‘US using illegal methods to get Iraq information’
Dharam Shourie (Press Trust of India)
New York, February 4: Charging the United States with employing "illegal, immoral and utterly unreliable method" for obtaining information from detainees, a non-governmental rights group has demanded the US should respond to these allegations before it presents evidence on Iraq’s weapons programme and terror links to the UN on Wednesday.
"In our work around the world, we have 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," the human rights watch said in a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Recent reports, it said, indicate that at least some of the evidence Powell intends to present was derived from interrogations of detainees held by the United States and its allies in the war against terrorism.
In this connection, the watch referred to a Washington Post report which quoted officials of the Bush administration as suggesting that al-Qaeda suspects have been tortured or mistreated in US 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 the report on December 26, it said, no US official has disavowed its assertions or announced any corrective measures.
In the letter, the watch asked Powell to declare that any US official guilty of such practices will be held accountable, that the US 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 (George W) 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 us 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."
"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," it warned.
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