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Wizdom
10-03-10, 21:28
US accused of neglecting Bush-era torture probe
Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:04:10 GMT

US President Barack Obama
A UN expert on torture has criticized the White House for not investigating torture allegations against the former administration of US President George W. Bush.

"This is my criticism of the Obama administration: There is not enough done to remedy what has been done in the past," Manfred Nowak, UN special rapporteur on torture said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, the human rights lawyer added that “clear legal obligations” requires Washington to "to really look into the practices" used under the Bush administration.

The United States has been accused of extraordinary renditions, which involved abducting suspects without legal proceedings, and taking them to foreign countries or secret CIA prisons to be interrogated.

Many of those detained have been subject to what the Bush administration called 'advanced interrogation techniques,' like water boarding.

The controversial interrogation method considered by many as a form of torture, simulates drowning by strapping down a captive and covering his/her face with a cloth and pouring water onto the cloth.

Unlike most other interrogation techniques, water boarding leaves no marks on the body.

"The thing you could not do in torture was injure the body or cause death. That was — and still is — what makes water boarding such an attractive interrogation technique," asserts Ed Peters, a historian at the University of Pennsylvania.

The CIA has acknowledged water boarding terror suspects.

US President Barack Obama, last year released “top secret” memos in which Bush administration lawyers declared water boarding to be legal.

The memo's also described the exact methods to be used in interrogating “high-value” prisoners at secret CIA-run prisons.

Obama immediately urged against "recrimination" for the Bush-era torture of terror suspects, only to retreat five days later, reopening the possibility of investigation — and even prosecution.