POWELL'S UN SECURITY COUNCIL ''HUMAN EVIDENCE'' FROM DETAINEES WAS EXTRACTED UNDER TORTURE

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday February 06, 2003 09:13 by HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Torture utterly unreliable for obtaining truthful information from detainees.

http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/12/us1227.htm United States: Reports of Torture of Al-Qaeda Suspects HRW Press Release, December 27, 2002 http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm Letter to Secretary of State Powell February 3, 2003

POWELL'S ''HUMAN EVIDENCE'' FROM DETAINEES WAS EXTRACTED UNDER TORTURE

The so-called "human evidence" that Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the UN Security Council was extracted under torture and therefore has no evidentiary value.

Please note that 2 articles follow:

*U.S. Should Renounce Torture before Powell Speech to U.N.
*Letter to Secretary of State Powell

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(1)

U.S. Should Renounce Torture before Powell Speech to U.N.
Human Rights Watch
February 3, 2003
http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell20303.htm

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"In his State of the Union address, President Bush said the Iraqi government is 'evil' because it uses torture. But torture is evil no matter who is using it. Secretary Powell should not lose this chance to explicitly renounce the use of torture by the U.S. government and its allies."
Kenneth Roth
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch
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Related Material

http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/12/us1227.htm
United States: Reports of Torture of Al-Qaeda Suspects
HRW Press Release, December 27, 2002

http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm
Letter to Secretary of State Powell
February 3, 2003
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(New York, February 3, 2003) - Before U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presents evidence on Iraq's weapons programs and terror links to the United Nations on Wednesday, the Bush administration should respond to allegations that intelligence has been obtained from detainees through torture, Human Rights Watch said. http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm

Recent reports indicate that at least some of the evidence Secretary Powell intends to present was derived from interrogations of detainees held by the United States and its allies in the war on terrorism. A December 26 article in the Washington Post quoted unnamed officials of the Bush administration suggesting that al-Qaida suspects have been tortured or mistreated in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, and that others have been rendered to countries where the United States knew they would likely be tortured. Since the publication of that article, no U.S. official has disavowed its assertions or announced any corrective measures.

In a letter to Secretary Powell, Human Rights Watch asked him to declare that any U.S. official guilty of such practices will be held accountable, that the United States has no interest in intelligence obtained through torture and other internationally condemned techniques, and that Washington will not turn over detainees to countries where they are likely to receive such treatment.

"In his State of the Union address, President Bush said the Iraqi government is 'evil' because it uses torture," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But torture is evil no matter who is using it. Secretary Powell should not lose this chance to explicitly renounce the use of torture by the U.S. government and its allies."

The letter said that whatever the truth of the allegations reported by the Washington Post, much of the world now believes the United States is torturing or severely mistreating detainees.

"In our work around the world, Human Rights Watch has encountered many government officials and ordinary citizens who are now convinced that the United States is employing a method widely condemned as illegal, immoral, and utterly unreliable for obtaining truthful information from detainees," said the letter, which is addressed to Secretary Powell and signed by Mr. Roth. "Until this perception is changed, your presentation to the Security Council - to the extent it relies on detainee interrogations - will not inspire the confidence and trust you are seeking."

A copy of the letter can be found at
http://hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm

http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell20303.htm

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(2)

Letter to Secretary of State Powell
Human Rights Watch
February 3, 2003
http://hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm

New York, February 3, 2003

The Honorable Colin Powell
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary Powell:

We understand that your presentation this week to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's weapons programs and ties to Al Qaida may include intelligence derived by interrogating detainees captured in the war on terrorism. This again raises a question that to our great distress has not yet been answered by the administration: whether, as alleged on December 26 by the Washington Post in an extensively sourced article, information from detainees is being obtained through torture or other severe mistreatment, either by U.S. intelligence agencies or by countries to which detainees have been rendered. We urge you to use this opportunity to set the record straight.

In his State of the Union address, President Bush described with appropriate horror some of the torture techniques reportedly used by Saddam Hussein's government: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape. He rightly said that "if this is not evil, then evil has no meaning."
Yet what message is sent to the world when the President of the United States condemns torture by Iraq, while unnamed officials of his administration defend, and even gloat about, the use of torture against detainees held, or once held, by the United States? What message is sent when the Department of State urges Middle Eastern and North African countries to end this brutal and unlawful practice, while the United States renders suspects to the very same countries so that, as stated by U.S. officials to the Post, they can be interrogated by the very same methods?

One official told the Post that "after 9/11, the gloves came off." Another said: "We don't kick the [expletive] out of [detainees]. We send them to other countries so they can kick the [expletive] out of them." Perhaps this is not true, or, perhaps steps have been taken to correct the problem. But since the article appeared, neither the President nor any senior figure in the administration has contradicted any of the statements made to the Post, or announced any corrective measures.

As a result, whatever the truth of the matter, much of the world now believes that the United States is torturing or severely mistreating detainees, or least taking advantage of torture by others. Indeed, in our work around the world, Human Rights Watch has encountered many government officials and ordinary citizens who are now convinced that the United States is employing an interrogation method widely condemned as illegal, immoral, and utterly unreliable for obtaining truthful information from detainees.

Until this perception is changed, your presentation to the Security Council - to the extent that it relies on detainee interrogations - will not inspire the confidence and trust you are seeking. Nor will America have the credibility we want it to have to denounce torture in Iraq, North Korea, and elsewhere.

We urge you, if you present information to the Security Council derived from detainees, to clarify explicitly whether torture or other mistreatment was used in their interrogation. We also urge you to prevail upon President Bush, as we have requested of him, to make clear without further delay that no matter what the circumstances, torture and mistreatment of detainees is anathema to the United States, that any U.S. official guilty of such practices will be held accountable, that the U.S. has no interest in intelligence obtained through torture and other internationally condemned techniques, and that it will not render detainees to countries where they are likely to receive such treatment. We hope you will understand the stake the United States has in making such a declaration, and the damage that will be done if it continues to remain silent.

Sincerely,

/s/

Kenneth Roth
Executive Director

http://hrw.org/press/2003/02/powell-ltr020303.htm