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Olive Yao
12-07-11, 19:52
'Overtuigend bewijs voor marteling onder Bush'

NU.nl dinsdag 12 juli 2011


NEW YORK - Er is ''overweldigend bewijs'' voor marteling onder de vorige Amerikaanse president George Bush. Zijn opvolger Barack Obama moet dan ook opdracht geven tot een diepgravend strafrechtelijk onderzoek.

Dit stelt de mensenrechtenorganisatie Human Rights Watch (HRW) in een dinsdag gepubliceerd rapport. De organisatie wijst erop dat de VS volgens de Conventie tegen Marteling verplicht zijn tot strafvervolging over te gaan. Als de VS in gebreke blijven, moeten andere landen die taak op zich nemen, aldus HRW.

'Waterboarding'
HRW hekelt dat Bush, zijn plaatsvervanger Cheney, minister van Defensie Rumsfeld en CIA-directeur Tenet ondervragingstechnieken als 'waterboarding' hebben goedgekeurd. De verdachte krijgt daarbij het gevoel dat hij verdrinkt.

Ook liet het Bushbewind mensen opsluiten in geheime gevangenissen en werden terreurverdachten overgedragen aan landen als Egypte en Syrië, waar zij gevaar liepen te worden gemarteld.

Obama
Obama beloofde in 2009 aantijgingen van marteling door de Amerikaanse overheid te onderzoeken. Tevens stelde hij functionarissen gerust die slechts instructies hadden opgevolgd. Daar zit hem volgens HRW juist het probleem.

Het Witte Huis gaf na de aanslagen van 11 september 2001 juristen de opdracht rechtvaardigingsgronden te zoeken voor de omstreden methodes. Daarom horen volgens HRW ook de juridische 'architecten' van de martelprogramma's zoals Alberto Gonzales voor de rechter te komen.

Die noemde tijdens de oprichting van kamp Guantanamo Bay de Geneefse Conventies over de behandeling van krijgsgevangenen 'achterhaald'.

''President Obama heeft marteling behandeld als een ongelukkige beleidsbeslissing in plaats van als een misdaad'', aldus HRW.


Getting Away with Torture

United States: Investigate Bush, Other Top Officials for Torture

July 11, 2011

(Washington, DC) - Overwhelming evidence of torture by the Bush administration obliges President Barack Obama to order a criminal investigation into allegations of detainee abuse authorized by former President George W. Bush and other senior officials, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Obama administration has failed to meet US obligations under the Convention against Torture to investigate acts of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, Human Rights Watch said.

The 107-page report, "Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees," presents substantial information warranting criminal investigations of Bush and senior administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet, for ordering practices such as "waterboarding," the use of secret CIA prisons, and the transfer of detainees to countries where they were tortured.

"There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Tenet for authorizing torture and war crimes," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "President Obama has treated torture as an unfortunate policy choice rather than a crime. His decision to end abusive interrogation practices will remain easily reversible unless the legal prohibition against torture is clearly reestablished."

If the US government does not pursue credible criminal investigations, other countries should prosecute US officials involved in crimes against detainees in accordance with international law, Human Rights Watch said.

"The US has a legal obligation to investigate these crimes," Roth said. "If the US doesn't act on them, other countries should."

In August 2009, US Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Assistant US Attorney John Durham to investigate detainee abuse but limited the probe to "unauthorized" acts. That meant the investigation could not cover acts of torture, such as waterboarding, and other ill-treatment authorized by Bush administration lawyers, even if the acts violated domestic and international law. On June 30, Holder accepted Durham's recommendation to carry out full investigations of two deaths in CIA custody, reportedly from Iraq and Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch said that the narrow scope of Durham's inquiry failed to address the systemic nature of the abuses.

"The US government's pattern of abuse across several countries did not result from the acts of individuals who broke the rules," Roth said. "It resulted from decisions made by senior US officials to bend, ignore, or cast the rules aside".

In citing the four top-level Bush administration officials, Human Rights Watch said that:

• President Bush publicly admitted that in two cases he approved the use of waterboarding, a form of mock execution involving near-drowning that the United States has long prosecuted as a type of torture. Bush also authorized the illegal CIA secret detention and renditions programs, under which detainees were held incommunicado and frequently transferred to countries such as Egypt and Syria where they were likely to be tortured;

• Vice President Cheney was the driving force behind the establishment of illegal detention and interrogation policies, chairing key meetings at which specific CIA operations were discussed, including the waterboarding of one detainee, Abu Zubaydah, in 2002;

• Defense Secretary Rumsfeld approved illegal interrogation methods and closely followed the interrogation of Mohamed al-Qahtani, who was subjected to a six-week regime of coercive interrogation at Guantanamo that cumulatively appears to have amounted to torture;

• CIA Director Tenet authorized and oversaw the CIA's use of waterboarding, stress positions, light and noise bombardment, sleep deprivation, and other abusive interrogation methods, as well as the CIA rendition program.
In media interviews, Bush has sought to justify his authorization of waterboarding on the ground that Justice Department lawyers said it was legal. While Bush should have recognized that waterboarding constituted torture without consulting a lawyer, there is also substantial information that senior administration officials, including Cheney, sought to influence the lawyers' judgment, Human Rights Watch said.

"Senior Bush officials shouldn't be able to shape and hand-pick legal advice and then hide behind it as if it were autonomously delivered", Roth said.

Human Rights Watch said the criminal investigation should include an examination of the preparation of the Justice Department memos that were used to justify the unlawful treatment of detainees.

Human Rights Watch also said that victims of torture should receive fair and adequate compensation as required by the Convention against Torture. Both the Bush and Obama administrations have successfully kept courts from considering the merits of torture allegations in civil lawsuits by making broad use of legal doctrines such as state secrets and official immunity.

An independent, nonpartisan commission, along the lines of the 9-11 Commission, should be established to examine the actions of the executive branch, the CIA, the military, and Congress, with regard to Bush administration policies and practices that led to detainee abuse, Human Rights Watch said. Such a commission should make recommendations to ensure that the systematic abuses of the Bush administration are not repeated.

In February 2011, Bush cancelled a trip to Switzerland, where alleged victims of torture had intended to file a criminal complaint against him. An investigation implicating US officials in torture is under way in Spain. Documents made public by Wikileaks revealed that US pressure on Spanish authorities to drop the case has continued under the Obama administration.

Human Rights Watch said that the US government's failure to investigate US officials for the torture and ill-treatment of detainees undermines US efforts to press for accountability for human rights violations abroad.

"The US is right to call for justice when serious international crimes are committed in places like Darfur, Libya, and Sri Lanka, but there should be no double standards," Roth said. "When the US government shields its own officials from investigation and prosecution, it makes it easier for others to dismiss global efforts to bring violators of serious crimes to justice".


klik hier voor het rapport:

Getting Away with Torture | Human Rights Watch (http://www.hrw.org/node/100263)


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Olive Yao
04-08-11, 17:57
Rumsfeld persoonlijk aansprakelijk voor marteling (http://www.maroc.nl/forums/nieuws-de-dag/335488-rumsfeld-persoonlijk-aansprakelijk-voor-marteling.html)


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knuppeltje
05-08-11, 09:54
Hoe eerder dat heel die kliek in Den Haag zit hoe beter. Maar dat zal wel een beetje teveel van het goede gevraagd zijn. :jammer:

super ick
05-08-11, 10:00
Het is al jaren bekend dat de CAI regelmatig een tussenstop maakt in Jordanie om de volgende dag weer verder te reizen met een volledige bekentenis van de 'verdachte' die daar dan 'verhoord' werd.

Olive Yao
15-10-11, 20:38
Wat er in Guantanamo gebeurd is eigenlijk geen martelen (...)

Wat er in Guantanamo Bay gebeurt was en is zeker wel martelen.

De Bush junta moet echter niet alleen strafrechtelijk vervolgd worden wegens martelen, maar eerstens wegens de oorlogsmisdaad van de agressieve aanvalsoorlog en de daarop volgende economische oorlog tegen Irak.

Handvest van de Verenigde Naties

Hoofdstuk I Doelstellingen en beginselen

Artikel 1

De doelstellingen van de Verenigde Naties zijn:

1. De internationale vrede en veiligheid te handhaven en, met het oog daarop: doeltreffende gezamenlijke maatregelen te nemen ter voorkoming en opheffing van bedreigingen van de vrede en ter onderdrukking van daden van agressie of andere vormen van verbreking van de vrede, alsook met vreedzame middelen en in overeenstemming met de beginselen van gerechtigheid en internationaal recht, een regeling of beslechting van internationale geschillen of van situaties die tot verbreking van de vrede zouden kunnen leiden, tot stand te brengen;

2. Tussen de naties vriendschappelijke betrekkingen tot ontwikkeling te brengen, die zijn gegrond op eerbied voor het beginsel van gelijke rechten en van zelfbeschikking voor volken, en andere passende maatregelen te nemen ter versterking van de vrede overal ter wereld;

(...)

De frase "daden van agressie" komt al voor in het Handvest waarbij het internationale militaire tribunaal van de Nüremberger processen is opgericht. Dit staat voorop in de tenlastelegging aan de nazi's:

II. Jurisdiction and general principles

Article 6

(...)

The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility:

(a) Crimes against peace: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing;

(b) War crimes: namely, (...)

(c) Crimes against humanity: namely, (...)

Als de Bush junta en de nieuwe conservatieve schurken hun zin hadden gekregen, zou het irakese productieapparaat nu eigendom van amerikaanse bedrijven zijn (je weet wel, die 1% die 99% van de amerikanen uitbuit en ook irakezen wilde uitbuiten). Dit imperialisme is een economische oorlogsmisdaad en in strijd met zelfbeschikking als in artikel 1 lid 2 VN-Handvest.


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knuppeltje
16-10-11, 11:08
Wat er in Guantanamo Bay gebeurt was en is zeker wel martelen.

Over martelen hebben ze in Chili lange tijd niet moeilijk gedaan.

Slinger
16-10-11, 11:14
Over martelen hebben ze in Chili lange tijd niet moeilijk gedaan.

In verschrikkelijk veel landen niet, vooral niet in de socialistische en islamitische heilsparadijzen.