License to Abuse Would Put CIA Above the Law

Pompey · Oct 27, 2005, 03:24 AM

Quote:

U.S.: License to Abuse Would Put CIA Above the Law

(New York, October 26, 2005) – The Bush administration is now
the only government in the world to claim a legal justification for
mistreating prisoners during interrogations, Human Rights Watch
said today.

The administration recently approached members of the U.S.
Congress to seek a waiver that would allow the CIA to use cruel,
inhumane, or degrading treatment on detainees in U.S. custody
outside the United States.

While many other governments practice torture and other forms of
mistreatment and have records of abuse far worse than the United
States, no other government currently claims that such abuse is
legally permissible, Human Rights Watch said.

"The administration is setting a dangerous example for the world
when it claims that spy agencies are above the law," said Tom
Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch.
"Congress should reject this proposal outright. Otherwise, the
United States will have no standing to demand humane treatment if
an American falls into the hands of foreign intelligence services."

Earlier this month, in a 90-9 vote, the U.S. Senate approved a
measure sponsored by Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey
Graham that would prohibit the military and CIA from using
"cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment" in the case of any
detainee, anywhere in the world.

But last week, Vice President Dick Cheney and CIA director
Porter Goss met with Sen. McCain to propose a presidential waiver
for the proposed legislation. The proposed waiver states that the
measure "shall not apply with respect to clandestine
counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to
terrorists who are not citizens of the United States, that are carried
out by an element of the United States government other than the
Department of Defense."
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The waiver, which by its own terms applies to non-military
counterterrorism operations against non-citizens overseas, states
that such operations need to be "consistent with the Constitution
and laws of the United States and treaties to which the United
States is a party, if the president determines that such operations
are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from
terrorist attack." But the Constitution does not robustly curtail the
conduct of the CIA overseas, and relevant domestic laws contain
numerous jurisdictional loopholes. Moreover, administration
officials have previously told Congress that they do not consider
CIA personnel operating outside the United States to be bound by
legal prohibitions against "cruel, inhumane, or degrading
treatment" under treaties to which the United States is party.

"This exception contains code language that could give the CIA a
green light to treat prisoners inhumanely," said Malinowski. "If
allowed to stand, it will render President Bush’s past pledges about
humane treatment meaningless."

Human Rights Watch said the waiver would also open the door for
outright torture, as interrogators would find it impossible to draw
lines between illegal and "allowable" mistreatment. Bush
administration officials, under questioning from members of
Congress in the past, have failed to clearly define differences
between torture and lesser forms of mistreatment. They have also
made inaccurate statements about the definition of torture; for
instance, administration officials have claimed that
"waterboarding" (suffocating a person until he believes he is about
to drown) is not a form of torture.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/10/26/usdom11922.htm

America is certainly not the worst perpetrator, many countries are FAR worse but America continues to claim to stand for "freedom and democracy". Should we be concentrating on the "bad guys" like Iran, North Korea or China rather than rather than the comparatively minor actions of the US. What about western countries (Including the US) that send suspects to countries known or suspected of using torture for interrogation?
Do you consider America a defender of freedom and human rights?