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A Seven
Part Special Report
by Douglas Valentine, Author of The Phoenix Program
Homeland
Insecurity: The Politics of Terror in America
by Douglas Valentine
November 9, 2001
Karen Snell
Torture By
Proxy
John Troyer
A
New Kind of Activism
Tariq Ali
Q &
A About the War
Michael
Colby
Schoolgirl
Gets Booted
for Anti-war Views
November 8, 2001
Mokhiber/Weissman
The
Cipro Rip-Off
Mitchel Cohen
The Smear Campaign
Against Nancy Oden
Steve
Perry
American
Roulette
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
November 7, 2001
Bahour/Dahan
Placebo Peace
Plan
Tom Turnipseed
Bush
Gives Billions
to His Oil Buddies
Cockburn/St. Clair
Greens, Airports
and
National ID Cards
Dr. Susan
Block
Ayatollah
Asscroft
Brian J. Foley
Bombing Campaign
Not "Self-Defense" Under International Law
November 6, 2001
Mark Scaramella
Where's
That Red Cross Money Going
C.G. Estabrook
Our Torturers
Sheperd
Bliss
Scott
Nearing on War
Rep. Ron Paul
Underwriting
the Taliban
Tariq
Ali
The
General Who
Came to Dinner
Evan Ravitz
Stop the War
Through
Direct Democracy
Steve
Perry
Hunger
in Afghanistan
November 5, 2001
Patrick Cockburn
Living
in the Minefields
David Price
Terror
and Indigenous People
November 3, 2001
Declan McCullagh
Nancy Oden Interview
Daniel
Wolff
The
Memphis Blues Again
Mark Weisbrot
War on Civilians
Dave Marsh
How
the RIAA (and the FBI) Cheat Musicians
Robert Jensen
Speaking
Out Against
War on Campus
November 2, 2001
CounterPunch
Wire
Green
Party Leader Detained at Maine Airport; Prevented from Boarding
Any Plane
Alexander Cockburn
FBI Eyes
Torture
November 1, 2001
Dean Baker
Dying
for Patents
Sami Amarah
US Attempts
to Recruit
Russian Vets of Afghan War
Molly Secours
Where
Are the Voices of Reason? Let the Women
Be Heard
William Blum
Unleashing the
CIA
October 31, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
Terrorize
the Poor,
Subsidize the Rich
Chris Clarke
Thank God
for Berkeley
Steve
Perry
The
Silent Genocide
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
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Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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This Explosive
New Book at an
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Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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November
9, 2001
Torture by Proxy
By Karen L. Snell
The Recorder
To the French, Kenneth Starr is known as the "Ayatollah
sexuelle," but after his recent comments in The Washington
Post suggesting that we should cast aside traditional civil liberties
in the fight against terrorism, just plain "Ayatollah"
seems more fitting.
According to Starr, five justices of
the U.S. Supreme Court have signaled that they would give "heightened
deference to the judgments of the political branches with respect
to matters of national security," and thus, would be willing
to bend the constitutional rules in a case involving terrorism.
Starr's comments provide encouragement
to the Department of Justice, which, according to the Post, is
reportedly contemplating the use of "drugs or pressure tactics"
when terrorism suspects refuse to speak, or "extraditing
the suspects to allied countries where security services sometimes
employ threats to family members or resort to torture."
An FBI official quoted in the Post recognizes that such evidence
would be inadmissible, but says that "legally admissible
evidence in court may not be the be-all and end-all."
Attorney General John Ashcroft echoed
this sentiment during a recent appearance on ABC's "Nightline."
Starr's attempt to justify the unthinkable
is worthy of Osama bin Laden himself. According to a handbook
that American prosecutors have suggested was used by Al Queda
to train members of the network, "religious scholars have
permitted beating ... . It is permitted to strike the nonbeliever
who has no covenant until he reveals the news, information, and
secrets of his people."
Starr and Ashcroft appear to have forgotten
that the reason evidence obtained by physical and mental pressure
tactics is inadmissible in U.S. courts is because such tactics
are unconstitutional. They violate the Fifth Amendment privilege
against self-incrimination, which the Supreme Court has aptly
described as the "hallmark of our democracy," the "essential
mainstay of our adversary system," which recognizes "the
inviolability of the human personality."
In our country we believe that when the
government seeks to punish an individual, it must "produce
the evidence against him by its own independent labors, rather
than the cruel, simple expedient of compelling it from his own
mouth." Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).
Certain interrogation techniques, including
beatings and other forms of physical and psychological torture,
have been declared so offensive to a civilized system that they
must be condemned under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and
14th Amendments. Brown v. Mississippi, 297 U.S. 278 (1936). Are
these values so fragile that it takes one attack to throw them
out the window?
The use of pressure tactics, including
torture by proxy, not only renders evidence obtained inadmissible
in court. It's also a crime. And it is not just the person who
physically or mentally assaults a suspect who is guilty. Any
person who aids, abets, counsels or conspires to commit such
acts is a criminal. Title 18, United States Code, Section 242,
"Deprivation of rights under color of law," provides
that officials who willfully subject any person to the deprivation
of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected
by the Constitution or laws of the United States shall be imprisoned
up to 10 years if bodily injury results. If the individual dies,
the perpetrators are subject to the death penalty.
Section 241 outlaws conspiracies against
rights like those suggested by the government officials quoted
in The Washington Post. And Section 2340A specifically extends
the law against torture to nationals of the United States who
commit or attempt to commit the crime abroad. Prosecutions can
be brought under state laws as well, such as those pertaining
to aggravated assault.
To the extent that the government believes
it can evade the criminal law by extraditing suspects to places
where they are likely to be tortured, they are dead wrong. Not
only would the conspiracy statute cover such conduct, it is forbidden
by the Convention Against Torture, which the United States ratified
in 1994. This treaty might serve as remedial reading for Starr
and Ashcroft. It provides:
The State parties to this Convention,
Considering that, in accordance with
the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations,
recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of all members
of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and
peace in the world,
Recognizing that those rights derive
from the inherent dignity of the human person,
Considering the obligation of States
under the Charter, ... to promote universal respect for, and
observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Having regard to article 5 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and article 7 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which provide
that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment, ...
Desiring to make more effective the struggle
against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment throughout the world,
Have agreed as follows:
No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler")
or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial
grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected
to torture.
This treaty is not just "international
law," for which the U.S. has little respect. It has been
codified as part of our law. It is the law of the land. Not surprisingly,
however, the State Department has taken the position that when
it comes to applying the treaty in the extradition context, its
decisions are not subject to judicial review. In a case still
pending, U. S. v. Cornejo-Barreto, 218 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2000),
the 9th Circuit begged to differ. We can only hope that the court's
approach withstands further appeal, in light of the Justice Department's
position that extraditions for the very purpose of subjecting
individuals to torture is permissible.
It is a historical fact that in wartime
America some civil liberties have been temporarily suspended.
If the present government wishes to suspend civil liberties and
violate both the law and fundamental human decency, let them
come out and say so, and then try to explain to the American
people exactly what it is we stand for and why we fight.
It is more likely that the American people
would have to explain it all to them. Because Americans know
that even in the most extreme conception of a suspension of liberties,
to subject any human being to torture, no matter how virulent
an enemy he may be, is going far too far. And if there is one
thing Kenneth Starr is an expert in, it's in going too far.
Karen L. Snell,
a partner at San Francisco's Clarence & Snell, specializes
in constitutional litigation and international extradition.
Related Stories:
Alexander Cockburn, Wide
World of Torture
Alexander Cockburn, FBI
Eyes Torture
Douglas Valentine, Homeland
Insecurity
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