America 'can't hide behind intelligence' says Un torture probe

The United Nations has told the US that it must set a better example in combating torture and cannot hide behind intelligence activities in refusing to discuss violations of the global ban on prisoner abuse in the war on terror.

In Geneva, Switzerland, the UN Committee Against Torture asked US officials about a series of issues ranging from Washington’s interpretation of the absolute ban on torture to its interrogation methods in prisons such as Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

US State Department legal adviser John Bellinger, leading the US delegation in its first appearance before the committee in six years, insisted tha the government felt an “absolute commitment to upholding our national and international obligations to eradicate torture”.

The delegation told the committee, the United Nations’ watchdog for a 22-year-old treaty forbidding prisoner abuse, that mistakes had occurred in the US treatment of detainees in the war against terror, and that 29 detainees in US facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan had died of what appeared to be abuse or other breaches of US law.

US deputy assistant secretary of defence Charles Stimson said a total of 120 detainees had died in Iraq and Afghanistan, but none had died at Guantanamo. Most of the deaths resulted from natural causes, battlefield injuries or attacks by other detainees, he said.

In the cases of the 29 deaths from suspected abuse, Stimson said, “these alleged violations were properly investigated and appropriate action taken”.

US assistant secretary of state for human rights Bary Lowenkron said the abusive acts against detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib rison “sickened the American people – just as they appalled people around the world. They were inexcusable, they were indefensible”.

But he said the US conducted more than 600 criminal investigations into allegations of mistreatment and more than 250 people had been held accountable for abusing detainees.

However, Fernando Marino Menendez, an expert from Spain, noted that Human Rights Watch had said “only a small number received prison sentences and a lot of them were less than one year, even in cases of serious abuse, and only 10 persons were sentenced to a year or more in prison”.

Andreas Mavrommatis, who chaired the session, said the US investigations would be more convincing if they were conducted by an independent judge or lawyer rather than by staff of the Defence Department.

He asked what was being done about investigating people higher in the chain of command than the lower level people implicated so far and said the US had an obligation under the treaty not only to investigate abuses when they occurred, but to prevent torture from happening in the first place.

Mavrommatis praised the US for its “unique contribution” historically to the promotion of human rights around the world, but said it had an obligation to be above reproach.

He said the committee had long used the State Department’s annual report on the human rights situation in each country around the world, “but now we’re a little bit scared to use it”.

Bellinger said the 25-member delegation – including officials from the Defence, Justice and Homeland Security departments – was committed to answering the committee’s questions, but would be unable to discuss “alleged intelligence activities”.

Mavrommatis, who is from Cyprus, said he could understand that intelligence matters needed careful treatment, “but they are not excluded” from scrutiny.

“If during intelligence activities there is a violation of the convention, it’s our duty to investigate them and your duty to answer,” Mavrommatis said.

Marino Menendez said, “Any act undertaken by an intelligence service is attributed to the overnment.”

The US is taking its turn as one of the 141 signatories to the Convention Against Torture in submitting to a periodic review by the 10 independent members of the committee.

Intelligence matters like alleged secret CIA prisons and flights transferring suspects for possible torture in other countries were key items on a list of questions submitted to the US government by the committee in advance.

“We don’t think that it’s proper to provide details on intelligence activities,” Bellinger said later. But he said it was “an absurd allegation” to suggest that any US intelligence flight in Europe might be carrying a detainee, because many carry analysts, officials and forensic information.

A second session will take place on Monday, when US officials will respond to the committee members’ oral questions.

Criticism by the UN panel brings no penalties beyond international scrutiny. The committee is expected to issue conclusions when it concludes its session on May 19.