As information comes out about the secret detention centers run by the CIA that were first reported by the
Washington Post, it is important to keep this before the public. There are two primary agencies investigating this issue: Human Rights Watch, and the Council of Europe. There are also several countries running their own internal investigations, including Poland, which is one of the Eastern European countries mentioned in the
Human Rights Watch Statement on their independent investigation.
Today, two articles appeared after a report from the chief investigator for the Council of Europe:
CNN: Probe backs CIA prison allegations
NY Times: Inquiry Details Claims of C.I.A. Prisons in Europe
Join me in examining this latest report...
Here is an excerpt:
In his first written interim report on the issue, Mr. Marty said that his investigation so far had "reinforced the credibility of the allegations concerning the transfer and temporary detention of individuals, without any judicial involvement, in European countries."
His report, which was presented to the Council's Legal Affairs and Human Rights committee in Paris, also said: "Legal proceedings in progress in certain countries seemed to indicate that individuals had been abducted and transferred to other countries without respect for any legal standards."
There appears anecdotely to be quite a lot of this going on and it is hard to believe that the host countries were not aware of what was happening. Then again,
Mr. Marty also said he suspected that European secret services knew about the alleged C.I.A. transfers.
"I think it would have been difficult for these actions to have taken place without a degree of collaboration," he said, although he added, "It is possible that secret services did not inform their governments."
And although, this may not save any face for the European hosts, and it certainly doesn't for the US or CIA,
During a news conference Tuesday, Marty said he believed the United States was no longer holding prisoners secretly in Europe, The Associated Press reported.
Marty said he believed the detainees were moved to North Africa in early November, when reports about secret U.S. prisons first emerged in The Washington Post.
Let's review then. We still have a list of 26 disappeared detainees from Human Rights Watch, several of whom have been in the news for various reasons. We, also, have the investigator for the Council of Europe telling us he believes the Eastern European prisons are closed now, although it is pretty close to settled that they were there at one time:
Human Rights Watch emphasizes that there is no doubt that secret detention facilities operated by the United States exist. The Bush Administration has cited, in speeches and in public documents, arrests of several terrorist suspects now held in unknown locations. Some of the detainees cited by the administration include: Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian arrested in Pakistan in March 2002; Ramzi bin al-Shibh, arrested in September 2002; Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (also known as Abu Bilal al-Makki), arrested in United Arab Emirates in November 2002; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, arrested in Pakistan in March 2003 along with Mustafa al-Hawsawi; and Hambali (aka Riduan Isamuddin) arrested in Thailand in August 2003.
Where are these prisoners being held then? How do we go about pressuring our Congress to bring these high profile prisoners back into a legal system that has some due process? Is there any real justification to holding prisoners in this way?
I leave you with one further quote, from the Human Rights Watch Q&A of December 9th:
Does holding persons in secret violate international human rights law?
When a person is forcibly detained by government officials who refuse to acknowledge the detention and who keep the person from the protection of the law, this is called a forced disappearance. The U.S. has long condemned other countries that engage in forced disappearances, and was instrumental in drafting and approving United Nations statements that condemn all enforced disappearances with no exceptions for national security or emergencies. As described by the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross], "No matter how legitimate the reasons for a person's detention, no one has the right to keep that person's fate or whereabouts secret or to deny that he or she is being detained."
