Avebarna Courier

NY Times 21-12-2014, por The Editorial Board

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/opinion/prosecute-torturers-and-their-bosses.html

Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses

(..) Americans have known about many of these acts for years, but the 524-page executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report erases any lingering doubt about their depravity and illegality: In addition to new revelations of sadistic tactics like “rectal feeding ,” scores of detainees were waterboarded, hung by their wrists, confined in coffins, sleep-deprived, threatened with death or brutally beaten. In November 2002, one detainee who was chained to a concrete floor died of “suspected hypothermia.” (..)

But any credible investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos. There are many more names that could be considered, including Jose Rodriguez Jr., the C.I.A. official who ordered the destruction of the videotapes; the psychologists who devised the torture regimen; and the C.I.A. employees who carried out that regimen. (..) 

2014-12-23

Avebarna courier

Washington Post 12-12-2014, por Kenneth Roth, exec director of Human Rights Watch

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-cia-torturers-should-be-prosecuted/2014/12/12/f034acae-8159-11e4-9f38-95a187e4c1f7_story.html 

The CIA torturers should be prosecuted

The primary international treaty against torture, the Convention against torture, which the United States ratified in 1994, contains two key requirements. First, it bans torture, without exception, as well as other inhumane treatment. Second, it requires that torturers be prosecuted.

President Obama has been firm in stopping torture. On his second day in office, he ordered an end to the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation techniques” — a euphemism for torture — and the closure of the secret CIA detention centers where torture was carried out.

But Obama has utterly failed in the second requirement. He has flatly refused to investigate the torture, let alone prosecute those responsible. (..)

2014-12-17

Asilados no Forte Apache

Al Jazeera online 11-12-2014, por James Rein

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/why-bush-won-be-prosecuted-over-cia-torture-2014121161914372298.html

Why Bush won’t be prosecuted over CIA torture

Rumsfeld, Bush & Cheney

Fonte: Internet

The release of the report on CIA torture of suspected terrorists after the 9/11 attacks has been followed by calls for the torturers - and top members of former president George W Bush's national security team - to be prosecuted. The chances of that happening, however, are slim. 

(..) When the ICC was founded, Washington struck deals with allies to ensure that US citizens would not face extradition to the court. In 2002, Bush signed the American Service-Members' Protection Act, dubbed the “Hague invasion clause", authorising the use of military force to liberate Americans in ICC detention.

[but]

(..) Some courts in Belgium, Spain, France and other European countries can prosecute severe rights abuses committed overseas. Famously, a Spanish court's indictment led to the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998. Lawyers have sought prosecutions against Bush-era officials for war crimes in multiple European courts. In February 2011, Bush cancelled a trip to Switzerland, where alleged torture victims were planning to file a criminal complaint against him.

(..) Melina Milazzo, a policy counsel for the Centre for Victims of Torture, said the Senate's 500-page report summary, and the unredacted details in the 6,700-page full version, which remains secret, may be valuable to European lawyers. 

 
[so]

"If I were a senior Bush administration official who was well-known to have engaged in this programme and advocated the use of torture, I would limit my vacations to the territory of the United States," Milazzo told Al Jazeera. (..) 

2014-12-12 

Avebarna Courier

O Globo 10-12-2014, por Mariana Sanches
http://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/militares-brasileiros-tiveram-aula-em-instituto-americano-sobre-como-praticar-tortura-14789322#ixzz3LXC2DJFT

Militares brasileiros tiveram aula em instituto americano sobre como praticar tortura

Descoberta foi feita pela Comissão Nacional da Verdade graças a documentos liberados pelos Estados Unidos

SÃO PAULO - Mais de 300 militares brasileiros passaram uma temporada na Escola das Américas, o instituto de guerra dos Estados Unidos (no Panamá), entre 1954 e 1996, de acordo com o relatório final da Comissão Nacional da Verdade. Lá, os militares brasileiros tiveram aulas teóricas e práticas sobre tortura, que mais tarde seriam replicadas no Brasil. A descoberta foi feita pela Comissão graças a documentos liberados pelos Estados Unidos, já que o Exército se recusou a colaborar e a Marinha e a Aeronáutica apresentaram respostas incompletas. (..)

2014-12-11

Very Important Torturers

NY Times 08-12-2014, por Mark Landler e Peter Baker
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/us/politics/white-house-and-gop-clash-over-torture-report.html

White House and Republicans Clash Over C.I.A. Torture Report

Bush, Rumsfeld & Cheney

   Foto Kevin Lamarque/Reuters Fonte: Internet

"That officials at the highest levels of government 

authorized and ordered torture is not in dispute.

  Mr. Bush issued a secret order authorizing the C.I.A.

 to build secret prisons overseas. The C.I.A. requested 

authority  to torture prisoners in those “black sites.” 

The National Security Council approved the request. 

And the Justice Department drafted memos providing

 the brutal program with a veneer of legality."

ANTHONY D. ROMERO, NYT DEC. 8, 2014

On the eve of a long-awaited Senate report on the use of torture by the United States government — a detailed account that will shed an unsparing light on the Central Intelligence Agency’s darkest practices after the September 2001 terrorist attacks — the Obama administration and its Republican critics clashed on Monday over the wisdom of making it public, and the risk that it will set off a backlash overseas.

(..) Former Vice President Dick Cheney added his voice to those of other Bush administration officials defending the C.I.A., declaring in an interview Monday that its harsh interrogations a decade ago were “absolutely, totally justified,” and dismissing allegations that the agency withheld information from the White House or inflated the value of its methods. (..) 

2014-08-12