US urged to pursue Bush-era CIA abuses
Source: Agencies |
March 5, 2013, Tuesday
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A United Nations investigator called on the United States yesterday to publish its findings on the CIA's Bush-era program of rendition and secret detention of terrorism suspects.
Ben Emmerson, UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, voiced concern that while President Barack Obama's administration has rejected Central Intelligence Agency practices conducted under his predecessor George W. Bush, there have been no prosecutions.
"Despite this clear repudiation of the unlawful actions carried out by the Bush-era CIA, many of the facts remain classified, and no public official has so far been brought to justice in the United States," Emmerson said in a report to the UN Human Rights Council.
The "war on terror" waged by Bush after al-Qaida attacks on the US on September 11, 2001 led to "gross or systematic" violations involving secret prisons for Islamic militant suspects, clandestine transfers and torture, Emmerson said.
Under Obama, US Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Department of Justice would not prosecute any official who acted in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance given by its Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush era on interrogation.
But Emmerson said that using a "superior orders defense" and invoking secrecy on national security grounds was "perpetuating impunity for the public officials implicated in these crimes."
A US Senate select committee on intelligence investigated the CIA secret detention and interrogation program, including use of "waterboarding," which simulates drowning.
Bush, who authorized the CIA's secret prisons overseas, said in his memoirs he had ordered the use of "waterboarding."
Ben Emmerson, UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, voiced concern that while President Barack Obama's administration has rejected Central Intelligence Agency practices conducted under his predecessor George W. Bush, there have been no prosecutions.
"Despite this clear repudiation of the unlawful actions carried out by the Bush-era CIA, many of the facts remain classified, and no public official has so far been brought to justice in the United States," Emmerson said in a report to the UN Human Rights Council.
The "war on terror" waged by Bush after al-Qaida attacks on the US on September 11, 2001 led to "gross or systematic" violations involving secret prisons for Islamic militant suspects, clandestine transfers and torture, Emmerson said.
Under Obama, US Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Department of Justice would not prosecute any official who acted in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance given by its Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush era on interrogation.
But Emmerson said that using a "superior orders defense" and invoking secrecy on national security grounds was "perpetuating impunity for the public officials implicated in these crimes."
A US Senate select committee on intelligence investigated the CIA secret detention and interrogation program, including use of "waterboarding," which simulates drowning.
Bush, who authorized the CIA's secret prisons overseas, said in his memoirs he had ordered the use of "waterboarding."
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