US Attorney General Alberto "Abu" Gonzales was in Berlin this week and made some cynical comments about Europe's role in the "War on Terror" while lying about the recently signed "Military Commisions Act of 2006". Gonzales is one of the architects of the US torture policy and has been one of the biggest advocates for the illegal US prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as the secret CIA "Black Sites" where alleged terror suspects are held without charges, often after they have been kidnapped off the street by CIA operatives. In some cases, the US has attempted to repatriate these kidnapped and tortured suspects back to their homeland. This is the background to the Attorney General's criticism:
"BERLIN (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said European countries should do more to take back detainees released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while defending Washington's treatment of prisoners.Speaking in Berlin at an event organized by the German Marshall Fund, he said the United States is "not interested in serving as the world's jailer," and urged Europeans to be more willing to repatriate released prisoners, as well as to increase pressure on third countries to do so.
"Despite demands from others that Guantanamo be closed, the United States has received little help from our European allies regarding the fate of these detainees," Gonzales said."
This is a cynical passing some of the blame for the Bush administration's illegal activities to Europen nations (specifically Germany). With respect to the new laws on the treatment of detainees, you can read the speech by Gonzales here. The speech by Gonzales contains many lies -especially with respect to habeas corpus - but I would like to highlight one of the most egregious:
The Act plainly and unequivocally bars all evidence collected through torture, as under domestic and international law. The United States does not engage in torture and consistent with our law and practice, no evidence obtained by torture shall be admitted at a commission proceeding.
Under the new law, the word "torture" does not carry the same meaning according to international norms. Torture, as Gonzales drafted in the law, is defined by the President - but the President does not have to reveal what that definition is. For example, the Bush administration clearly does not believe that "waterboarding" - the simulation of drowning - is torture, even though it violates the Geneva Conventions. On Tuesday Vice President Cheney boasted of waterboarding Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and stated to a radio audience that this practice - recognized by every civilized nation as a form of torture - is a "no-brainer". The Washington Post describes the Cheney-endorsed torture technique:
In waterboarding -- one of a number of drowning-simulation techniques that date to the Spanish Inquisition -- a prisoner is generally strapped down with his feet higher than his head. Water is then poured on his face while his nose and mouth are covered by a cloth. The technique produces an intense sensation of being close to suffocation and drowning, according to interrogation experts and human rights advocates.
The Khmer Rouge and other outlaw regimes have employed the method, and it has been condemned by many human rights and military lawyers as a clear example of illegal torture.
In 1947, the United States prosecuted a Japanese soldier for war crimes and sentenced him to 15 years hard labor for using the technique on a U.S. prisoner.
More about the treatment of detainees under the Bush/Cheney/Gonzales legal framework from Deutsche Welle.
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