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US Senate’s Torture Testimony

The bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report says that higher ups including the President himself in the Bush administration “share much of the blame” for detainee abuse at Abu Gharaib prison in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and in secret CIA prisons. These abuses are in addition to the two wars that have resulted in the death of around a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These revelations are nothing new in essence. The report only confirms that the abuse of detainees in US custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of a few bad apples acting on their own. It emphasises that senior officials solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, altered the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authourised their use against detainees. Torturing a prisoner to death was excusable. In fact, inventing, authorising and implementing new policies of torture led to promotions.

It is a pity that US officials and leaders, charged with defending the Constitution, undermined its sanctity and abused international conventions and laws for political compulsions. As the report says, an executive summary signed by President Bush in February 2002, states that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to the US war on Al Qaeda, and the suspects captured in Afghanistan were not entitled to prisoners of war status or legal protections. So what the world witnessed was saffron-clad detainees in the far away island of Cuba, being held and tried on supra-legislative assumptions, and horrifying tales of degrading treatment of the ones being held in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under the pretext of interrogation, the US servicemen and officials committed the worst form of human rights violations. Conveniently dubbed as another ‘heart attack’, hundreds of detainees were left to die under the force of baton and boots.

The ingenuous forms of torture documented such as: ridiculing a detainee, interrogating in an offending language to elicit provocation, stripping, punching and kicking, keeping handcuffed for days and nights, and prolonged sleep deprivation — leave one in a state of shock and awe.

The administration officials have repeatedly demonstrated shocking arrogance and disregard for the rule of law and the principles of justice and fairness enshrined in the US constitution. The Senate report only reflects the extent of damage America’s reputation has suffered as a democracy and law-abiding nation. In other words, this is an indictment of the Bush administration.

The incoming administration of Barack Obama cannot ignore what has happened, and what has been documented in the Senate report. Closing of Guantanamo Bay and many such secret prisons worldwide will be the first step to restore the world’s trust in America.