http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0734,hentoff,77589,2.htmlNat Hentoff
Bush to CIA: 'Leave No Marks'
With no sign of torture on a prisoner, then it didn't happen, right?
by Nat Hentoff
August 21st, 2007 7:24 PM
On July 20, George W. Bush issued an executive order authorizing the CIA to use "enhanced" techniques (as the president likes to call them) in its terror interrogation program—including in the CIA's secret prisons, known internationally as "black sites."
CIA director Michael Hayden assures us that "now our mission and authorities
are clearly defined." Adds national intelligence director Michael McConnell: "We now have a clear legal basis" for the CIA's crucial national-security responsibilities.
The new Bush directive claims to forbid torture and cruel and inhuman treatment, as required by the Supreme Court's 2006 Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision and the Geneva Conventions. However, under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, only the president can interpret the meaning of the Geneva Conventions.
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As of this writing, there has been hardly any penetrating press coverage of the charges in this report. For example, "Officials and interrogators who authorize and participate . . . in the CIA's so-called interrogation techniques . . . face a substantial risk of criminal liability under the provisions prohibiting 'torture' and 'cruel or inhuman treatment' in the U.S. War Crimes Act, as amended by the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and under the Torture Convention Implementation Act of 1994."
In other words, it's not only the actual CIA interrogators in these "black sites" who may themselves wind up in the dock. The Leave No Marks report adds:
"Officials who authorize these techniques . . . are at significant risk: namely, that in future trials involving the War Crimes Act and other legal prohibitions described in this report, courts will be presented with credible and compelling evidence of harm—provided by medical and psychological experts skilled in the documentation of physical and psychological consequences of torture and ill treatment, in accordance with internationally accepted protocols."
However, underlying the question of whether these horrific crimes (made in the USA) will ever be prosecuted in our courts is a basic problem: How many Americans will give a damn about demanding such justice?