Getting Away with Torture: Secret Government, War Crimes, and the Rule of Law

Getting Away with Torture: Secret Government, War Crimes, and the Rule of Law. Front Cover · Christopher H. Pyle. Potomac Books, Inc., - History -
Table of contents


  1. Goldstruck.
  2. 60s Song?
  3. Helping Children with Dyspraxia?
  4. Getting Away with Torture!
  5. Torture is a war crime the government treats like a policy debate.

YY hbk Main Reading Room. Order a copy Copyright or permission restrictions may apply. We will contact you if necessary. To learn more about Copies Direct watch this short online video. How do I find a book? Can I borrow this item? Can I get a copy? Can I view this online? Similar Items When governments break the law: The institutionalization of torture by the Bush administration: Members of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Maori communities are advised that this catalogue contains names and images of deceased people.

Book , Online - Google Books. Torture -- Government policy -- United States. Prisoners of war -- Abuse of -- United States. Secrecy -- Political aspects -- United States. War crimes -- United States. Rule of law -- United States. War on Terrorism, According to the Innocence Project , about 25 percent of wrongfully convicted innocent people [ quantify ] were coerced into making false confessions or false incriminating statements. In , a Channel 4 documentary "Torture: America's Brutal Prisons" showed video of naked prisoners being beaten, bitten by dogs, forced to crawl like worms, kicked in the groin, stunned with Taser guns and electric cattle prods.

In another, mentally ill prisoner Charles Agster is suffocated to death. Another prisoner is found with a broken neck, broken toes and internal injuries following an argument with guards; after one month in a coma he dies from septicaemia. Fire extinguisher sized canisters of pepper spray are used to cover prisoners with chemicals, and they are then left, resulting in second degree burns.

Photos are shown of Frank Valdes, a convicted killer on Death Row , who was beaten to death after writing to local Florida newspapers with allegations of prison officer corruption and brutality. Many of the segments in the documentary were several years old, e. Several Lawsuits was filed against the Prison which resulted in the Inmates favor. Other prison officers involved in the incidents were suspended from duty or discharged of their employment. A memoir by Wilbert Rideau , an inmate at Angola Prison from through , states that "slavery was commonplace in Angola with perhaps a quarter of the population in bondage" throughout the s and early s.

Rideau stated that "The slave's only way out was to commit suicide, escape or kill his master. Murray Henderson, one of the wardens brought in to clean up the prison, states in one of his memoirs that the systemic sexual slavery was sanctioned and facilitated by the prison guards.


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From the year onwards, the Supermax facility at the Maine State Prison was the scene of video-taped forcible extractions that Lance Tapley in the Portland Phoenix wrote "look[ed] like torture. Officers involved in the incident were convicted in court and sentenced to 2—5 years in prison. Border Patrol interdicts people crossing the border and maintains checkpoints and carries out raids in border regions. Human Rights Watch has documented severe human rights abuses by the Border Patrol, "including unjustified killing, torture, and rape, and routine beatings, rough physical treatment, and racially motivated verbal abuse.

Detained immigrants, including refugees seeking asylum, at the Esmor Inc. After the uprising, two dozen of them were beaten, stripped, forced to crawl through a gauntlet of officers, and made to chant, "America is number one. On arrival at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York , the detainees were slammed face first into a wall against a shirt with an American flag; the bloodstain left behind was described by one officer as the print of bloody noses and a mouth.

Once inside they were threatened with detention for the rest of their lives, verbally abused, exposed to cold, deprived of sleep , and had their hands, cuffed arms, and fingers severely twisted.


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In , the U. Supreme Court deferred to state secrets privilege when they refused to hear the case of Khalid el-Masri , who was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA under the Bush administration on December 21, The ACLU said that torture included methods of "forced anal penetration". Certain practices of the United States military , civilian agencies such as the CIA , and private contractors have been condemned both domestically and internationally as torture.

A fierce debate regarding non-standard interrogation techniques exists within the U. These practices have resulted in a number of deaths. According to Human Rights First , at least as many as 8 detainees have been tortured to death in U. In , a U.

Torture and the United States

Jennifer Harbury , a U. On December 12, , the Court of Appeals for the District Court of Columbia rejected this claim, citing a lack of jurisdiction, since the events were planned and controlled in the United States, but the actual torture and murder occurred in Guatemala, a location where the U. In and there was substantial controversy over the " stress and duress " methods that were used in the U.

Executive branch of government at Cabinet level. CIA agents have anonymously confirmed to the Washington Post in a December 26, report that the CIA routinely uses so-called " stress and duress " interrogation techniques, which human rights organizations claim are acts of torture, in the U. These sources state that CIA and military personnel beat up uncooperative suspects, confine them in cramped quarters, duct tape them to stretchers, and use other restraints that maintain the subject in an awkward and painful position for long periods of time.

Some techniques within the "stress and duress" category, such as water boarding , have long been considered as torture, by both the United States government and human rights groups. State Department has described the following practices as torture:. These documents developed a legal basis for the use of torture by U. The legal definition of torture by the Justice Department tightly narrowed to define as torture only actions which "must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death," and argued that actions that inflict any lesser pain, including moderate or fleeting pain, do not necessarily constitute torture.

It is the position of the United States government that the legal memoranda constituted only permissible legal research, and did not signify the intent of the United States to use torture, which it opposes. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has complained about this prominent newspaper coverage and its implications.

There is no longer any doubt that large numbers of troops responsible for guarding and interrogating detainees somehow loosed their moorings to humanity, and began behaving as sadists, perverts and criminals. The Bush administration told the CIA in that its interrogators working abroad would not violate U. The interrogator's "good faith" and "honest belief" that the interrogation will not cause such suffering protects the interrogator, the memo adds.

The page memo is heavily redacted, with 10 its 18 pages completely blacked out and only a few paragraphs legible on the others. Another memo released on the same day advises that "the waterboard " does "not violate the Torture Statute. A third memo instructs interrogators to keep records of sessions that use "enhanced interrogation techniques. Intentionally causing mental suffering — as well as physical suffering — is prohibited, according to an unclassified analysis written by the U. Office of Legal Counsel in December The Post article continues that sensory deprivation , through the use of hoods and spraypainted goggles, sleep deprivation, and selective use of painkillers for at least one captive who was shot in the groin during his apprehension are also used.

The agents also indicate in the report that the CIA as a matter of course hands suspects over to foreign intelligence services with far fewer qualms about torture for more intensive interrogation. The Post reported that one U.

Based on the Justice Department analyses, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later approved in the use of 24 classified interrogation techniques for use on detainees at Guantanamo Bay, which after use on one prisoner were withdrawn. However, the Bush administration explicitly endorsed the use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding in memos to the CIA, [66] and one Pentagon official has publicly admitted that torture was conducted at Guantanamo Bay. We possess all the evidence which proves that the torture methods used in interrogation by the U.

Obviously, these orders were given with the highest U. Allegations emerged that in the Coalition occupation of Iraq after the second Gulf war, there was extensive use of torture techniques, allegedly supported by American military intelligence agents, in Iraqi jails such as Abu Ghraib and others. In photos showing humiliation and abuse of prisoners leaked from Abu Ghraib prison, causing a political and media scandal in the U. Condoleezza Rice , Secretary of State ultimately told the CIA the harsher interrogation tactics were acceptable, [69] [70] In Rice stated, "We never tortured anyone.

On February 14, , in an appearance on ABC 's This Week , Vice-President Dick Cheney reiterated his support of waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques for captured terrorist suspects, saying, "I was and remain a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program. They're appropriate, they're in conformity with our international requirements and with U. Both United States citizens and foreign nationals are occasionally captured outside of the United States and transferred to secret U. In addition, individuals are suspected to be or to have been held in temporary or permanent U.

There are also allegations that persons categorized as prisoners of war have been tortured, abused or humiliated; or otherwise have had their rights afforded by the Geneva Convention violated. Extraordinary Rendition is the apprehension and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another. The term "torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the CIA [75] [76] [77] [78] and other U.

It has been claimed, though, that torture has been employed with the knowledge or acquiescence of U. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured. Whilst the Obama administration has tried to distance itself from some of the harshest counterterrorism techniques, it has also said that at least some forms of renditions will continue. A June report from the Council of Europe estimated people had been kidnapped by the CIA on EU territory with the cooperation of Council of Europe members , and rendered to other countries, often after having transited through secret detention centres " black sites " used by the CIA, some located in Europe.

According to the separate European Parliament report of February , the CIA has conducted 1, flights, many of them to destinations where suspects could face torture, in violation of Article 3 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Following the 11 September attacks the United States, in particular the CIA , has been accused of rendering hundreds of people suspected by the government of being terrorists—or of aiding and abetting terrorist organizations—to third-party states such as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Uzbekistan.

Such " ghost detainees " are kept outside judicial oversight, often without ever entering U. On April 30, , 62 members of Witness Against Torture , led by Carmen Trotta [86] were arrested at the gates of the White House demanding that the Obama administration support a criminal inquiry into torture under the Bush administration and release innocent detainees still held at Guantanamo. The protesters wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods, were arrested, and charged with "failure to obey a lawful order" when they refused to leave the White House sidewalk.

Protests have been held regarding the issue of torture and its legality as lately as The United States signed the Convention in the spring of the following year, officially declaring at the time of its signature on 18 April [91] that. The Government of the United States of America reserves the right to communicate, upon ratification, such reservations, interpretive understandings, or declarations as are deemed necessary.

Thereafter, the United States formally notified the United Nations and its member states, a few months prior to its ratification, that [92]. These can be read verbatim at the UN treaty website [91] and are parsed here as follows:. By transferring military detainees to Iraqi control, the U. The Convention proscribes signatory states from transferring a detainee to other countries "where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. She claimed that if returned to Nigeria, she would be imprisoned and tortured as a result of her U.

Torture and the United States - Wikipedia

In her December hearing before the immigration judge, she presented evidence of Nigeria's Decree No. When asked how she knew she would be tortured, she said that some years ago, she had spoken with a Nigerian friend, [nb 10] who had been convicted of a U. The friend had told her that her family had to bring money to the jail for protection, that she slept on the floor and that "you probably get raped" by the guards because they have authority to do "whatever they can do.

M-B-A did not know if the friend had seen a judge before being incarcerated, or if the friend had been raped in the prison. M-B-A also presented evidence that she had a chronic ulcer, asthma and suffered from depression; that she was on medication but had no one to help her with medicine if she ended up in jail; that her father was deceased and her mother lived in the UK and that she had no relations to help her in Nigeria, aside from an uncle who had sexually abused her as a child. The full Board of Appeals [nb 11] considered the question of whether M-B-A had carried her burden of proof in showing that it was more likely than not that she would be tortured by a public official upon her return to Nigeria.

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In a close decision, the Board found that M-B-A had not demonstrated that it was more likely than not that she would be imprisoned in Nigeria on the basis of Decree She did not present any evidence on the question of the extent to which the Decree was enforced, or against whom it was enforced. Her own evidence about enforcement was either a her own speculation or b based on the conversation with her friend's experience during a different Nigerian regime. There were two separate dissenting opinions, [nb 13] both of which agreed with the enunciated standard of proof to be used "more likely than not" , but disagreed over the question of whether the burden had been met by M-B-A.

Judge Schmidt's dissent cited the U. State Department's report on Nigeria's prison system, reported that one area of abuse in Nigerian prison was the intentional withholding of medical aid or medication. He found on the basis of this report that such withholding for purposes of e. He did not, however, address the majority's assertion that M-B-A had failed to establish, by a preponderance of the evidence, that she would be imprisoned in the first place under Decree No.

For an act to constitute "torture" it must satisfy each of the following five elements in the definition of torture: Thus, in the U. Likewise, substandard prison conditions in Haiti did not constitute "torture" where there is no evidence that the authorities intentionally created and maintained such conditions in order to inflict torture.

J-E was a Haitian who had entered the U. The Government sought to deport him, but J-E claimed that he would be imprisoned and tortured if he were returned to Haiti. Therefore, he argued, Article 3 of the Convention prevented his being deported. The Board set out the five-part test for torture and noted that. While the Convention Against Torture makes a clear distinction between torturous and non torturous acts, actually differentiating between acts of torture and other bad acts is not so obvious.

Duty to Investigate and Provide Redress

Although not binding on the United States, the opinions of other governmental bodies adjudicating torture claims can be instructive. The Board thereupon considered Ireland v. United Kingdom , 2 Eur. It was admitted by all parties that J-E would be indefinitely detained upon return to Haiti. Deportees were held by police in holding cells for weeks before release. However, the State Department report relied upon by all parties confirmed that the Haitian government used this policy as a warning and a deterrent, to try to prevent deportees from committing crimes in Haiti.

Thus, Haiti's detention policy in itself appears to be a lawful enforcement sanction Nor is there evidence that the procedure is inflicted on criminal deportees for a proscribed purpose, such as obtaining information or a confession Haiti's detention practice alone does not constitute torture within the meaning of the regulations. J-E contended that in any case, the combination of indefinite detention with the admittedly substandard conditions of Haitian prison constitute torture. However, the Board noted that the Convention required that "torture" required a "specific intent" by the accused country in order for torture to result:.

Although Haitian authorities are intentionally detaining criminal deportees knowing that the detention facilities are substandard, there is no evidence that they are intentionally and deliberately creating and maintaining such prison conditions in order to inflict torture. Finally, J-E maintained that mistreatment was common in Haitian prison and that he would be subjected to such mistreatment, and that constituted torture. The Board found that there was, in Haiti,. Beating with fists, sticks and belts However [there are] other forms of mistreatment, such as burning with cigarettes, choking, hooding and The Board considered all the evidence submitted and concluded that it showed that isolated incidents of torture did occur in Haitian detention facilities.

However, this evidence was not sufficient to demonstrate that it was more likely than not that J-E would be subjected to torture upon his detention. There was no evidence that the torture was persistent or widespread; or that the Haitian government used torture as a policy; or that there was no meaningful international oversight. The Board accordingly held—in yet another opinion with substantial dissenting opinions—that J-E had failed to carry his burden of showing that the admitted mistreatment was so pervasive that it therefore was more likely than not that he would be tortured in a Haitian jail, as opposed to being subjected to cruel and inhuman acts that, while despicable, were less than torture within the meaning of the applicable law.

Most of the actions reported against Haiti, the Board decided, were sanctioned under Article 16 the Convention as acts that were "cruel and inhuman" and that State Parties were obliged to correct, but nevertheless did not constitute "torture" within the meaning of Article 1 of the Convention. No State Party shall expel, return "refouler" or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.