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December 19, 2005
World will watch U.S. on torture
Dr. Siraj Mufti
While in Europe, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attempted to mollify concerns regarding the Bush administration's use of secret jails for terror suspects.
The controversial practice, "rendition," involves transporting suspects to countries acquiescing to their detention and interrogation.
It is contended that the practice is contrary to international treaties as well as U.S. laws.
President Bush and his administration deny allowing any torture practices. Their argument is "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" does not constitute torture when employed against foreign nationals. This predicates it indisputably would be illegal if done in the United States, or to a U.S. citizen elsewhere, but is lawful when inflicted on foreign nationals held abroad.
This reasoning was used for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It is the logic for CIA-controlled secret prisons in undisclosed locations. It is estimated that of about 3,000 people captured by the CIA, around three dozen fall in the category of "erroneous renditions."
For example, Khaled El-Masri was flown from Macedonia in December 2003 to a secret prison in Afghanistan. He was held in appalling conditions as a terrorism suspect. Masri, a German national, was born in Lebanon. The CIA released him five months later. They found no evidence against him. They had imprisoned the "wrong" man.
When Rice met the new German chancellor, Angela Merkel, she admitted mistakes had been made, especially in Masri's case.
But while Rice repeatedly asserted that cruel and degrading interrogation methods are off-limits for all U.S. personnel, she did not elaborate on her blanket assertion. Also, she did not specify whether the rules would apply to U.S. contractors or foreign interrogators.
This is important because the CIA inspector general found use of "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Former intelligence officials say that some of these techniques include exposure to cold and hot temperatures, sleep deprivation and being forced to stand in stressful conditions.
Arizona Sen. John McCain's amendment prohibits "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" of prisoners in U.S. custody, and passed the Senate on a 90-9 vote. The House endorsed the ban Wednesday. The White House and McCain reached agreement Thursday on the ban.
The world's attention is focused on how America deals with its war on terror.
It is generally agreed that torture is ineffective. We must abandon the current double standard, which puts our soldiers at risk and damages our reputation.
"Rendition" lowers our morals and fuels animosity against us.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1219mufti19.html
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