[115] Perlez, Bonner, and Masood, âAn Ex-Detainee of the U.S. I was ... put on what looked like a hospital bed, and strapped down very tightly with belts. You start to panic. [346] The US State Department had the following to say in its 2003 reports about torture in Egypt and Syria, two of the major rendition destinations. sec. 2340(1), torture is defined to include an act specifically intended to inflict severe mental pain or suffering. In addition, it is not necessary for conspirators to have known or intended for the conspiracy to violate federal law per se. As Tenet reportedly told a closed-door international meeting of top intelligence officials on March 10, 2002, in New Zealand: Tenet directly oversaw the CIA rendition program, which led to the torture and ill-treatment of detainees abroad. 1987) (citations omitted). There is no immunity, and certainly nothing that should cut off a criminal investigation before it even starts.â See ACLU Letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder, âACLU Asks Justice Department to Appoint Independent Prosecutor to Investigate Torture,â March 18, 2009, http://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-asks-justice-department-appoint-independent-prosecutor-investigate-torture, (accessed June 17, 2011). [28] Memorandum from Colin L. Powell to counsel to the president, regarding âDraft Decision Memorandum for the President on the Applicability of the Geneva Convention to the Conflict in Afghanistan,â January 26, 2002, p. 2. It also made clear that he was unlikely to take action against military personnel that did not conform to international legal requirements. [348] US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, âCountry Reports on Human Rights Practicesâ2003: Syria,â February 25, 2004, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27938.htm (accessed June 15, 2011). [359] The House of Lords, then the UKâs highest court, twice rejected Pinochet's claim of immunity. [13] A report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, leaked by an unknown source, also describes the treatment of âhigh-valueâ detainees in CIA custody. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was aware of US military abuse of detainees in Afghanistan as early as January 2002. 2-3. According to CIA Director Hayden, âfewer than 100 people have been detained at CIAâs facilities.â Remarks of Central Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Michael V. Hayden at the Council on Foreign Relations, September 7, 2007, transcript at http://www.cfr.org/terrorism/conversation-michael-hayden-rush-transcript-federal-news-service/p14162 (accessed June 24, 2011). âRumsfeld Sued for Alleged War Crimes,â November 20, 2004, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,1413907,00.html, (accessed June 15, 2011). The German Code of Crimes against International Law in article 1, part 1, section 1 states: "This Act shall apply to all criminal offenses against international law designated under this Act, to serious criminal offenses designated therein even when the offense was committed abroad and bears no relation to Germany.â. [311] Testimony of Schmidt, August 24, 2005, http://www.salon.com/entertainment/col/fix/2006/04/14/fri/Schmidt.pdf. 1578, June 19, 1996, 85 F. 3d 1063 (2d Cir. Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., 614 F.3d 1070, 1091-1092 (9th Cir. section 2340A(c)). A Marine witness stated that one of the three Marines âheld the wires against the shoulder area of the detainee and that the detainee âdancedâ as he was shocked,â a second Marine operated the transformer, and a third guarded the detainee. Bush repeated the admission on a number of occasions after the book was published. [153], The Defense Department investigation chaired by James R. Schlesinger found that âthe augmented techniques [approved by Rumsfeld] for Guantanamo migrated to Afghanistan and Iraq where they were neither limited nor safeguarded.â[154], Contrary to the attention given interrogation techniques at Guantanamo, there was no prescribed interrogation regime for prisoners in Afghanistan. Thus, for instance, when troops commit massacres and atrocities against the civilian population of occupied territory or against prisoners of war, the responsibility may rest not only with the actual perpetrators but also with the commander. [31] See Human Rights Watch, Summary of International and US Law Prohibiting Torture and Other Ill-treatment of Persons in Custody, May 24, 2004, http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/24/usint8614.htm. [189] The second August 1, 2002, Bybee memo describes the officially sanctioned procedure of waterboarding as follows: âThe individual is bound securely to an inclined bench, which is approximately four feet by seven feet. [243], Yoo had briefed White House counsel Gonzales several times on the August 1, 2002 memorandum during its drafting, as well as Attorney General Ashcroft, Cheneyâs counsel David Addington, Defense Department counsel William Haynes, CIA counsel John Rizzo, and NSC legal advisor John Bellinger. And I just find it hard to believe, as does anybody, that when the Secretary of Defense has that kind of interest to where heâs talking weekly with the JTF Commander and the COCOM, but the JTF Commander too, personallyâand General Dunlavey said he didnât even go to the SOUTHCOM, he went directly to the Office of [Secretary of] Defense. In a key memo dated January 25, 2002, Gonzales urged the president to declare Taliban forces in Afghanistan and al Qaeda outside the coverage of the Geneva Conventions. 26671, April 3, 2007, http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ct-court-of-appeals/1034918.html (accessed June 14, 2011). See also, Elise Ackerman, âAbu Ghraib Interrogators Involved in Afghan Case,â Knight Ridder, August 22, 2004. 2340(2) further defines, âsevere mental pain or sufferingâ as âthe prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting fromâ (A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering; (B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality; (C) the threat of imminent death; or (D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality;â¦â, The OLC in 2000 concluded that âThe indictment or criminal prosecution of a, http://www.aschq.army.mil/gc/files/fm27-10.pdf, discussion of command responsibility, see. sec. And, of course, many of the pictures from Abu Ghraib show unmuzzled dogs being used to intimidate detainees, sometimes while they are cowering, naked. [177] While some officials might argue that authorization of their conduct by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel negates the specific intent requirement, that argument would almost certainly fail if prosecutors could demonstrate that the OLCâs own work was itself an act within the conspiracy or if, as explained below, those officials were instrumental in pressing for legal cover from the OLC or influenced the drafting of the memoranda that they now claim protects them. See Joseph F. McSorley, A Portable Guide to Federal Conspiracy Law â Tactics and Strategies for Criminal and Civil Cases, 2nd Ed. Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation War is a novel by military theorist and paleoconservative William S. Lind (published in 2014 under the penname Thomas Hobbes) in which, 20 Minutes into the Future, the United States breaks up into a series of warring successor states, including the Northern Confederation (eventually renamed Victoria) in New England. [192] U.S Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, âCountry Reports on Human Rights Practicesâ2004, Tunisia,â February 28, 2005, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41733.htm (accessed June 15, 2011), stating âThe forms of torture included: electric shock; confinement to tiny, unlit cells; submersion of the head in water.â. April 23, 2005, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2005/04/23/getting-away-torture-0, Annex. Res. [199] Wallach, âDrop By Drop,â pp. section 371),[172] as well as specific statutes for particular substantive offenses, the most relevant of which would be conspiracy to commit torture (18 U.S.C. At one point in the interrogation, being subjected to extended sleep deprivation, his heart rate dropped to a dangerously low level of 35 beats per minute. Among the âovert actsâ in furtherance of the conspiracy, in addition to the mistreatment itself, would be the preparation and adoption of the various legal memos, Executive Orders, and formal and informal approvals. As described above, on December 2, 2002, he authorized a list of techniques for interrogation of prisoners in Guantanamo that was an unprecedented expansion of US military doctrine. The majority of administration investigations undertaken from 2004 forward lacked the independence or breadth necessary to fully explore the prisoner-abuse issue. [1]George W. Bush, Decision Points (New York: Crown Publishers, 2010), p. 170. is that waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. The acts and abuses discussed in this report violate various provisions of US federal law, including the Crimes and Criminal Procedure Statute, Chapter 18 of the US Code (U.S.C. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (âConvention against Enforced Disappearanceâ) defines an enforced disappearance as âthe arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.â[217], The Convention against Enforced Disappearance states that âNo one shall be held in secret detentionâ[218] The UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1992, provides that all detainees shall be held in an officially recognized place of detention, and that accurate information on detainees and their place of detention shall be made promptly available to family members, counsel, and any others having a legitimate interest in the information. Most importantly, they downgraded existing international law, which must be followed, to the level of âprinciples,â which only should be followed. [117] Former detainees said they were subjected to weeks and even months in solitary confinementâwhich was at times either suffocatingly hot, or cold from excessive air conditioningâas punishment for not cooperating in interrogations or for violating prison rules. 10: âHe who violates the laws of war cannot obtain immunity while acting in pursuance of the authority of the State if the State in authorizing action moves outside its competence under international law.â); Regina v. Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate, ex parte Pinochet Ugarte (No.