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POWELL'S UN SECURITY COUNCIL ''HUMAN EVIDENCE'' FROM DETAINEES WAS EXTRACTED UNDER TORTURE national |
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 Thursday February 06, 2003 09:13 by HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
 Torture utterly unreliable for obtaining truthful information from detainees. http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/12/us1227.htm United States: Reports of Torture of Al-Qaeda Suspects HRW Press Release, December 27, 2002 http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm Letter to Secretary of State Powell February 3, 2003 POWELL'S ''HUMAN EVIDENCE'' FROM DETAINEES WAS EXTRACTED UNDER TORTURE The so-called "human evidence" that Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the UN Security Council was extracted under torture and therefore has no evidentiary value. Please note that 2 articles follow: *U.S. Should Renounce Torture before Powell Speech to U.N.
U.S. Should Renounce Torture before Powell Speech to U.N. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/12/us1227.htm http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm (New York, February 3, 2003) - Before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presents evidence on Iraq's weapons programs and terror links to the United Nations on Wednesday, the Bush administration should respond to allegations that intelligence has been obtained from detainees through torture, Human Rights Watch said. http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm Recent reports indicate that at least some of the evidence Secretary Powell intends to present was derived from interrogations of detainees held by the United States and its allies in the war on terrorism. A December 26 article in the Washington Post quoted unnamed officials of the Bush administration suggesting that al-Qaida suspects have been tortured or mistreated in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, and that others have been rendered to countries where the United States knew they would likely be tortured. Since the publication of that article, no U.S. official has disavowed its assertions or announced any corrective measures. In a letter to Secretary Powell, Human Rights Watch asked him to declare that any U.S. official guilty of such practices will be held accountable, that the United States has no interest in intelligence obtained through torture and other internationally condemned techniques, and that Washington will not turn over detainees to countries where they are likely to receive such treatment. "In his State of the Union address, President Bush said the Iraqi government is 'evil' because it uses torture," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But torture is evil no matter who is using it. Secretary Powell should not lose this chance to explicitly renounce the use of torture by the U.S. government and its allies." The letter said that whatever the truth of the allegations reported by the Washington Post, much of the world now believes the United States is torturing or severely mistreating detainees. "In our work around the world, Human Rights Watch has encountered many government officials and ordinary citizens who are now convinced that the United States is employing a method widely condemned as illegal, immoral, and utterly unreliable for obtaining truthful information from detainees," said the letter, which is addressed to Secretary Powell and signed by Mr. Roth. "Until this perception is changed, your presentation to the Security Council - to the extent it relies on detainee interrogations - will not inspire the confidence and trust you are seeking." A copy of the letter can be found at http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell20303.htm
Letter to Secretary of State Powell The Honorable Colin Powell We understand that your presentation this week to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's weapons programs and ties to Al Qaida may include intelligence derived by interrogating detainees captured in the war on terrorism. This again raises a question that to our great distress has not yet been answered by the administration: whether, as alleged on December 26 by the Washington Post in an extensively sourced article, information from detainees is being obtained through torture or other severe mistreatment, either by U.S. intelligence agencies or by countries to which detainees have been rendered. We urge you to use this opportunity to set the record straight.
One official told the Post that "after 9/11, the gloves came off." Another said: "We don't kick the [expletive] out of [detainees]. We send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them." Perhaps this is not true, or, perhaps steps have been taken to correct the problem. But since the article appeared, neither the President nor any senior figure in the administration has contradicted any of the statements made to the Post, or announced any corrective measures. As a result, whatever the truth of the matter, much of the world now believes that the United States is torturing or severely mistreating detainees, or least taking advantage of torture by others. Indeed, in our work around the world, Human Rights Watch has encountered many government officials and ordinary citizens who are now convinced that the United States is employing an interrogation method widely condemned as illegal, immoral, and utterly unreliable for obtaining truthful information from detainees. Until this perception is changed, your presentation to the Security Council - to the extent that it relies on detainee interrogations - will not inspire the confidence and trust you are seeking. Nor will America have the credibility we want it to have to denounce torture in Iraq, North Korea, and elsewhere. We urge you, if you present information to the Security Council derived from detainees, to clarify explicitly whether torture or other mistreatment was used in their interrogation. We also urge you to prevail upon President Bush, as we have requested of him, to make clear without further delay that no matter what the circumstances, torture and mistreatment of detainees is anathema to the United States, that any U.S. official guilty of such practices will be held accountable, that the U.S. has no interest in intelligence obtained through torture and other internationally condemned techniques, and that it will not render detainees to countries where they are likely to receive such treatment. We hope you will understand the stake the United States has in making such a declaration, and the damage that will be done if it continues to remain silent. Sincerely, /s/ Kenneth Roth |
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