Civil liberties - new material (81)
01 July 2011
Getting Away with Torture: the Bush administration and mistreatment of detainees. Human Rights Watch 2011, pp. 103 (ISBN: 1-56432-789-2). In 2005, HRW published Getting Away with Torture? which presented substantial evidence for criminal investigations of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and CIA Director George Tenet, as well as Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez (formerly the top US commander in Iraq) and General Geoffrey Miller (former commander of the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba). This follow-up report summarises new public information about the role played by US government officials according to US and international law. “Based on this evidence, Human Rights Watch believes there is sufficient basis for the US government to order a broad criminal investigation into alleged crimes committed in connection with the torture and ill treatment of detainees, the CIA secret detention program, and the rendition of detainees to torture. Such an investigation would necessarily focus on alleged criminal conduct by the following four senior officials—former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet.” Available as a free download at: http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2011/07/12/getting-away-torture
Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla Incident, Sir Geoffrey Palmer. United Nations 2011, pp. 105. This UN report into the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) attack on the humanitarian flotilla to Gaza in May 2010 has been widely dismissed as a “whitewash”. During their assault on the flotilla, IDF commandos raided the Mavi Marmara, killing eight Turkish citizens and a Turkish-American and seriously injuring numerous other civilians. The UN panel, including among its number the former Columbian president, Alvaro Uribe reached the conclusion that the IDF killings amounted to no more than “excessive force”. They also maintain that the Israeli military blockade of Gaza is a “legitimate security measure.” The panel’s criticism of the IDF’s extra-judicial killing of civilians is limited to requesting a “satisfactory explanation”: forensic evidence has shown that most of the victims had been shot multiple times in the back or from close range. The report says: “There was significant mistreatment of passengers by Israeli authorities after the take-over of the vessels had been completed through until their deportation. This included physical mistreatment, harassment and intimidation, unjustified confiscation of belongings and the denial of timely consular assistance.” Since the Mavi Marmara massacre, the Turkish government has demanded that Israel issue an official apology. Israel has refused.
http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/middle_east/Gaza_Flotilla_Panel_Report.pdf