54 countries have helped CIA renditions
2013-02-05 21:45
Washington - Fifty-four foreign governments assisted the
CIA in a global campaign that included harsh interrogations of suspects, a
rights advocacy group said on Tuesday, as it pressed for greater
accountability.
The report by Open Society Foundations marks the most
comprehensive list of countries that helped the US in what critics saw as excesses
by then president George W Bush's administration after the 9/11 attacks.
Bush authorised "extraordinary rendition" - the
transferring of individuals without legal process - to allow US and foreign
intelligence agencies to interrogate alleged extremists outside the protections
ensured on US soil.
The Open Society Foundations found evidence that 54
foreign governments supported the system by actions such as hosting CIA
prisons, interrogating suspects, allowing airspace for secret flights or
providing intelligence.
Many of the cases involve countries that have long fought
Islamic militants on their home territory such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan
and Saudi Arabia.
The report also listed close US allies such as Australia,
Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain,
Sweden, Turkey and Thailand.
South Africa was listed in part due to allegations the
Pretoria government gave US intelligence the green light in 2003 to abduct Saud
Memon, a Pakistani suspected in the slaying of Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl.
Memon died shortly after his release in Pakistan in 2007.
The study also listed Iran, saying that despite poor
relations with the US, Tehran indirectly handed over at least 10 suspects -
mostly Arabs - to US custody via the Kabul government.
The report called for accountability both in the US and
overseas, saying there was "no doubt" that Bush administration
officials authorised what it called human rights violations.
"By engaging in torture and other abuses associated
with secret detention and extraordinary rendition, the US government violated
domestic and international law, thereby diminishing its moral standing and
eroding support for its counter-terrorism efforts worldwide," the report
said.
But it said that other nations also bore responsibility.
Only Canada has apologised for its role, while three other countries - Australia,
Britain and Sweden - have also offered compensation to individuals.
Interrogation
President Barack Obama ordered an end to harsh
interrogations when he took office in 2009.
But the Open Society Foundations criticised Obama for
still allowing renditions if other countries promise to treat prisoners
humanely.
The group named 136 individuals subjected to
extraordinary detention and rendition.
As the report focused on secret CIA operations, it did
not cover the Pentagon's controversial detention of prisoners in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.
The CIA kept some prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and also
secretly held detainees in Afghanistan, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Romania and
Thailand, the report said.
In detention, some prisoners were thrown against fake
walls, forced into stressful physical functions, involuntarily stripped naked
and slapped, the report said.
Former CIA chief Michael Hayden has previously confirmed
that the US interrogators subjected three men to waterboarding, a drowning
simulation that rights advocates consider to be torture.
The US senate committee on intelligence in December
approved a 6 000-page report on the CIA tactics.
While the contents are classified, Senator Dianne
Feinstein, the committee's chairperson, said that secret detention sites and
harsh interrogation were "terrible mistakes”.
The CIA declined comment on the report.
Some lawmakers and intelligence professionals have
vigorously defended "enhanced interrogation techniques" as necessary
against a ruthless enemy.
Hayden, speaking at a think tank last month, recalled
telling European ambassadors in 2007 when he was CIA director: "We're at
war with al-Qaeda and its affiliates, this war is global in scope, and my moral
and legal responsibility is to take that fight to this enemy wherever they may
be."
The Open Society Foundations were founded by George
Soros, the billionaire liberal philanthropist.
