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The NYT reports that with the release of the long-awaited Senate report on the use of torture by the United States government — a detailed account that will shed an unsparing light on the Central Intelligence Agency’s darkest practices after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, the US is bracing itself for the risk that it will set off a backlash overseas. Some leading Republican lawmakers have warned against releasing the report, saying that domestic and foreign intelligence reports indicate that a detailed account of the brutal interrogation methods used by the CIA during the George W. Bush administration could incite unrest and violence, even resulting in the deaths of Americans. The White House acknowledged that the report could pose a “greater risk” to American installations and personnel in countries like Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Iraq. But it said that the government had months to plan for the reverberations from its report — indeed, years — and that those risks should not delay the release of the report by the Senate Intelligence Committee. “When would be a good time to release this report?” the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, asked. “It’s difficult to imagine one, particularly given the painful details that will be included.”
Among the administration’s concerns is that terrorist groups will exploit the disclosures in the report for propaganda value. The Islamic State already clads its American hostages in orange jumpsuits, like those worn by prisoners in CIA interrogations. Hostages held by the Islamic State in Syria were subjected to waterboarding, one of the practices used by the CIA to extract information from suspected terrorists. The 480-page document reveals the results of Senate investigation into the CIA's use of torture and other techniques that violate international law against prisoners held on terrorism-related charges. Though many details of the Senate's findings will remain classified – the document is a summary of a 6,000-page report that is not being released – the report is expected to conclude that the methods used by the CIA to interrogate prisoners during the post-9/11 years were more extreme than previously admitted and produced no intelligence that could not have been acquired through legal means.
(Score: 1) by whathappenedtomonday on Wednesday December 10 2014, @08:49PM
Not sure, but I read an article by the Secretary General of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) I found somewhat informative and ... well, revealing, since the US seems to play every card they have to thwart criminal prosecution of those responsible; article is in German [www.zeit.de], but some interesting points are:
Beginning 2004, lawyers and human rights associations have tried to take cases of human rights violations to courts, starting with civil litigation in the US; for political reasons, US courts blocked all suits of torture victims demanding indemnity. "In the US, there is no justice whatsoever for victims of human rights violations," says the author Wolfgang Kaleck, so he and others wanted to take the matters to European prosecutors and judges.
Donald Rumsfeld was not pleased with the criminal charges they brought forth; the German Federal Prosecutor General stopped investigations when Rumsfeld announced he would not attend the Munich Security Conference in 2005 unless those matters were "settled"; authorities stated that investigations were no longer necessary, because the US authorities themselves would investigate. They did, but only against Lynndie England and other minor actors; German authorities then stated that none of the "big ones" were on German soil, and anyway it was too hard to investigate from afar.
Rumsfeld privately visited France in '07, ECCHR immediately filed criminal complaint, since he was no longer protected by immunity and was on European soil. French authorities did nothing.
A Spanish investigating judge in 2008 investigated criminal charges for torture of Spanish citizens and collected promising evidence, while (later revealed by Wikileaks) behind his back the Prosecutor General discussed the matter with the US embassy, which did not like those investigations at all. Judge Garzón was suspended months later, for matters of course unrelated to his investigations. Judicial inquiry was not suspended, but little outcome is to be expected now.
In 2011, Bush wanted to visit Switzerland, but stayed home because ECCHR pressed charges in the name of torture victims. Bush, Rumsfeld and some 500 more people involved with the CIA's practices will no longer be traveling to Europe because of the charges filed by ECCHR. If they do, they face criminal prosecution.
Arrest warrants are active in several European countries against CIA agents involved in 'renditions'.
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After reading that article, I no longer count on courts outside the US to take those responsible to court, and, honestly, taking the torturers and those who ordered it to court in the US is the only way for the US to deal with the shame and especially the "backlash" politics fears.
I hope I didn't brain my damage.