VIENNA, April 18, 2009
U.N. Official: No Pass For Torturers
Despite Obama's Decision To Give CIA Immunity, Investigator Says U.S. Is Bound By Int'l Law To Prosecute
On Thursday, Obama absolved CIA officers from prosecution for harsh, painful interrogation of terror suspects under the former Bush administration.
The announcement was met with disappointment from human rights groups and former detainees who condemned such methods as torture.
In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press, Manfred Nowak, an Austrian who serves as a U.N. special rapporteur in Geneva, said the United States had committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it.
"They are party to the convention and the convention is very, very clear," Nowak said when asked to confirm comments contained in an interview he gave Austria's Der Standard newspaper. "The fact that you carried out an order doesn't relieve you of your responsibility," he said, adding it could be a mitigating factor.
Nowak, who said he would soon travel to Washington for meetings with officials, also called for a comprehensive independent investigation into the matter and added it was important to compensate the victims.
Quote
"Now we need to know all the facts - not just bits and pieces," Nowak said. "First you need the truth, and then you need justice."
First you need the truth, and then you need justice.
Manfred Nowak, U.N. special rapporteurThe Obama administration on Thursday also released secret CIA memos detailing interrogation tactics sanctioned under Bush.
The memos authorized keeping detainees naked, in painful standing positions and in cold cells for long periods of time. Other techniques included depriving them of solid food and slapping them. Sleep deprivation, prolonged shackling and threats to a detainee's family also were used.
For more info:
By Associated Press Writer Veronika Oleksyn
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- Of all the detainees who were water boarded, not one of them drowned. However the innocent Americans caught by the taliwacker were immediately executed. Some were beheaded. However we forgive them. (NOT) Most of the comments on this blog are anti-American. None of you have been in a war and do not qualify to comment.
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- Prosecute.
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- I believe that George Bush And Dick Cheney should have every interrogation tecnique that was used against the people that were innocent untill proven guilty used on them, to determine how many times They lied to the American People
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- The US signed the Geneva Conventions....LONG BEFORE there was a UN and well before World War II. The treatment of civilians and POWs in wartime was clearly defined.
The previous Bush Administration cannot sidestep treaty obligations that the International Red Cross has clearly reported violations thereof for several years. Claiming the incarcerated or detained during wartime as neither POWs or giving those individuals a civilian status pretty much has closed the argument regarding war crimes since the revelations of torture were clearly dictated from the top and implemented.
There is no justice in this and the sound of the rule of law versus dictatorships....is hollow coming from the United States which has had its first INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIMINALS Administration. The Obama executive order is NIL in the face of a united International community...NOT THE UN...but the EU and NATO nations that clearly recognized the violations of the Geneva Conventions...these are our allies..and this is
not a dictatorship where President Obama can just say...NO. There must be accountability even for the treatment of heinous criminals...and casts a shadow over the CIA and military interrogations which went BADLY...I.E. DEATH in Afghanistan during the months that followed the Afghanistan invasion......
There are no UN commissions to prosecute war criminals. This is strictly a legal issue between the US and most of the EU....Dick Cheney, Albert Gonzalez, and George W. Bush along with other members of that administration that have clear authority in those areas with the military and the CIA....for the renditions and torture...are accountable and can be apprehended and secreted away for trial at the Hague even if the US is unwilling.
Just watch.....even with a reluctant signator to the Geneva Conventions....which the Obama Administration is now claiming to be exempt....I am sure the capable EU and NATO nations can manage to snatch a few war criminal suspects.... - Reply to this comment
- Yea like John McCain
Posted by vistavermin1 at 5:54 AM : Apr 19, 2009
Post of the day, best joke ever. - Reply to this comment
- socialist dictator Obama.
Posted by enjoylife63 at 6:17 AM : Apr 19, 2009
Obama, unlike Bush, has been elected. - Reply to this comment
- " We never hear about how those other countries tortured people.
Posted by wtlibs at 11:00 PM : Apr 19, 2009 "
Actually, we did. It was called "Nuremberg trial". - Reply to this comment
- "Making someone stand in a cold room and slapping them to keep them awake to save someone's family is not torture. If you walk out of the room physically healthy, you weren't tortured. You are a whiny puss* who can't stand that those Americans made you fess up with nothing more than a mid game your fake religion ccouldn't overcome.
Posted by dw8928 at 10:01 AM : Apr 19, 2009 "
You left out waterboarding ... 6 times a day. How efficient it must have been. - Reply to this comment
- Until the Bush bunch are QUICKLY charged & tried ....who can believe in the crooked system?
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- People should know that if the punish Bush that each new administration will find some crime that the President before them did. This could start something that will hurt fo decades. Better to let it go. Right or wrong, Bush thought he was doing right as Obama thinks he is doing right. People can always dig up something on you. Already people are turning against Obama and feel he is breaking several laws. Do you liberals want the next President to put Obama on trial. Palin may do it.
Posted by hungryman9
Although your entire post is seriously flawed, your reference to the possibility of Sarah Palin getting elected to ANYTHING outside of the welfare state of Alaska is hilarious!
ROFLMAO!! - Reply to this comment
- Apparently the former administration cant cover up its evil deeds internationally now can it?
Obama should not have stepped in...he should just sit back and watch the fireworks unload.
The international law is clear on the subject of torture. We had no business torturing anyone since we are a party to the international laws that govern the free world
Posted by netjunkie1
I agree let the justice system take care of it and Obama say I will leave it up to our justice dept to see what crimes have been committed, trouble is Obama was elected for 4 yrs and by the time this investigation is over it may be a long long way down the road. Again you have the right wing, you have the left wing, you have the moderates and independents and all have a opinion and nay the truth will be found just excuses and round a bouts lets face it - Reply to this comment
- People should know that if the punish Bush that each new administration will find some crime that the President before them did. This could start something that will hurt fo decades. Better to let it go. Right or wrong, Bush thought he was doing right as Obama thinks he is doing right. People can always dig up something on you. Already people are turning against Obama and feel he is breaking several laws. Do you liberals want the next President to put Obama on trial. Palin may do it.
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- Making someone stand in a cold room and slapping them to keep them awake to save someone's family is not torture. If you walk out of the room physically healthy, you weren't tortured. You are a whiny puss* who can't stand that those Americans made you fess up with nothing more than a mid game your fake religion ccouldn't overcome.
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- I would remind everyone, this is real. There is an investigation under way! Also, Spain is deep into it's own investigation of the Bush administration's crimes against humanity. As it was in Germany after WWII. We as a nation must understand that bad people are to be held accountable for their crimes.
This threatens to tear our nation apart.
What an incredibly horrible leader Bush was! Not only did he cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of Americans, destroy the world economy and alienate our allies, but his crimes could very well cause serious problems here at home. - Reply to this comment
- Apparently the former administration cant cover up its evil deeds internationally now can it?
Obama should not have stepped in...he should just sit back and watch the fireworks unload.
The international law is clear on the subject of torture. We had no business torturing anyone since we are a party to the international laws that govern the free world
Posted by netjunkie1
Obama is now in league with Bush/Cheney. Who would have thought that on Jan 20?
Posted by opedanderson
Again, I would suggest to you both that the top advisers around the current president are very sharp. With all the stirrings from the far right fueled by racism and just simple stupidity (teabag parties, etc.) it is reasonable to assume that the administration laid the groundwork with the UN officials to pick up the ball prior to any release of memos or statements relating to the issue. Any prosecution of the Bush/Cheney crime cartel would need to be handled by a third party. Otherwise we would be opening ourselves up to any number and assortment of right wing mischief. - Reply to this comment
- Perhaps this is part of Obama's plan. Making these documents available will put the burden on others to decide if charges will be filed. This will likely put pressure on the spooks who carried out torture to 'flip' against those who gave the order.
Obama is playing it smart IMO. It's little wonder the former Bush administration officials are panicked and the 23% who supported Bush until the end of his miserable presidency outraged. - Reply to this comment
- The best thing to do is call these scum what they are, traitors to our government and the trash of humanity. Find every one of them and execute them. I don't care if the USA does it or if the USA has to turn them over to the world court to be executed. It must be done.
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- We've turned into Nazi Germany.
Does anyone know for what reason we bombed Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people? Was there a reason for that? Sadam killed some Kurds?
Didn't we? Aren't we letting Turkey wipe out the Kurds in northern Iraq now? On a scale Sadam would have never dreamed of?
What we have turned into, is not good. - Reply to this comment
- Don't let the blinders do thier job. He never and neither did anyone else say that the bush administartion and those involved were going to get awy with war crimes.
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- How hypocritical. We try and convict the U.S. Soldiers in Iraq for torture. We send 80 year old men, who were just soldiers, back to Germany for punishment for inhumanity to man. We try the Japanese for crimes against mankind. We try the Nazi for crimes against humanity. Our nation protects the high and mighty political officials from international law of crimes against humanity. Is it only the soldier today that must pay? This proves to all of us once more that our government does not represent the people. Our government only protects the elite and if you are the elite it doesn't matter what nationality you are. I consider this a dangerous precedent. It provides protection for horrendous crimes if you are rich, powerful, and in the political elite. Can any of you understand the position of the Germans during the Nazi regime? We the people are not heard and can only stand by while our government talks out of both sides of their mouth. We can do nothing while our government commits crime after crime after crime against humanity. We forget that we are humanity and it is our turn next for those crimes. The people are punished while the elite walk free. The elite know they are above the law and can do anything they want. Yet, we can do nothing. I can only say in this blog that I support the international UN Court and it is a necessity that these men are held accountable regardless of the their positions and wealth, or all is lost for mankind. This situation is bigger than you President Obama, but then again you have the power and need to protect your own kind, your own (TRUE) kind, the corrupt political elitists.
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