying that it was used to obtain information from the
terrorists.
Vice President Dick Cheney also defended the practice last week.
"It's a tougher program for a very few tougher customers," Cheney told the
Conservative Political Action Convention and the Pennsylvania State Victory
Committee.
"The program is run by highly trained professionals who understand their
obligations under the law. And the program has uncovered a wealth of information
that has foiled attacks against the United States."
"The military has interrogated terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. And in
addition, a small number of terrorists, high-value targets, held overseas have
gone through an interrogation program run by the CIA. It's a tougher program,
for tougher customers. These include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of
9/11. He and others were questioned at a time when another attack on this
country was believed to be imminent. It's a good thing we had them in custody,
and it's a good thing we found out what they knew."
The fact is that many of those detained at the Guantanamo are being kept there
without any solid allegations against them. Under the untold psychological and
physical tortures, the prisoners may confess to any uncommitted crimes.
"The United States is a country that takes human rights seriously. We do not
torture - it's against our laws and against our values. We're proud of our
country and what it stands for. We expect all of those who serve America to
conduct themselves with honor. And we enforce those rules. Some years ago, when
abuses were committed at Abu Ghraib prison, a facility that had nothing to do
with the CIA program, the abuses that came to light were, in fact, investigated,
and those responsible were prosecuted. …
Examples of US torture are legion and the US government has admitted to
torturing prisoners themselves. It is now common knowledge that the tortures
committed at the Abu Ghraib prison were all ordered by the US government.
So the parody of prosecuting the guilty party for the Abu Ghraib prison is only
concocted to manipulate public opinion that the US government is exonerated from
any atrocities perpetrated anywhere in the world in the name of democracy.
"From the very morning our nation was attacked on 9/11, the President of the
United States has had to make some immensely enormous decisions. Every day he
faces responsibilities that others would pale before. I've been there with him.
I've seen him make the tough calls, and then weather the criticism and take the
hits. President Bush has been tough and courageous. He's made the right
decisions for the right reasons, and he always reflects the best values of the
American people. I've been proud to stand by him and by the decisions he's made.
And I would support those same - and would I support those same decisions again
today? You're damn right I would."
Since the very morning of the 9/11 tragedy, the US president has tried to use
the incident to justify his so-called war on terror, to expand his military
adventurism in Asia particularly in the Middle East, to quench his thirst for
blood, and to create Islamophobia and a wide rift between the Muslims and the
Christians. Let us not forget that Bush assumed the tone of a messiah when he
wanted to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.
That waterboarding is to be categorized as torture is not difficult to
understand. To see what torture is, one only needs to take a look at UN
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment.
Article one clearly states, "torture means any act by which severe pain or
suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person
for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a
confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is
suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third
person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or
suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or
acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official
capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in
or incidental to lawful sanctions."
It can be inferred that waterboarding violates the UN Convention. So, its
torture. But why does the US justice department not expose the Bush
administration to criminal charges or war crimes? Clearly, any act of torture or
criminal act can be given a cloak of legitimacy by the US government.
It is not the first time the Bush administration seeks to evade blades of
criticism and condemnation. The Abu Ghraib prison scandal where the US
mercenaries stripped the prisoners naked and performed sadistic-voyeuristic acts
upon them was an utter shock to American public opinion and collective
conscience. The US officials initially feigned ignorance of the whole situation
going on in Abu Ghraib but later they acknowledged to the horror of the world
that the reservists were following the orders of the top US echelons.
The history of waterboarding
A type of torture which dates back at least to the Spanish Inquisition,
waterboarding involves binding a person to an inclined board, with feet raised
and head slightly below the feet, pouring water over his cloth-covered face to
create an illusion of drowning. Waterboarding was also used in the 1980s by
Chadian forces under the command of military ruler Hissene Habre, who was
indicted by a Belgian court in September 2005 for crimes against humanity, war
crimes and torture committed during his 1982-90 rule and faces prosecution in
Senegal.
In fact, waterboarding applies to two different torture methods; 1. Pumping
water directly into the stomach which creates severe pain. 2. Choking the victim
by filling his throat with a steady stream of water - a sort of "slow-motion
drowning" perfected by Dutch traders in the 17th century.
The torture technique was also used by the Japanese in World War II, by US
troops in the Philippines, by the French in Algeria, and by the Khmer Rogue
against its own people. Military dictators in Latin America massively used the
torture technique particularly in Chile and Argentina.
Waterboarding has a long history in US policies despite the fact that Judge
Michael Mukasey wishes to equivocate. In Vietnam, the US forces used
waterboarding (then called water cure) by binding Viet Cong captives upside down
in barrels of water. They also used the torture technique against the Filipinos.
A US soldier boasted in a letter made public that he had used the water cure on
160 people and only 26 had survived.
The US Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey told the House Judiciary Committee he
would consider it as torture, if it were ever done to him. Torture is torture
under any guise or for any reason. The Bush administration's efforts to save
face in their torture-oriented policies have failed.
In Bushiite foreign policies, words lose their meanings in an Orwellian way.
--
May justice prevail
Ismail Salami is the author of 'Iran Cradle of Civilization' and numerous
articles on Middle East and Asia. He can be reached at
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Source: Press TV
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