Torture and Civilization

Folks,

I suppose this is what Bush means when he says that "we will never
tire of defending freedom itself", that is, the way to defend civil
society is to mock and subvert it, the way to defend freedom is to
inflict pain pointlessly.

If you're interested in what these "suspects" are likely facing, pick
up a copy of Elaine Scarry's *The Body in Pain*.

Kendall
--
US sends suspects to face torture

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Tuesday March 12, 2002
The Guardian

The US has been secretly sending prisoners suspected of al-Qaida
connections to countries where torture during interrogation is legal,
according to US diplomatic and intelligence sources. Prisoners moved
to such countries as Egypt and Jordan can be subjected to torture and
threats to their families to extract information sought by the US in
the wake of the September 11 attacks.

The normal extradition procedures have been bypassed in the
transportation of dozens of prisoners suspected of terrorist
connections, according to a report in the Washington Post. The
suspects have been taken to countries where the CIA has close ties
with the local intelligence services and where torture is permitted.

According to the report, US intelligence agents have been involved in
a number of interrogations. A CIA spokesman yesterday said the agency
had no comment on the allegations. A state department spokesman said
the US had been "working very closely with other countries - It's a
global fight against terrorism".

"After September 11, these sorts of movements have been occurring all
the time," a US diplomat told the Washington Post. "It allows us to
get information from terrorists in a way we can't do on US soil."

The seizing of suspects and taking them to a third country without due
process of law is known as "rendition". The reason for sending a
suspect to a third country rather than to the US, according to the
diplomats, is an attempt to avoid highly publicised cases that could
lead to a further backlash from Islamist extremists.

One of the prisoners transported in this way, Muhammad Saad Iqbal
Madni, is allegedly linked to Richard Reid, the Briton accused of the
attempted "shoe bomb" attack on an American Airlines flight from Paris
to Miami in December.  He was taken from Indonesia to Egypt on a
US-registered Gulfstream jet without a court hearing after his name
appeared on al-Qaida documents. He remains in custody in Egypt and has
been subjected to interrogation by intelligence agents.

An Indonesian government official said disclosing the Americans' role
would have exposed President Megawati Sukarnoputri to criticism from
Muslim political parties. "We can't be seen to be cooperating too
closely with the United States," the official said.

A Yemeni microbiology student has also been taken in this way, being
flown from Pakistan to Jordan on a US-registered jet. US forces also
seized five Algerians and a Yemeni in Bosnia on January 19 and flew
them to Guantanamo Bay after the men were released by the Bosnian
supreme court for lack of evidence, and despite an injunction from the
Bosnian human rights chamber that four of them be allowed to remain in
the country pending further proceedings.

The US has been criticised by some of its European allies over the
detention of prisoners at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After
the Pentagon released pictures of blindfolded prisoners kneeling on
the ground, the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was forced to
defend the conditions in which they were being held.

Unsuccessful attempts have been made by civil rights lawyers based in
Los Angeles to have the Camp X-Ray prisoners either charged in US
courts or treated as prisoners of war. The US administration has
resisted such moves, arguing that those detained, both Taliban
fighters and members of al-Qaida, were not entitled to be regarded as
prisoners of war because they were terrorists rather than soldiers and
were not part of a recognised, uniformed army.