The AP reports today that a new report, released by the UN's Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, documents a sorrowful lack of accountability on the part of the US government in transparently documenting and prosecuting unlawful killings by government agents both at home and abroad. One paragraph in particular shot out at me:
There are credible reports of at least five custodial deaths caused by torture or other coercion in which the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been implicated. Although the role of the CIA in these wrongful deaths has reportedly been investigated (and in one instance, a CIA contractor prosecuted), no investigation has ever been released and alleged CIA involvement has never been publicly confirmed or denied. The CIA Inspector General told me that the number of cases involving possibly unlawful killings referred by the CIA to the DOJ is classified (pp. 26-27).
A footnote lists the five detainees who were killed by their CIA interrogators:
Mainstream media accounts and reports from civil society organizations indicate CIA involvement in the deaths of the following five people: an un-named detainee killed in November 2002 at a CIA site code-named the "Salt Pit," reportedly located to the north of Kabul, Afghanistan; Abdul Wali, killed in U.S. custody in Asadabad, Afghanistan, on June 21, 2003; Manadel al-Jamadi, killed in U.S. custody in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, on November 4, 2003; Major General Abed Hamed Mowhoush, killed at U.S. Forward Operating Base Tiger, Iraq, on November 26, 2003; Lt. Col. Abdul Jameel, killed at a U.S. forward operating base in Iraq on January 9, 2004.
Many of these names are probably familiar to you. The un-named detainee froze to death after being chained to a concrete floor without blankets and was left there the whole night. Manadel al-Jamadi was effectively crucified by his CIA interrogator, who is fully known and remains free to this day. Abdul Wali was beaten to death by CIA contractor David Passaro, who would later go on to be the only CIA employee convicted of abusing detainees. Abed Hamed Mowhoush was beaten by a CIA-sponsored unit of Iraqis and then suffocated by Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, who subsequently received no jail time for his actions. Lt. Col. Abdul Jameel (PDF, p. 10) was beaten and put into a savage stress position that blocked his oxygen intake and triggered asphyxiation. CIA involvement was discovered in all five of these cases, yet only one CIA interrogator, a contractor, was ever charged in connection to their deaths.
With today's revelation from the UN, it may very well be the case that even more detainees were tortured to death by the CIA with complete and total impunity. We are not allowed to know about any more of these potential deaths, of course. For the good of the country, you understand.