Two of the GOP's mortal enemies were under attack yesterday, transparency and human rights. The Republican Party has once again blocked a law that would have required the administration to give up more information about the appalling practice of rendition. This time in a hearing in the House Committee on International Relations.
The markup can be found here:
TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
You are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN meeting of the Committee on International Relations, to be held in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building, for the purpose of marking up the following legislation:
DATE:Wednesday, February 8, 2006
**TIME: 3:00 P.M.
MARKUP OF: H. Res. 593, Directing the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Attorney General, and requesting the President, to provide certain information to the House of Representatives relating to extraordinary rendition of certain foreign persons;
H. Res. 624, Requesting the President of the United States and directing the Secretary of State to provide to the House of Representatives certain documents in their possession relating to United States policies under the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Geneva Conventions; and
H. Res. 642, Requesting the President and directing the Secretary of State to provide to the House of Representatives certain documents in their possession relating to the Secretary of State's trip to Europe in December 2005.
***NOTE: The time for this meeting has been changed to 3:00 p.m. due to changes in House schedule.
It seemed like a good opportunity to finally address the issue of rendition and reveal the administration's outsourcing of torture to the American people, who deserve to know what our government is up to.
But today the AP reports:
Republicans easily defeated three resolutions seeking information about the Bush administration's policies on torture after a heated committee hearing.
Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said Democrats who submitted the resolutions should "at least silently confess to themselves that their actions pose real dangers to our country."
Hyde accused Democrats of playing politics, with an eye on November's congressional elections, by offering the three resolutions demanding:
- Information on a practice that has been called extraordinary rendition, or sending suspects abroad to countries where they would allegedly be tortured for information.
- Documents about U.S. policies regarding U.N. anti-torture conventions.
- Documents and records involving Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's December trip to Europe, during which she was dogged by reports of alleged secret European jails.
All three proposed resolutions were defeated on almost straight party-line votes.
The committee's senior Democrat, Rep. Tom Lantos of California, denied Hyde's accusations of partisan motivation.
A RealPlayer Streaming video of the hearing can be seen here.
I currently cannot find any full transcript of the hearing but if anyone here has a link to one it would be greatly appreciated.
The introduction by Henry Hyde can be read here.
In it he states:
The accusations come despite President Bush's repeated assurances that the United States does not believe in torture. In January of 2005, the President told the American people that, "Torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has likewise stated, without qualification, that, "The United States has not transported anyone, and will not transport anyone to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured."
...
When investigations uncover abuse, DoD holds accountable the individuals responsible. Following the shameful conduct at Abu Ghraib, the commanding general was relieved of her command and reduced in rank, the Intelligence Brigadier Commander was relieved of his command, 47 Memoranda of Reprimand were issued, 24 soldiers were administratively separated, 8 courts-martial were completed, and 4 officers received non-judicial punishments.
This disciplinary action and these investigations show that DoD takes seriously its responsibility to uphold American values. This is what our Nation demands--that we aggressively fight the War on Terror and that we do so with the integrity and humanity that our values require. As President Bush stated last year, "[t]his country does not believe in torture. We do believe in protecting ourselves."
Henry Hyde predictably takes everything the Bush administration says at face value. The idea that the Bush administration could ever lie is simply foreign to him.
He also claims that individual cases of abuse are punished, which is true in some cases, but many findings suggest a culture of impunity surrounding the non-punishments American torturers recieve.
A list of such cases can be found in my diary, and I'll repost them below:
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
One soldier has been sentenced to two months in prison, another to three months. A third was demoted and given a letter of reprimand and a fine. A fourth was given a reduction in rank and pay.
http://www.newyorker.com/...
In a subsequent internal investigation, United States government authorities classified Jamadi's death as a "homicide," meaning that it resulted from unnatural causes. Swanner has not been charged with a crime and continues to work for the agency.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
More than two months after a classified Army report found that two contract workers were implicated in the abuse of Iraqis at a prison outside Baghdad, the companies that employ them say that they have heard nothing from the Pentagon, and that they have not removed any employees from Iraq.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Despite demands by human rights groups in the US that the two companies be barred from further contracts in Iraq - where CACI alone employed almost half of all interrogators and analysts at Abu Ghraib - CACI International has been awarded a $16 million renewal of its contract. Titan, meanwhile, has been awarded a new contract worth $164m.
http://news.myway.com/...
An Army official said that a soldier was convicted in the U.S. military justice system of killing a prisoner by hitting him with a rock, and was reduced in rank to private and thrown out of the service but did not serve any jail time.
http://select.nytimes.com/...
Despite indications of C.I.A. involvement in the deaths of at least four prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, C.I.A. employees now appear likely to escape criminal charges in all but one of those incidents, according to current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The largest CIA prison in Afghanistan was code-named the Salt Pit. It was also the CIA's substation and was first housed in an old brick factory outside Kabul. In November 2002, an inexperienced CIA case officer allegedly ordered guards to strip naked an uncooperative young detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets. He froze to death, according to four U.S. government officials. The CIA officer has not been charged in the death.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him.
http://www.cnn.com/...
A military jury on Monday ordered a reprimand but no jail time for an Army interrogator convicted of killing an Iraqi general by stuffing him headfirst into a sleeping bag and sitting on his chest.
When given the above cases, Hyde's claim that the "DoD holds accountable the individuals responsible" for abuses is not truthful. Especially when you consider the blanket immunity given to CIA agents and civilian contractors in Iraq.
The situation is definitely depressing. The GOP keeps claiming that the US does not torture but at the same time refuses to allow the transparency neccessary to find out if that is true.
A report by the Heritage Foundation claims without irony that:
Torture is against U.S. law, and government policy requires that American officials must obtain assurances from countries where detainees might be transferred that no methods contrary to international and U.S. law will be employed.
It's as if they think states like Syria and Egypt can be trusted afterall!
It should also be noted that Republicans in Congress have blocked efforts to investigate rendition in the past too.
The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is opposing a request by the panel's top Democrat to investigate possible misconduct by the C.I.A. in the treatment of terrorism suspects, Congressional officials said Tuesday.
The chairman, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, is insisting that any review be conducted only as part of the committee's standard oversight role, not a broader inquiry, an aide to Mr. Roberts said.
By contrast, the proposal by the Democratic vice chairman, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, outlined by his staff for the first time on Tuesday, calls for "an investigation into all matters that have any tendency to reveal the full facts about the detention, interrogation and rendition authority and practices" used by government agencies for intelligence purposes.
What I don't understand is, if the GOP says that we don't torture, why are they afraid of a little more transparency? It chills me to think of what they could be hiding.