Reply #7: “There’s been a failure of accountability" [View All]

[rodeodance]

“We’ve seen a series of half-hearted investigations and slaps on the wrist,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “The government seems more interested in managing the detainee abuse scandal than in addressing the underlying problems that caused it.”



The project found that the vast majority of those who were investigated for abuse were enlisted military personnel, not officers. Under military law, officers can be held accountable for the abuses of their subordinates under the doctrine of command responsibility. The project did not find a single case in which an officer was held accountable under that doctrine.



“There’s been a failure of accountability for detainee abuse at the command level,” said Elisa Massimino, Washington director for Human Rights First. “Without accountability up the chain of command, there won’t be deterrence, and the torture and abuses we’ve documented likely will continue.”



The Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project (DAA) was initiated in March 2005 as a joint research effort to collect and analyze credible allegations of abuse of detainees in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, Iraq, and at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, and to assess what actions, if any, the U.S. government has taken in response to these allegations. The project has also recorded investigations, disciplinary measures, or criminal prosecutions that are linked to abuse allegations.