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Does an interrogation class covering "coercive management techniques" like sleep deprivation, prolonged constraint, and exposure sound like something that would be conducted in modern America, or 1950s communist China? The answer is both!
During the Korean War, the US Air Force studied Chinese "torture" tactics used to obtain often false confessions from captured Americans.
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John McCain has called last week's Supreme Court ruling that extends the
right to challenge one's detention to detainees at Guantanamo Bay “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."
McCain said the decision highlighted the importance of nominating conservative justices to the court. McCain explained that although he still wants to close the prison and opposes torture, the decision threatens American security.
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In a historic ruling, the US Supreme Court ruled that terror suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba have a right to contest their detention in United States court, using the constitutionally enshrined principle of habeas corpus — which allows courts to determine whether a prisoner is being held illegally.
In the 5-4 ruling, the majority held that "the laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."
The four "conservative" justices dissented.
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The US allegedly has used 17 ships as floating prisons to detain suspects in the war on terror, according to US military statements, the Council of Europe, European Parliaments, and prisoners themselves.
Human Rights group Reprieve is set to publish its findings, which also include 200 cases of rendition, a polite term for kidnapping and secret detention, since 2006, the year President Bush maintained the practice had ended.
One prisoner, released from Guantanamo, told the group: One of my fellow prisoners in Guantanamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantanamo.
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Amnesty International's latest report assails the US for its human rights record, and calls for the immediate closure of Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
The report says: As the world's most powerful state, the USA sets the standard for government behaviour globally. With breathtaking legal obfuscation, the US administration has continued its efforts to weaken the absolute prohibition against torture and other ill-treatment.
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Sami al-Hajj worked as a cameraman for Al Jazeera when he was arrested on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001. He had a valid work visa and was covering the US war against the Taliban. After being arrested, his name and passport number came up on a Pakistani intelligence list, as he had reported his passport being lost in Sudan two years before.
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Col. Morris D. Davis, the US military's former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, testified yesterday that top Pentagon officials interfered with his work for political reasons, and told him that there could be no detainee acquittals.
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