Category Archives: Torture

Contradicting a series of international law decisions by multiple national and international tribunals, and citing a missive from the French Foreign Ministry, a French court has ruled that ministerial immunity against torture charges persists past the minister's retirement.

Based on this dramatically deviant assertion by the French Foreign Ministry, the French court of first instance dismissed the torture charges filed against Donald Rumsfeld in France.

Details on what happened and how it deviates from international law as it is commonly understood at the Center for Constitutional Rights, France in Violation of Law Grants Donald Rumsfeld Immunity, Dismisses Torture Complaint.

Is this (pro-US) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's doing? It certainly seems an odd decision for Bernard Kouchner, the former socialist and co-founder of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) turned Foreign Minister.

It also seems like the sort of decision a decent court system would overturn on appeal.

American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU Learns of Third Secret Torture Memo by Gonzales Justice Department

Legal papers filed in federal court Monday in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations disclose that the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) for the Department of Justice issued three secret memos in May 2005 relating to the interrogation of detainees in CIA custody. Until now, the existence of only two of those memos had been reported and it was not known precisely when the memos had been written. The memos are believed to have authorized the CIA to use extremely harsh interrogation methods including waterboarding.

No light at the end of the tunnel.

From the e-mail inbox:

November 6, 2007, New York, NY – In a key victory in the war against torture, today a federal court ruled that the lawsuit against a private military contractor in Iraq should be heard by a jury of Americans. The action was filed in 2004 against CACI and Titan, both of which were named in the military investigation of the Abu Ghraib scandal. The Center for Constitutional rights, Burke O'Neil LLC, and Akeel Valentine, PLC brought the suit as a class action on behalf of the hundreds of Iraqi torture victims. The same firms filed an action on October 11 against Blackwater USA for the killing of innocent bystanders at Noori Square in September.

The court today ruled that the case could go forward against CACI, whose employees worked as interrogators in the prison. The court found that that there was a dual chain of command where corporate employees were obliged to report abuse up the chain of command at CACI. The court dismissed the claims against Titan, whose employees worked as translators, reasoning that the military exercised exclusive control over the translators.

Susan L. Burke, of Burke O'Neil LLC, stated, “We are delighted that a jury of Americans will soon be deciding whether an American corporation is free to torture prisoners.”

Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, stated, “This will send a message to all contractors that they cannot act with impunity outside the law and begins to answer the question of how CACI will be held accountable for the atrocities at Abu Ghraib.”

Shereef Akeel of Akeel & Valentine, PLC said, “This is a real victory for the men we represent. Now they have the chance to seek justice before the American people.”

The denial of summary judgment in the case means there will be a jury trial of a private military contractor for torture. A status conference is scheduled for December 6, and a trial date will be set then. Attorneys for plaintiffs are asking for it to be held as promptly as possible.

State Department lawyer John Bellinger, heretofore not known as an Addington-rabid member of the State Department (he was cut out of the key torture debates), refuses to say that the US would always condemn a foreign power that waterboarded a US citizen. Apparently whatever vague desire our government may have in protecting us against foreign torturers must give way to our government's desire to do some torturing.

Meanwhile, three-star Army General Russel Honore responds to questions about waterboarding by saying that “we've got an obligation to do what the hell we've got to do to make sure we get the mission done.”

Yup, now that we got past that little AG confirmation thing, they're all for it.

What's next, retroactive immunity bills?

Well, this is no surprise: Specter to vote for Mukasey as US attorney general. There were two ways this could play out: Specter would be a key vote and cave to White House pressure, or — what actually happened — the Democrats would cave and Specter would take the expedient route.

I suppose the only tiny silver lining in this whole sordid mess is that the GOP is so much in the tank for torture, that they haven't figured out that they are missing an opportunity: now that the Democratic party is so compromised on the torture question, it's actually open to Republicans to reformulate themselves as the anti-torture party. McCain could do it. Huckabee could do it. Even Romney could probably pull it off. (Rudy might find it tough.)

CIA Admits Waterboarding. Their defense? They “only” did it to three people.

Meanwhile, we learn from ABC News that Gonzales forced out a top aide who, having undergone waterboarding to see what it was like, decided it was indeed torture and should be banned.