The Senate committee investigated for four years. The report was completed in April and ready for release, but was delayed until December 9, largely due to objections from the CIA. Democrats eventually rushed the release of the report because they feared that starting January 1, Republicans, who then take over the majority in the Senate, could stop its release - the torture was carried out during the tenure of George W. Bush, apparently with the approval of the White House. Initially, only 6480 of the 528 pages were published, and later the British "Guardian" made the complete report available.
"By any ordinary meaning of the term, CIA detainees are being tortured," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat and the committee's chairwoman. Along with a detailed description, the report listed a list of measures used - from forcing food into the rectums of prisoners on hunger strike, dying of hypothermia, sleep deprivation for a week, threats with a drill, Russian roulette, threats to mutilate and kill prisoners' children and families, raping mothers, hanging by the wrists, playing unbearably loud music in the cells (the torturers' favorite song was the Blues Brothers Rawhide track), to simulating strangulation. The case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the attack on the Twin Towers, who was tortured by strangulation 183 times, is cited.
US President Barack Obama supported the release of the documents "so that people around the world and people at home would understand exactly what was going on" (Obama halted the CIA's wiretapping program in 2009). People were shocked, although there was no room for excessive surprise. It is true that the mentioned report is the first official, more detailed acknowledgment by the American authorities about the torture of prisoners, but since September 11, 2001 and the beginning of the "fight against terrorism", similar and much worse testimonies on the same topic have accumulated from various sides.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF DISHONOR: The first prisoners accused of terrorism were received by the American prison Guantanamo Bay in Cuba at the beginning of 2002. Later, thousands of people, including minors, were paraded through that prison, and CIA officials allowed the aforementioned "special interrogation techniques" to be applied to them from the beginning. The American government also took away their rights guaranteed by the Geneva Convention, because they were called "illegal combatants" and not prisoners of war. They could stay in prison indefinitely, a third were not charged with any crime, the innocent who spent years in Guantanamo and were later released, did not receive any apology or compensation. The orange uniform of prisoners in Guantanamo has become a symbol of torture, American isolation and disrespect for international laws. Countless international humanitarian organizations have called for the closure of Guantanamo for years. That was one of Barack Obama's campaign promises, which evaporated when he was elected president.
Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison became a symbol of abuse only when in 2004, the videos made by American soldiers during the torture of prisoners were leaked to the public. That living, along with all the measures listed in this year's report of the Committee, also included forcing sodomy, tying the genitals with ropes, urinating on the prisoners, inciting dogs on them... Eleven American soldiers were convicted for what happened in Abu Ghraib.
Since the invasion of Afghanistan by coalition forces in 2001, thousands of people suspected of collaborating with Al Qaeda and the Taliban have passed through the prison in Bagram, not far from Kabul. For years, the Afghan side controlled only a small part of the prison with about 300 prisoners, while the US military controlled a part that housed about 2700 prisoners. "They did to us what is not done to animals, they poured ice water on us in winter and hot summer, they put some medicine in our drinks that made us unable to sleep and then they interrogated us, poured water into our nostrils, mouth, pulled out our nails , twisted and pulled the penis and testicles, gave electric shocks to all parts of the body, especially the genitals, beat them...", is only part of the prisoner's testimony recorded by the BBC team, which conducted an investigation in Bagram after frequent rumors of torture.
The prisoners claimed that they were subjected to severe mistreatment and that such treatment lasted until 2008. Part of the prisoners in Bagram were brought from other countries, especially from Pakistan, where the largest number of those who were accused of being Taliban came from (see box). None of the interviewed detainees were charged or brought before a court. Mark Wright, a representative of the US Secretary of Defense, denied all the accusations.
In October 2011, the United Nations Support Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) published a detailed report on the treatment of persons detained in state prisons, including those accused of collaborating with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, or for organizing bombings. The essence of the torture in those prisons was expressed by a prisoner to whom a policeman, while beating him with an electric cable on the soles of his feet, said: "Even the stones speak here." Those prisons were, of course, under the supervision of the local security forces, but a large number of prisoners were arrested by the forces international coalitions and delivered them to their hosts, knowing what kind of treatment awaits them. Essentially, domestic torturers performed "torture services" for international forces, sharing confessions obtained through torture.
TORTURE: Abu Ghraib in Iraq;…
HELPING COUNTRIES: Similar "services" of other states are also mentioned in the report of the Committee of the US Senate. It is clear from that report that many prisoners accused of terrorism were sent for "detailed processing" to secret prisons in allied countries. And not only allies. The list of countries is impressive, it also includes many official blood enemies of America, but cooperation in the field of torture has clearly worked well both among the democratic world and among the countries that are publicly accused by Washington every day of severe human rights violations. So, for example, are the countries with secret CIA prisons - Afghanistan, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Thailand, Bosnia and Herzegovina (only for "processing prisoners"). Countries that have openly allowed the establishment of prisons are, among others, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco, Somalia, Uzbekistan... The most spectacular is the list of countries that have approved CIA interrogation methods on their territory, which is in alphabetical order side by side put Afghanistan and Austria, Australia and Algeria, Denmark and Djibouti, Ethiopia and Finland, Iceland and Indonesia, Italy and Libya, Sweden and Syria, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom…
…unknown location
According to the testimony of several Senate officials, one of the reasons for the bitter opposition to the CIA's efforts to release these documents was the disclosure of allied countries, which allowed the transfer of prisoners to their territory and the establishment of secret facilities on their territory without tedious bureaucratic procedures. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern about potential retaliation against donor nations, seemingly without much basis. The mentioned business has long been a public secret, as well as the fact that the CIA used money and other services to pay the governments of other countries for their help.
The report caused only momentary embarrassment to some local politicians who had to justify themselves to the domestic public, such as former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, who stated that the country's government believed that the United States was a democratic country that would act according to the law, when they approved the opening of a prison on their territory, without allowing torture at any time. From the report, however, we can conclude that Poland's agreement was supported by the payment of at least one million dollars, to begin with. Kwasniewski says that he personally asked George W. Bush to end the "arrangement" when news of the torture leaked, which happened in 2003.
One of the arguments of many critics of the release of the report is the possible negative consequences for Americans abroad. Immediately after its publication, security measures were increased in American institutions around the world, but until the end of this issue of Vremena, nothing drastic happened. Cynics would say that the fight against terror has long since brought the international reputation of the USA to such low levels that a single report, especially if it contains more or less long-known things, could not cause a serious reaction.
As expected, the opponents of America, whom the US accuses of violating human rights, rejoiced the most over the report. For Russia, the US report on the torture of prisoners is "shocking", because "such a state of affairs does not agree with the claims of the US that they are the embodiment of democracy, which is far from reality". China's state-run Xinhua news agency wrote that the US should "clean up its own backyard" and that "America is neither a role model nor a qualified judge on human rights issues in other countries." North Korea called on the UN to take up the US case, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted: "The US government has deceived its citizens who are uninformed about many realities...Today the US government is a symbol of tyranny against humanity."
PARTY CONFLICT OR SINCERE REGRET: Some of the actors, directly named in the report, reacted indignantly. "Planning stories that the political public did not know about the bad actions of the agency, that the president had no idea about it, are plain lies," said Dick Cheney, US vice president during Bush's tenure. "George W. Bush was fully informed of the brutal interrogation techniques used by the CIA." Cheney strongly criticized the report, calling it "total bullshit," sloppily done, and full of flaws.
Cheney pointed out that such interrogation programs have saved lives, helped catch suspects, and that the CIA deserves "trust without judgment." "When you have a key suspect, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the 11/3000 operation, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the questioning certainly has to be sharp." What should we have done? Should we kiss him on the cheek and say, please, please, tell us what you know? Well of course not. How should the murderer of XNUMX people be treated? I think it was necessary to do what the CIA did. I think their techniques are completely justified. "I would do it again," Cheney said. Institute for Public Opinion Research Pew announced that 51 percent of Americans support so-called tougher interrogation methods, while 29 percent opposed torture.
Senate Republicans accused Democrats of inaccuracies, sloppy analysis and cherry-picking evidence to reach a predetermined conclusion, reducing the report to partisan bickering. The current director of the CIA, John Brennan, admitted that unapproved, and in some cases, "disgusting" methods were used against the prisoners, but also that the CIA "did a lot of things right" at a time when "there were no easy answers." "The program led to the capture of al-Qaeda leaders and removed them from the battlefield," former CIA director George Thanet said, adding that it saved "thousands of American lives."
The Senate Committee's investigators, after reviewing six million documents, said, however, that they could not find a single example of intelligence obtained through coercive techniques that would have saved someone's life. Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein told the CIA director to read the report, adding that the CIA, the FBI and many other agencies are helping "to keep us safe, but torture is not." "The only thing the operatives were able to extract were lies, because people were put to the test and were ready to admit anything," the senator claimed.
CRIMES WITHOUT TRIAL: The United Nations said that the US prosecutor's office is obliged to file criminal charges against those responsible. The processes were also requested by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Anthony Romero from the American Civil Liberties Union called on Obama in an article in the "New York Times" to pardon Bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney, because it would symbolically show that Bush and Cheney committed crimes. As things stand, a symbolic condemnation is the only thing that will remain when the dust settles around the report.
Barack Obama said about the report of the Senate Committee: "I do not believe that anyone can be above the law and it is certain that we will have to face everything that happened." On the other hand, we must turn to the future. I believe that when it comes to national security, we have to focus on getting it right going forward." Earlier, Obama said that torture methods were "contrary to the values of this country" and that they would "never be used again." . "No nation is perfect, but one of America's strengths is our willingness to face our past openly," Obama said. A day after the report was published, the US announced that it was closing the Bagram prison in Afghanistan. The USA released the last three prisoners from custody, two of whom were handed over to the Afghan authorities, in the spirit of successful cooperation so far.
After reading the report, the fact that the efforts of its creators to personalize the crimes that were committed with personal names and confessions will remain in vain leaves a bitter taste. There are terrible stories that Majid Khan went on hunger strike because he was unjustly imprisoned and tried to commit suicide several times by literally biting off his own veins, that Gul Rahman was chained, forced to sit on icy concrete, and died due to freezing. However, Afghanistan, where Rahman and Khan were from, in the eyes of most of the world, has long been personalized in a different way. Through media and political pressure, Afghanistan is identified with Bin Laden, just like Iraq with Saddam Hussein, Libya with Gaddafi, Syria with Assad. In the eyes of most Westerners, people do not come from those countries, but only symbols of terror. And when such an identification succeeds, then stories that torture is the only legitimate way of dealing with terrorists pass much more easily.
Revenge for the military offensive
On Tuesday before noon, a group of armed Taliban stormed a military school in Peshawar and killed over 140 people, including 132 students. The motive was apparently revenge for the Pakistani military's offensive against the Taliban in North Waziristan
The attack began on Tuesday morning. Eyewitnesses claim that a group of armed men came through the cemetery behind the school. They set a car on fire and immediately started shooting. At least two explosions were heard. They then went from classroom to classroom and shot students with automatic weapons. Pakistani officials said it was in an area of the building where children from grades one through six were housed. Amir Ali, one of the surviving students, said that the attackers had previously told them to pray to Allah. When the Pakistani army managed to defeat the terrorists after a five-hour battle, the scene was horrific: the school yard, corridors and classrooms were full of corpses.
The Tehrik-e Taliban-e Pakistan (TTP) group claimed responsibility for the massacre. Even while the killing was going on in the school, the spokesman of this organization, Mohammad Khorasani, told the editors of the German "Spiegel": "We sent suicide bombers and snipers to the school. Everyone is ready to die. They have an order to shoot the older students and spare the children." The attack on the military school, which is mostly attended by the children of military personnel, is the Taliban's response to the Pakistani army's offensive. "We want to take revenge on the army that attacks our families." They don't even spare our women. Now let them feel our pain on their own skin," said Korasani.
After peace talks failed, the Pakistani military launched a ground offensive against the Taliban in North Waziristan in late June. Officially, the region is governed by the government in Islamabad, but in practice it is controlled by various clans and extremist groups. Based on the available information, it can be concluded that the Pakistani Taliban is divided into about thirty groups that united in 2007 under the umbrella organization Tehrik-e Taliban-e Pakistan (TTP). The American media writes that the Taliban have quarreled with each other after the American drones killed two of their leaders: Baitullah Mehsud in 2009 and Hakimullah Mehsud in 2013. Their current leader Mullah Fazlullah reportedly does not enjoy much authority among the comrades.
According to the media, moderate Taliban commanders would be satisfied with territories in the west of Pakistan where Sharia law would apply, while hardliners support Fazullah, who said in a video message in 2014: "The goal of our struggle is to establish the laws of Allah throughout the country."
One of the Taliban commanders in western Pakistan said moodily just a few days ago, referring to the Islamic State organization: "Our brothers in Iraq and Syria are occupying entire provinces and dealing with the infidels." And us? We are crouching in the hills and making no progress at all. We must gather our strength again and deal a major blow to the enemy.” In November, a suicide bomber killed at least 55 people, including many women and children, near Lahore on the border with India. Pakistan, an ally of the United States in the fight against terrorism, is feared to be an inexhaustible source of new recruits for the Islamic State.
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