Bush sanctions CIA torture program

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jul2007/tort-j23.shtml

By Jerry White

23 July 2007

President Bush signed an executive order Friday clearing the way for the
Central Intelligence Agency to resume the use of "enhanced interrogation
measures" against alleged terror suspects held in US facilities around the
world.

The order, which was issued in conjunction with a classified list of
approved interrogation techniques, is designed to provide a legal sanction
for physical and psychological torture, and protect CIA operatives from
being charged with war crimes for violating US and international laws
against inhumane treatment.

The CIA reportedly suspended its program last year as the Bush
administration's legal justifications for abusing detainees was dealt a blow
by the US Supreme Court ruling in the case of *Hamdan v. Rumsfeld*, which
stated that all prisoners in US custody—of any nationality, being held in
any country—were granted minimal protections by the Geneva Conventions.

Last fall, in order to deflect growing international and domestic criticism,
Congress passed, with substantial bipartisan support, the Military
Commissions Act of 2006. The Act instructed the administration to issue an
executive order stating that any further interrogations would comply with US
and international law. The Act also established, in law, a procedure of
drumhead military commissions, after *Hamdan* invalidated the Bush
administration's previous procedure.

The order publicly prohibits "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment" as
well as acts of sexual humiliation and those intended to denigrate religious
beliefs—two widely used methods whose exposure provoked an international
outcry. However, the order places no restrictions on such notorious
techniques as the use of stress positions, sleep deprivation, extreme
temperatures and so-called water boarding, which simulates the sensation of
drowning. These techniques are expressly prohibited by the US military.
Moreover, administration officials admit there are no provisions for
allowing the Red Cross to visit CIA facilities or for prisoners to be in
contact with their families.

While the list of approved methods remains secret, the Bush administration
has not ruled out any technique. Administration officials have said that the
new order will allow the CIA to continue with the same program that was in
place before.

Noting that the written policies governing the CIA interrogation program
remained classified and independent organizations such as the Red Cross were
barred from monitoring the CIA's compliance with its guidelines, Tom
Malinowski of Human Rights Watch told the *Washington Post*, "All the order
really does is to have the president say, 'Everything in that other document
that I'm not going showing you is legal—trust me.'"

Moreover, as Human Rights Watch notes, the order seeks to sanction what is
an explicitly illegal operation: the CIA's detention and interrogation
program, which included the kidnapping and "disappearing" of dozens of
terror suspects and their imprisonment for years inside secret facilities.
Some prisoners, including those "renditioned" to third countries where they
are tortured under CIA supervision, remain "disappeared." In June, Human
Rights Watch and five other human rights groups listed 39 people who remain
missing, including one detainee, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, who recently
reappeared in Pakistan.

The new order, the Human Rights Watch says, claims that the program "fully
complies" with US obligations under the Geneva Conventions as long as the
CIA follows a series of requirements in carrying out the program. "But
enforced disappearance—the hallmark of the CIA program, involving secret,
incommunicado detention—is itself inconsistent with the requirement under
[Geneva Conventions] Common Article 3 that detainees be treated humanely,"
the organization said in a statement on the new order.

"By international human rights and humanitarian law standards, the CIA
program is illegal to its core," said, Joanne Mariner, terrorism and
counter-terrorism director at Human Rights Watch. "Although the new
executive order bars torture and other abuse, the order still can't purport
to legalize a program that violates basic rights."

With the new order in hand, Bush administration officials have told
the *Washington
Post* that suspects in US custody could be moved immediately into the
"enhanced interrogation" program and subjected to techniques that go beyond
those allowed by the US military. CIA detainees have alleged that they were
left naked in cells for prolonged periods, subjected to sensory and sleep
deprivation, extreme temperatures and sexually taunted. In a briefing with
reporters senior administration officials said that any future use of
"extremes of hot and cold" would be subject to a 'reasonable interpretation
... we're not talking about forcibly induced hypothermia.'

According to the *Post *the secret list of CIA techniques has been the
subject of intense debate within the highest levels of the US government
over the last several months, with the State Department seeking to deflect
criticism of US torture and the Defense Department concerned that CIA
methods could subject captured US soldiers to similar abuses. At the same
time, Bush and Vice President Cheney, along with CIA Director Michael Hayden
have defended the brutal methods, saying the CIA program was one of the most
effective tools in the so-called war on terror.

Referring to the secret list of approved torture techniques one intelligence
official told the *Post *that, while Hayden did not get "everything [he]
might have wanted" in the guidelines, they contained everything the CIA
needed and "more than was asked for."

The Bush administration is doing an end-run around the Supreme Court
decision upholding the application of the Geneva Conventions to CIA
prisoners, as well as widespread public and international opposition to
torture. In doing so, the administration is counting on the acquiescence and
complicity of the Democratic Party, which played a key role in the passage
of the Military Commissions Act that sanctioned military tribunals and the
indefinite detentions of prisoners, while giving the president explicit
authority to "interpret" the Geneva Conventions.

The Democrats response to Bush's executive order was predictable cowardice,
with their central concern being that the continued torture program be given
an adequate legal and political fig leaf.

Democratic Senator John D. Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said it was difficult to "determine what the Executive Order
really means and how it will translate into actual conduct by the CIA." The
CIA, he said, had to come before the Intelligence Committee "to explain in
detail how it intends to apply the Executive Order" and the Department of
Justice had to provide a "full legal analysis" of the interrogation
guidelines.

"The stakes are too high and the issue too important to provide any comment
until the Committee has been given the opportunity to fully evaluate the
President's action," Rockefeller claimed about an administration that has
consistently defended the use of torture methods. "This careful review," the
senator concluded, "will be part of the Committee's continuing effort to
determine whether the CIA detention and interrogation program is necessary,
lawful and in the best interests of the United States."

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