CIA Torture Report Provokes Calls for Prosecution
VOA News
Last updated on: December 10, 2014 7:30 PM
Calls for the prosecution of officials involved in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's use of extreme interrogation methods on suspected terrorists multiplied Wednesday.
Ben Emmerson, the U.N. special envoy on human rights and counterterrorism, said a U.S. Senate report on the CIA's actions after the September 11, 2001, attacks "reinforces the need for criminal accountability."
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said nations "that have signed up to the convention need to follow up on what is in the convention” — a reference to the U.N.'s Convention Against Torture and Inhuman Treatment, signed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and ratified by U.S. lawmakers in 1994. That convention obligates the United States to prosecute those who commit torture or to extradite them to other countries for prosecution.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, said torture "will remain a 'policy option' for future presidents" unless officials are prosecuted.
The demand for accountability extended to Capitol Hill, where Democrat Mark Udall of Colorado spoke at length on the Senate floor.
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