CIA torture exemption 'illegal'

[4me2]

CIA torture exemption 'illegal'


Mr Obama has banned the use of controversial interrogation techniques


US President Barack Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA agents who used torture tactics is a violation of international law, a UN expert says. The UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says the US is bound under the UN Convention against Torture to prosecute those who engage in it.
Mr Obama released four "torture memos" outlining harsh interrogation methods sanctioned by the Bush administration.
Mr Nowak has called for an independent review and compensation for victims.
"The United States, like all other states that are part of the UN convention against torture, is committed to conducting criminal investigations of torture and to bringing all persons against whom there is sound evidence to court," Mr Nowak told the Austrian daily Der Standard.
The memos approved techniques including simulated drowning, week-long sleep deprivation, forced nudity, and the use of painful positions.
Torture trials
Mr Obama on Thursday said he would not prosecute under anti-torture laws CIA personnel who relied in good faith on Bush administration legal opinions issued after the 11 September attacks.
BUSH-ERA INTERROGATION
Waterboarding: Aimed at simulating sensation of drowning. Used on alleged 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Insect: Harmless insect to be placed with suspect in 'confinement box', suspect to be told the insect would sting. Approved for Abu Zubaydah, but not used
Walling: Detainee slammed repeatedly into false wall to create sound and shock
Sleep deprivation: Detainee shackled stading up. Used often, once for 180 hours



'Amnesty' dismays campaigners
Interrogation: Obama's approach

Mr Nowak - who is due to travel to Washington to meet with officials - said that could be a mitigating factor, but does not absolve those involved.
"The fact that you carried out an order doesn't relieve you of your responsibility," he was quoted as saying by AP news agency.
Mr Nowak, an Austrian law professor, said US courts could still try those suspected of carrying out torture, as Mr Obama has not sought an amnesty law for affected CIA personnel.
He called for an investigation by an independent commission before suspects were tried and said it was important that all victims receive compensation.
Human rights groups have criticised President Obama's decision to protect CIA interrogators, saying charges were necessary to prevent future abuses and hold people accountable.
President Obama banned the use of the controversial interrogation techniques in his first week in office.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8006597.stm

[Over Carl]

As I've said many times before, protection offered by law only applys to some people.

[doughboy]

Torture can encourage the guilty to own up.

[funkyg]

Legal or not, it wouldn't stop Jack Bauer.

[pattikins]

Torture can encourage the guilty to own up.

If that's true, I reckon Bush should be first in line.

[crazyadi]

what is the point of having laws in an individual country, when a collection of countries can pipe up and say no you cant do that! america is its own country, obama is the president if he says he aint doing anything about it then tuff shit, the other groups should mind their own business!! the UN and the Eu should be getting invloved in things that affect the world globaly, like iran trying to get nuclear missiles, not doemstic stuff!!!

tell them to fuck off mr president!!

[crazyadi]

Waterboarding: Aimed at simulating sensation of drowning. Used on alleged 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Insect: Harmless insect to be placed with suspect in 'confinement box', suspect to be told the insect would sting. Approved for Abu Zubaydah, but not used
Walling: Detainee slammed repeatedly into false wall to create sound and shock
Sleep deprivation: Detainee shackled stading up. Used often, once for 180 hours


so no drilling of teeth, ripping out of nails, burning with branding irons, breaking of bones etc

call that torture.....stupid girls want to shut up and thank their lucky stars they were only playing!!!

[Over Carl]

what is the point of having laws in an individual country, when a collection of countries can pipe up and say no you cant do that! america is its own country, obama is the president if he says he aint doing anything about it then tuff shit, the other groups should mind their own business!! the UN and the Eu should be getting invloved in things that affect the world globaly, like iran trying to get nuclear missiles, not doemstic stuff!!!

tell them to fuck off mr president!!

The UN should boot us out for flouting the un declaratiom of human rights and America is a far worse a threat to this world than Iran. Sorry what was your point again?

[super mike]

Walling: Detainee slammed repeatedly into false wall to create sound and shock

Am I being dim again? How do you slam someone into a 'false wall'? Is that not slamming someone into 'nothng'?

[Over Carl]

I did try to figure that out myself. At first I thought they must mean like a plasterboard wall, but I know from experience that it's not too hard to go through one which left me baffled again.

[super mike]

I first thought plasterboard, but as you say, you'd go straight through.
Then I thought a heavy hanging sheet of sorts, but that will have give and will feel like being slammed into a sheet.
Now I am out of any remotely sensible ideas.

[Over Carl]

Well I suppose it is the americans. I wouldn't put it past them to have spent billions on some hologram machine to simulate a wall to be pretend smacked into or something.