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One Year After the Abu Ghraib Torture Photos: U.S. Government Response 'Grossly Inadequate'
Architects of U.S. Torture Policy: Promoted, Not Punished
A Human Rights First Assessment
One year after torture in U.S. custody was graphically revealed to the world in the form of photos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Human Rights First reports that the U.S. government’s response has been grossly inadequate and that key policies that led to that abuse are still in place.
The Abu Ghraib photos were shocking and met with bipartisan and worldwide censure. But those photos were just a prelude to revelations in the past year of widespread abuse in U.S. detention and interrogation operations that had come badly unmoored from the rule of law.
A year after the broadcast of the Abu Ghraib photos, it is clear:
* Torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. custody extend far beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib;
* The civilian and military leaders in charge of detention and interrogation operations a year ago have been promoted rather than punished;
* The key policies that led to such widespread illegality are still in place.
The gravity and scope of the problem – combined with the inadequate response by the Bush administration – underscore the need for an independent, nonpartisan review of detention and interrogation polices and practices. Only Congress can take this step.
When the pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib became public, President Bush publicly repudiated the conduct. Administration officials declared that torture was unacceptable, and insisted that the lawlessness the photos revealed was the unauthorized work of a “few bad apples.” The facts revealed in the ensuing year tell a dramatically different story. Even the incomplete and limited internal investigations conducted since then have revealed a spectrum of problems, many of which continue today.
Deaths in Custody: 108 People Have Died in U.S. Custody, U.S. Government Acknowledges
* The U.S. government has acknowledged 28 confirmed or suspected homicides of detainees in U.S. custody. Only one of these homicides occurred at Abu Ghraib.[1]
* At least 45 detainees have died in U.S. custody since Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld was informed of the abuses at Abu Ghraib on January 16, 2004.[2]
* 63 of the 108 detainee deaths occurred at locations other than Abu Ghraib.[3]
Abu Ghraib – One Prison in a Wider Network
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are two of the most well-known prisons, but they are just two sites in a much larger network of at least two dozen U.S. detention facilities.
* There are six main acknowledged U.S. detention facilities worldwide—three in Iraq, two in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay;[4]
* There are also approximately 25 transient facilities – field prisons designed to house detainees only for a short period until they can be released or transferred to a more permanent facility – in Afghanistan and Iraq.[5]
*
As of February 2005, roughly 65,000 people have been screened for possible detention, and about 30,000 of those were entered “into the system,” and assigned internment serial numbers in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and Afghanistan.[6]
Secret Prisons, “Ghost Detainees”
In addition to Abu Ghraib and the five other acknowledged U.S. detention facilities worldwide, there are a number of other “secret” detention locations at which the United States has held, and continues to hold, prisoners. These have included CIA facilities in Afghanistan and Jordan, detention facilities in Alizai, Kohat and Peshawar in Pakistan, and detentions of prisoners on U.S. ships, particularly the USS Peleliu and USS Bataan.[7]
* The United States continues to hold detainees in these and other “secret” facilities, not registering them with the International Committee of the Red Cross or allowing independent Red Cross observers to access and examine these detainees to make sure they are not being mistreated.[8]
* A U.S. official, General Paul Kern, estimated that CIA has held as many as 100 ghost detainees in Iraq alone.[9]
* The U.S. transferred at least one dozen prisoners out of Iraq in late 2003 and early 2004 for further interrogation in violation of the Geneva Conventions.[10]
Detentions Are On the Rise
The detainee population in Iraq has doubled in the past five months; the prison population today is at the same level it was when the abuses documented in the Abu Ghraib photos occurred. The rising numbers of detentions have strained the capacity of the main detention facilities in Iraq, a factor now-concluded Pentagon investigations identified as contributing to abuse such as that at Abu Ghraib.
* More than 11,000 people are currently in U.S. detention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
* As of March 2005, there were 8,900 detainees in main facilities and 1,300 in transient facilities in Iraq.
* The U.S. was holding approximately 600 detainees in Afghanistan.
* There are approximately 520 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.[11]
Architects of U.S. Interrogation Policy: Promoted, Not Punished
Despite evidence of pervasive abuse, and findings by the Army’s own investigators of “systemic problems” and “leader responsibility” at high levels, most senior officials involved in U.S. detention and interrogation policy setting have not been punished – and many have even been promoted.
* Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - who once asserted full responsibility for the torture that occurred – was asked by the President to stay on as Secretary of Defense.
* Former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales – among the first to embrace the no-rules-apply approach to the “war on terror” – is now U.S. Attorney General.
* The month after the Abu Ghraib photos became public, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller – formerly in charge of interrogations at Guantanamo and credited with instituting the use of dogs at Abu Ghraib – was assigned to be senior commander in charge of detention operations in Iraq.
* Jay S. Bybee, former Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel and the principal author of the memo defining torture so narrowly as to require an act to “be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death,” was appointed a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in March, 2003.
* William J. Haynes, Defense Department General Counsel – who recommended over the protests of military lawyers many of the most abusive tactics used at Guantanamo (tactics that quickly “migrated” to Iraq) – has been nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
* Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast – the highest-ranking intelligence officer so far tied to the Abu Ghraib scandal – was assigned to the Army’s main interrogation training facility at Fort Huachuca, Arizona last month.
* Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez – who oversaw detention facilities in Iraq and was excoriated in Pentagon reports for his role in letting torture continue under his command – was named the head of the Army’s 5th Corps in Europe.
Of the officers whose role in the Abu Ghraib scandal was examined by the Army at the request of the Senate Armed Services Committee, only Brig. Gen. Janice Karpinski received any punishment. Brig. Gen. Karpinski commanded detention operations at Abu Ghraib prison during the time the now-famous photos of abuse were taken. Brig. Gen. Karpinski was relieved of her command and received a written reprimand.
The highest ranking service member successfully prosecuted has been Marine Major Clarke Paulus, who was dismissed from the service without jail time after being convicted for his role in the strangulation death of a (non-Abu Ghraib) detainee.
Torture Policies Still In Place
The numbers alone make clear the role that policy decisions have played – and continue to play – in facilitating the torture and abuse of U.S.-held detainees. Beyond the numbers:
* In an April 16, 2003 directive, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld approved for use at Guantanamo interrogation techniques including prolonged solitary confinement and “environmental manipulation.” The April 2003 directive, authorizing treatment in violation of U.S. and international law, is still in effect. FBI memos released since the April 2003 directive was made public have charted the effects of this policy, describing detainees in frigid temperatures left chained to the floor, lying in their own excrement, in one case pulling his own hair out in response.[12]
* The Administration ruled in 2002 that the Geneva Conventions do not generally apply in
Afghanistan; that policy remains in place. In addition, there are at least 325 foreign fighters detained in Iraq to whom the Administration says the Geneva Conventions do not apply.[13]
* The Administration also takes the view that the prohibition against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment does not apply to non-citizen prisoners the U.S. holds abroad. Attorney General Gonzales asserted incorrectly that “there is no legal obligation ... on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment with respect to aliens overseas.”[14]
* A draft version of revised Army detention rules circulated last month maintains the Administration’s equivocal commitment to abiding by the Geneva Conventions; in one section, the draft implies that even the fundamental legal obligation to treat so-called “enemy combatants” humanely may be avoided at will in the general interest of “military necessity.”[15]
* While Pentagon investigators cited the vagueness and confusion of these policies – if Geneva doesn’t apply, what does? – as contributing to the torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib, there remain at least three different sets of still ambiguous interrogation guidelines for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.[16]
* The policy of outsourcing torture to other nations continues. An estimated 100 to 150 individuals have been rendered from U.S. custody to a foreign country known to torture prisoners, including to Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Pakistan.[17]
[1] Prisoner Deaths in U.S. Custody, Assoc. Press, March 16, 2005, available at sfgate.com (accessed April 18, 2005).
[2] Prisoner Deaths in U.S. Custody, supra, note 2.
[3]Id..
[4] Human Rights First, Behind the Wire: an update to Ending Secret Detentions Ch. 2 (March 2005) available at humanrightsfirst.org (accessed April 18, 2005); E-mail from LTC Michele Dewerth, Combined Forces Command to Priti Patel, Human Rights First (June 9, 2004, 13:36 EST) (on file with Human Rights First); Telephone Interview with Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, Detainee Operations, Multi-National Forces (Oct. 20, 2004); Press Briefing, White House (Jan. 9, 2002), available at whitehouse.gov (accessed Jan. 21, 2005).
[5] Behind the Wire, supra note 8; Telephone Interview with Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, Detainee Operations, Multi-National Forces (Oct. 20, 2004) ; E-mail from LTC Pamela Keeton, Public Affairs Officer, Combined Forces Command to Priti Patel, Human Rights First (Oct. 25, 2004, 10:51 EST) (on file with Human Rights First); U.S. Military to Allow Red Cross to Visit Second Afghan Prison, Assoc. Press, June 9, 2004, available at news.bostonherald.com (accessed Jan. 20, 2005); Prisoner Abuse Claim Emerges in Afghanistan, Agence France Presse, July 6, 2004, available at aljazeerah.info
archives/July/4%20n/Prisoner%20Abuse%20Claim%20Emerges%20in
%20Afghanistan.htm (accessed Nov. 17, 2004); Other news sources list the number of outlying facilities to be 30. See Declan Walsh, Frustrated US Forces Fail to Win Hearts and Minds: Troops Hunting Taliban Run Into Wall of Silence, Guardian, Sept. 23, 2004, available at guardian.co.uk (accessed Jan. 20, 2005).
[6] Kathleen T. Rhem, Army Improving Procedures For Handling Detainees, Amer. Forces Press Service, Feb. 25, 2005, available at www-tradoc.army.mil (accessed Mar. 8, 2005) (quoting Donald J. Ryder, Army’s provost marshal general).
[7] Human Rights First, Ending Secret Detentions (June 2004), available at humanrightsfirst.org (accessed Mar. 8, 2005); Dana Priest and Joe Stephens, Secret World of U.S. Interrogation: Long History of Tactics in Overseas Prisons is Coming to Light, Wash. Post, May 11, 2004, at A1; David Kaplan and Ilana Ozernoy, Al Qaeda’s Desert Inn, U.S. News and World Report, June 2, 2003, at 22-23; Yossi Melman, CIA Holding Al-Qaida Suspects in Secret Jordanian Lockup, Haaretz, Oct. 13, 2004, available at informationclearinghouse.info (accessed Jan. 19, 2005); See Expeditionary Strike Force One, U.S. Naval Special Operations Command Office of Public Affairs, ESG 1 Strikes From the Sea, Jan. 5, 2004, available at navsoc.navy.mil (accessed Jan. 20, 2005); Australian Taliban Fighter Handed Over to U.S. Military Forces in Afghanistan, Assoc. Press, Dec. 17, 2001, available at multimedia.belointeractive.com (accessed Jan. 20, 2005); Carlotta Gall and Mark Lander, A Nation Challenged: The Captives, N.Y. Times, Jan. 5, 2002, at A5; Memorandum from Dep’t of Army, U.S. Army Crim. Investigation Command, Afghanistan (July 2, 2004), re: CID Report of Investigation – Final (C)/SSI – 0061-2004-CID369-69277-5C1J (on file with Human Rights First); Dana Priest and Barton Gellman, U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations; 'Stress and Duress' Tactics Used on Terrorism Suspects Held in Secret Overseas Facilities, Wash. Post, Dec. 26 2002, at A1; Dana Priest, Long-Term Plan Sought For Terror Suspects, Wash. Post, Jan. 2, 2005, at A1; News Release, Dep’t of Defense, Defense Department Operational Update Briefing (July 14, 2004), available at defenselink.mil (accessed Jan. 21, 2005).
[8] Behind the Wire, supra note 4;
[9] John Hendren, CIA May Have Held As Man as 100 ‘Ghost’ Prisoners, L.A. Times, Sept. 10, 2005.
[10] Douglas Jehl, U.S. Action Bars Rights of Some Captured in Iraq, N.Y. Times, Oct. 25, 2004, at A1.
[11] Will Dunham, Number of Prisoners Held by U.S. in Iraq Grows, Reuters, March 30, 2005, available at reuters.com (accessed April 18, 2005); Behind the Wire, supra note 6; See U.S. Taking Fewer Prisoners in Afghanistan, Assoc. Press, Jan. 3, 2005, available at nytimes.com (accessed Jan. 3, 2005); see also E-mail from LTC Pamela Keeton, Public Affairs Officer, Combined Forces Command to Priti Patel, Human Rights First (Jan. 6, 2005 1:00 EST) (on file with Human Rights First); Edward Wong, American Jails in Iraq Are Bursting with Detainees, N.Y. Times, Mar. 4, 2005, available at nytimes.com
pagewanted=all&position= (accessed March 7, 2005); News Release, Dep’t of Defense, Detainee Transfer Announced (Mar. 7, 2005), available at defenselink.mil (accessed Mar. 7, 2005); Ending Secret Detentions, supra note 7.
[12] DOD Memorandum for the Commander, US Southern Command: Counter-Resistance Techniques in the War on Terrorism, April 16, 2003, 1, available at washingtonpost.com (accessed April 26, 2005); see also FBI Documents, ACLU FOIA Litigation, available at aclu.org (accessed
[13] Douglas Jehl and Neil A. Lewis, U.S. Said to Hold More Foreigners in Iraq Fighting, N.Y. Times, Jan. 8, 2005, at A1.
[14] Frank Davies, Torture Doesn’t Bar ‘Cruel, Inhuman’ tactics, Gonzales Says, Knight-Ridder, Jan. 26, 2005, available at commondreams.org (accessed April 26, 2005).
[15] Pamela Hess, ‘Enemy Combatant’ Added to DoD Doctrine, Wash. Times, April 8, 2005; see also Document on File with Human Rights First.
[16] Vice Adm. Albert T. Church, Review of Dep’t Of Defense Interrogation Operations, Executive Summary 4-9, March 10, 2005, available at defenselink.mil (accessed April 26, 2005
[17] Douglas Jehl and David Johnston, Rule Change Lets CIA Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails, N.Y. Times, Feb. 6, 2005, available at nytimes.com (accessed Mar. 8, 2005); Jane Mayer, Outsourcing Torture, New Yorker, Feb. 14, 2005, available at nytimes.com (accessed Mar. 8, 2005). |
