Meet Our Employees

As a follow up to the Guardian/Observer article I linked to in the last post, I decided to do some research into the human rights records of the countries where we have reportedly “rendered” terrorism suspects. Specifically, their use of torture.
To avoid debates about source credibility, and save time, I relied exclusively on the U.S. State Department’s 2003 Human Rights Reports.

The results are grim, and long, but I think they are important–even necessary–to read. These people are working for us. Not just with us, but for us. Our government is sending prisoners into their custody for interrogation.

Someone will probably argue that our survival is at stake, and we need allies in this fight, even unsavory ones. I agree. Someone may ask me if I think we were wrong to ally with Josef Stalin in World War 2. Of course I don’t think that. Someone may ask me if I think Egypt or Azerbaijan is worse than Stalin’s USSR. Again: of course not.

Alliances are fine and necessary. This is something else. I don’t believe Churchill and FDR ever sent German or Japanese prisoners of war to Siberia for interrogation.

With that out of the way, here are the results, in alphabetical order:

(The italicized quotations are all from the Guardian story. My comments are in parentheses. All the rest is from the most recent State Department report. You can get a country’s full State Department report by clicking on its name.

I included every country the article mentioned, regardless of how good or bad its record is. The only exception is Qatar, since the only prisoners the Guardian mentions there seem to be at a U.S. airbase.)

1. AZERBAIJAN
“Terrorists have also been sent to facilities in Baku, Azerbaijan…”
“Police tortured and beat persons in custody, including several opposition members, and used excessive force to extract confessions. In most cases, the Government took no action to punish abusers, although the Government reportedly took disciplinary action against more than 200 police officers. Prison conditions remained harsh and life threatening, and some prisoners died as a result of these conditions….”

“there were credible reports that security forces continued to torture inmates and used excessive force to extract confessions. Police beat prisoners during arrest, interrogation, and pretrial detention….”

“Following violent disturbances in Baku on October 16, Interior Ministry personnel detained and tortured several opposition leaders. There were credible reports that security personnel beat and tortured Hope Party Chairman Iqbal Agazade, Azerbaijan Democratic Party Secretary General Sardar Jalaloglu, and Azerbaijan Party election secretary Natiq Jabiyev (see Section 3). Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented numerous cases in which members of the MIA’s organized crime unit used electric shock, severe beatings, and threats of rape to torture detainees. According to HRW, police used severe beatings and torture to extract confessions, and to pressure detainees to sign false statements denouncing the opposition and implicating opposition leaders in the post-election violence.”

2. EGYPT
“Egypt has also received a steady flow of militants from American installations. Many other militants have been sent to Egypt by other countries through transfers assisted by the Americans, often using planes run by the CIA.”

“In Cairo, prisoners are kept in the interrogation centre in the general intelligence directorate in Lazoughli and in Mulhaq al-Mazra prison, according to Montasser al-Zayat, an Islamist lawyer in Cairo and former spokesman for outlawed militant groups.”

“To seize Mohammed Iqbal Madni, a suspected al-Qaeda operative, in Indonesia, US investigators worked three states’ legal systems to provide an excuse to pick up the 24-year-old Pakistani. They then flew him to Cairo on a private US-run jet. “

“In April, the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) released a report called ‘Torture Should be Stopped.’ It documented five cases of alleged death due to torture which occurred in police stations and detention centers in 2002. The report also included 31 cases of torture, 9 of which the report states ‘are expected to end in death.’

On September 12, Mohammad Abdel-Sattar Musri, an electronics engineer, reportedly died of torture while in custody at the headquarters of El Fayoum SSIS. He was detained 3 days after the detention of his younger brother, Ahmed, who was accused of disseminating anti-war propaganda.

On September 22, the Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRAAP) called for an investigation into the case of Mohamed Abdel Setar, who died on September 19, reportedly while in the custody of the local State Security office. The Association alleged that he was tortured to death.

On September 30, the Association for Human Rights and Legal Aid released a report detailing two cases involving deaths in custody allegedly due to torture. According to the report, 31- year-old Mohammed al-Sayyed was arrested on September 7. When his father picked up his body on September 14, he was covered with bruises, his skull was fractured, and his nails had been pulled out. The report also covered the separate death of detainee Ahmad Mohammed Omar, who died from alleged mistreatment.

According to local human rights monitors, on October 4, police officers in the Sayyeda Zeinab district of Cairo arrested Mahmoud Gabr Mohammed while he was sitting in a cafe, for unknown reasons. He was taken to Sayyeda Zeinab police station where he died on October 7. Family members and health officers who examined the body prior to burial reported numerous injuries and bruises. There were no reports of an investigation into the case at year’s end….”

“torture and abuse of detainees by police, security personnel, and prison guards remained common and persistent. The November, 2002 session of the U.N. Committee Against Torture noted a systematic pattern of torture by the security forces….”

“Despite these legal safeguards, there were numerous, credible reports that security forces tortured and mistreated detainees. Human rights groups believed that the SSIS, police, and other Government entities continued to employ torture. Torture was used to extract information, coerce the victims to end their oppositionist activities, and to deter others from similar activities. Reports of torture and mistreatment at police stations remained frequent. While the Government investigated torture complaints in criminal cases and punished some offending officers, the punishments generally have not conformed to the seriousness of the offense.

Principal methods of torture reportedly employed by the police and the SSIS included victims being: stripped and blindfolded; suspended from a ceiling or doorframe with feet just touching the floor; beaten with fists, whips, metal rods, or other objects; subjected to electrical shocks; and doused with cold water. Victims frequently reported being subjected to threats and forced to sign blank papers for use against the victim or the victim’s family in the future should the victim complain of abuse. Some victims, including male and female detainees and children reported that they were sexually assaulted or threatened with rape themselves or family members. The Emergency Law authorizes incommunicado detention for prolonged periods. Detentions under this law were frequently accompanied by allegations of torture (see Section 1.d.). While the law requires security authorities to keep written records of detentions, human rights groups reported that the lack of such records often effectively blocked investigation of complaints.

In April, Amnesty International (AI) reported that seven students, journalists, and activists were subjected to torture and beatings at the Cairo headquarters of the SSIS. Activist Manal Khaled and lawyer Aiad Abdel Hamid al-Uleimi were reportedly beaten severely with sticks and belts and Khaled also was threatened with rape upon arrest. In March, AI also reported that at least five detainees were tortured with electro shock at the Lazoghili SSIS Headquarters.

On September 18, the Hisham Mubarak Law Center issued a report documenting the mistreatment in detention of anti-Iraq war activist Ramez Gihad Abdel Aziz, who was arrested on April 12. Abdel Aziz was allegedly suspended from above the floor, beaten, kicked, and subjected to electric shocks. The report named State Security Officer Walid El Dessouqi as a principal supervisor of the torture. The report added that Dessouqi repeatedly threatened reprisals against Abdel Aziz and his family if a complaint was filed against him. The Government maintained that its own investigation found that the allegations were unsubstantiated.

On October 11, according to media accounts and human rights monitors, police in Helwan stormed a house searching for two persons suspected in a homicide. Although the suspects were not present, police took into custody between 11 and 15 members of their family, including four women. The detained family members allege they were beaten, whipped, suspended, stripped, and molested as police attempted to extract information about the whereabouts of the two suspects. The case reportedly has been referred for investigation; however, no information on its progress was available by year’s end.

In April, the EOHR reported 40 documented cases of torture with 9 deaths in 2002 in police stations and other detention centers.”

3. JORDAN
“[Maher Arar] was repeatedly assaulted in Jordan before being driven to Syria…”

“After a brief interrogation, Abu Zubayda was handed over to the Americans, who took him to Bagram and then, it is believed, flew him on to Jordan, where he has been held, along with several other high-value prisoners, in prisons in the capital, Amman, and in desert locations in the east of the country. Jordanian investigators are seen as ‘professional’ by Western intelligence services, although the nation has been repeatedly criticised for its human rights record. “

“the police and security forces sometimes abused detainees during detention and interrogation, and allegedly also used torture. Allegations of torture were difficult to verify because the police and security officials frequently denied detainees timely access to lawyers. The most frequently reported methods of torture included beatings; sleep deprivation, extended solitary confinement, and physical suspension. Defendants in high-profile cases before the State Security Court claimed to have been subjected to physical and psychological abuse while in detention. Government officials denied allegations of torture and abuse.”

4. MOROCCO
“In Morocco, scores of detainees once held by the Americans are believed to be held at the al-Tamara interrogation centre sited in a forest five miles outside the capital, Rabat. Many of the detainees were originally captured by the Pakistani authorities, who passed them on to the Americans.

One is Abdallah Tabarak, a militant who is alleged to have been Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard and was seized in late 2001 by the Pakistanis. Tabarak was handed over to US agents, sent to Bagram and then to Guantanamo, before being flown to Morocco.”

“The law prohibits torture, and the Government denied the use of torture; however, some members of the security forces tortured or otherwise abused detainees….”

“Attorneys for some persons convicted under the new anti-terrorism law claimed their clients were convicted on the basis of confessions coerced by torture. For example, according to the OMDH, in early August, at the Court of Appeal in Fez, most of the 29 accused of terrorist involvement stated that they had been tortured; judicial authorities refused to order any medical examinations.

In October after a mission to the country, AI reported a sharp rise in the number of cases of torture or ill treatment in the last 2 years.”

5. OMAN
“Jabarah Mohamed Mansur, allegedly involved in an attempt to bomb the US and Israeli embassies in Singapore, is reported to have been interrogated in Oman.”

“there were no reports of torture during the year.”

(Editor’s note: well, one for eight…)

6. SAUDI ARABIA
“a large number [of detainees] are believed to have been sent to Saudi Arabia, where CIA agents are allowed to sit in on some of the interrogations.”

“There were credible reports that security forces continued to torture and abuse detainees and prisoners, arbitrarily arrest and detain persons, and hold them in incommunicado detention. There were cases in which Mutawwa’in continued to intimidate, abuse, and detain citizens and foreigners. There was no evidence that violators were held accountable for abuses….”

“The Criminal Procedure law prohibits torture and Shar’ia (Islamic law) prohibits any judge from accepting a confession obtained under duress; however, there were credible reports that the authorities abused detainees, both citizens and foreigners. Ministry of Interior officials were responsible for most incidents of abuse of prisoners, including beatings, whippings, and sleep deprivation. In addition, there were allegations of torture, including allegations of beatings with sticks and suspension from bars by handcuffs. There were reports that torture and abuse were used to obtain confessions from prisoners (see Section 1.e.). Canadian and British prisoners that were released during the year reported that they had been tortured during their detention.”

7. SYRIA
(Editor’s note: Canadian citizens Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, and Ahmad Abou El-Maati were held and allegedly tortured in Syria. Arar was sent there from JFK airport by way of Washington D.C. and Jordan. Almalki and El-Maati travelled to Syria voluntarily, but it seems quite likely that they were arrested at the request of the U.S. and/or Canada, and that Syria shared their confessions with American and Canadian intelligence. As regular or semi-regular readers know, I have posted extensively (and maybe obsessively) about this case.)

“In Syria, detainees sent by Washington are held at ‘the Palestine wing’ of the main intelligence headquarters and a series of jails in Damascus and other cities.”

“the London-based Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) reported that, on August 10, a Syrian Kurd died after being tortured while in the custody of Syrian Military Intelligence. The Government had not investigated previous deaths in detention….”

“The Constitution prohibits torture, and the Penal Code provides punishment for abusers; however, there was credible evidence that security forces continued to use torture.

During the year, the SHRC reported numerous cases of torture in custody, including the case of two Kurdish leaders, Marwan Uthman and Hasan Saleh, who were arrested in December 2002 for organizing a demonstration (see Section 2.b.). Former prisoners and detainees, as well as the SHRC, reported that torture methods included administering electrical shocks; pulling out fingernails; forcing objects into the rectum; beating, sometimes while the victim is suspended from the ceiling; hyperextending the spine; bending the detainees into the frame of a wheel and whipping exposed body parts; and using a chair that bends backwards to asphyxiate the victim or fracture the victim’s spine. Torture was most likely to occur while detainees were being held at one of the many detention centers run by the various security services throughout the country, particularly while the authorities were attempting to extract a confession or information.

A foreign citizen (with dual Syrian nationality) detained in February reported that he was tortured while in prison. Diplomatic representatives reported seeing bruises on the prisoner’s body after his release from prison. During the year, at least nine Kurds were jailed and reportedly tortured in prison….”

“The Government continued threatening or detaining the relatives of detainees or of fugitives to obtain confessions, minimize outside interference, or prompt the fugitive’s surrender (see Section 1.f.). There were reports that security personnel forced prisoners to watch relatives being tortured in order to extract confessions.”

8. THAILAND
“Terrorists have also been sent…to unidentified locations in Thailand.”

“Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who both helped plan the 11 September attacks, were also transferred to American custody soon after their capture by Pakistani security forces in September 2002 and March 2003 respectively. They are believed to have been interrogated in Thailand.”

“There were reports that police tortured, beat, and otherwise abused detainees and prisoners, generally with impunity. However, the Government prosecuted a few offenders….”

“NGOs and legal organizations continued to report that some members of the police occasionally beat suspects to coerce confessions.”

(Editor’s note: Torture reports in Thailand do sound much more isolated, and much less organized or condoned by the central governments, than in most of the other countries where we’ve “rendered” detainees. Also, it sounds to me as if the prisoners in Thailand are actually in U.S. custody, but the Guardian article is not clear on this point.)

(edited, as usual, for typos, style, etc.)