Amnesty: what is happening in practice

The United States has failed to eradicate "widespread" torture of prisoners in its war on terrorism despite the international outcry over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and abusive behavior at U.S. detention facilities in Cuba and Afghanistan, Amnesty International charged Wednesday.

There's an Amnesty press release here:

Amnesty International today made public a report detailing its concerns about torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners and detainees both in the US and in US detention sites around the world.

And the report itself is here:

Evidence continues to emerge of widespread torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees held in US custody in Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Iraq and other locations. While the government continues to assert that abuses resulted for the most part from the actions of a few "aberrant" soldiers and lack of oversight, there is clear evidence that much of the ill-treatment has stemmed directly from officially santioned procedures and policies, including interrogation techniques approved by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld for use in Guantánamo and later exported to Iraq... While it seems that some practices, such as "waterboarding", were reserved for high value detainees, others appear to have been routinely applied during detentions and interrogations in Afghanistan, Guantánamo and Iraq. The latter include hooding, stripping and shackling of detainees in painful positions as well as using military dogs to intimidate blindfolded detainees; prolonged isolation, deprivation of food and sleep and exposure to extremes of temperature also appear to have been common practice to punish detainees for failing to cooperate or to "soften them up" for interrogation.

From another press release:

Amnesty International USA Senior Deputy Executive Director Curt Goering said:

"Although the US government continues to assert its condemnation of torture and ill-treatment, these statements contradict what is happening in practice.

"The US government is not only failing to take steps to eradicate torture it is actually creating a climate in which torture and other ill-treatment can flourish - including by trying to narrow the definition of torture."

Besides looking at the USA's domestic torture record, Amnesty International's 47-page report examines the detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite a series of deaths of detainees held in US custody, no US agent has yet been prosecuted for "torture" or "war crimes".

Curt Goering added:

"The heaviest sentence imposed on anyone to date for a torture-related death while in US custody is five months - the same sentence that you might receive in the US for stealing a bicycle. In this case, the five-month sentence was for assaulting a 22-year-old taxi-driver who was hooded and chained to a ceiling while being kicked and beaten until he died."

These things shame America, and they do nothing for the fight - against terrorism, for democracy - they purport to serve. Torture is always and everywhere a crime.