At least 119 individuals were detained by the CIA in years after the attacks, and, according to the Senate report, at least 26 were wrongly detained and had no associations with terrorism.
One innocent man, Gul Rahman, spent a month in solitary confinement because he had the same name as a suspected terrorist. Two CIA informants spent “approximately 24 hours shackled in the standing sleep deprivation position” before it was confirmed they were mistakenly being detained. These examples are surely some of the more benign experiences of prisoners in CIA detention facilities.
In the foreword to the report, Senator Feinstein wrote:
“It is worth remembering the pervasive fear in late 2001 and how immediate the threat felt. Just a week after the September 11 attacks, powdered anthrax was sent to various news organizations and to two U.S. Senators. The American public was shocked by news of new terrorist plots and elevations of the color-coded threat level of the Homeland Security Advisory System. We expected further attacks against the nation.
I have attempted throughout to remember the impact on the nation and to the CIA workforce from the attacks of September 11, 2001. I can understand the CIA’s impulse to consider the use of every possible tool to gather intelligence and remove terrorists from the battlefield, and CIA was encouraged by political leaders and the public to do whatever it could to prevent another attack. The Intelligence Committee as well often pushes intelligence agencies to act quickly in response to threats and world events.
Nevertheless, such pressure, fear, and expectation of further terrorist plots do not justify, temper, or excuse improper actions taken by individuals or organizations in the name of national security.
The major lesson of this report is that regardless of the pressures and the need to act, the Intelligence Community’s actions must always reflect who we are as a nation, and adhere to our laws and standards.
It is precisely at these times of national crisis that our government must be guided by the lessons of our history and subject decisions to internal and external review. Instead, CIA personnel, aided by two outside contractors, decided to initiate a program of indefinite secret detention and the use of brutal interrogation techniques in violation of U.S. law, treaty obligations, and our values.”
After many years, and despite CIA interference, the report has been made public. We should know what is done in our name.
]]>You are the people I voted for to represent me at the federal level of government. And because I participate in this democracy, I authorize the federal government’s actions. I bear some responsibility, one vote’s worth, for everything done by the United States.
Therefore, I must say to you, in the strongest terms possible, don’t torture in my name.
I have felt shame and remorse for years now at the torture perpetrated during the Bush administration. I greeted Obama’s directive to end torture with relief. However, we now have the official report on torture from the Senate and we also have the reactions to that report from streams of torture apologists. It has become clear that much more must be done. Just because the monkey is off your back, it doesn’t mean the circus has left town. There is a culture of torture that must be dealt with.
Here are some things I’d like you to do. Phrased another way, here are some things you will do if you want me to keep voting for you. (Barack, in your case, here are some things you will do if you want me to donate to your post-presidency foundation.)
There is a guy named John Kiriakou who is currently serving time for bringing torture to the attention of the press back in 2007. He was prosecuted in 2013 and sent to prison. Ah… excuse me… Barack and Joe, weren’t you guys in office in 2013? Are you sure you mean it when you say you’re anti-torture? Pardon John Kiriakou. Apologize to him. Compensate him. Is one to laugh or cry at the irony of this man, who has five kids, being locked up while Dick Cheney is free to rant and rave on Fox News?
So, Barack, Joe, Jack, Sheldon, James, that is my to do list for you. I know you got a lot on your plates, but, in terms of the soul of this country, there are few things more important than making sure nothing like this ever happens again.
See you at the polls.
Your constituent,
John Kotula
P.S. Obama, Nice job on Cuba!
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]]>The Battle of Solferino in 1859 stands out as a major cornerstone in the historical development of modern laws dealing with the rights of wartime prisoners. On the plains of the Mantua district in Northern Italy on June 24th, 1859, bloody carnage in Solferino would spark the genesis of international attempts to limit the cruelty of war.
With over 300,000 soldiers fighting in the Solferino area, it was the largest battle in world history at the time. Napoleon III led the French, and was joined by the Sardinian Army under Victor Emanuel II, defeating the Austrian Army under Franz Joseph I. The monarchs personally directed their soldiers on the battlefield, something never to be repeated again in world history. The fighting was savage.
At the end of the one-day battle, 40,000 soldiers died or were left wounded on the battlefield. There was little medical help.
A Swiss businessman, Jean-Henri Dunant, arrived at the scene and was horrified by the scale of the suffering. For several days, Dunant helped treat the survivors.
He went on to publish “A Memory of Solferino” and sent copies to political and military leaders throughout Europe in 1862. He advocated for national relief agencies and international treaties to protect wounded soldiers on the battlefield. Dunant became one of the founders of the International Committee for the Red Cross in 1863 and he helped organize the first Geneva Convention in 1864. Jean-Henri Dunant was awarded the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.
The Geneva Convention was negotiated again in 1906, 1929, and 1949. The wartime rights of prisoners became firmly established and expanded, including the right of prisoners to be free from torture. Furthermore, in 1977, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (commonly known as the Convention Against Torture) was drafted, unequivocally banning torture. As of this year, 156 nations are parties to the Convention Against Torture. The US signed the treaty in 1988, and the Senate ratified it in 1994.
The UN Convention Against Torture defines torture as: “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….” Article 2 prohibits torture, and this prohibition is absolute: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever” may be invoked to justify torture, including war, threat of war, internal political instability, terrorist acts, violent crime…. Torture cannot be justified as a means to protect public safety… The prohibition on torture applies to all territories under a party’s effective control, and protects all people under its control, regardless of citizenship or how that control is exercised.
The Solferino region is famous for its wines, olive oil, truffles and its bucolic landscape. However, I struggle to imagine the horrible scene Jean-Henri Dunant stumbled upon June 24, 1859. His response was heroic, and started international efforts to protect the victims of war. It took over a century for a comprehensive international treaty banning torture to be written and agreed upon. Will it be another century before all signatory parties obey the terms of the 1977 UN Convention Against Torture?
]]>Water-boarding, dehydration,
Thumb-screws and sleep deprivation
Torture’s a barbaric crime
That needs to end in our lifetime
Now there’s an opposition cry
From a group who’d rather die
Than lose their right to suffer pain
A protest that sounds so insane
But these aren’t sadomasochists
Or even radical anarchists
They’re people we see everyday
Suffering is the price they pay
Pointed shoes give toes a squeeze
Sending shocks up to the knees
Heels and ankles rest on spikes
To get that look a woman likes
Torture’s walking in high heels
In silk or suede or hand-stitched eels
Lessons learned from such harsh duty?
Pain is truth, and truth is beauty