Behind the Wire-23 The effects of such detention on the families of those held have been similarly severe. For example, the New York Times reported of some of the families of Iraqi detainees: Sabrea Kudi cannot find her son. He was son 287 Indeed, the Army Inspector General concluded late last year that the lack of a central system for detainee information had exacerbated families' difficulty in trying to locate their relatives and hindered U.S. efforts to obtain information from the detainees. For a conflict in which winning the trust of the local population is a critical security imperative, the phenomena of prolonged detention and disappeared family members are catastrophic for U.S. security interests. Current Practice Weakens We are a nation of laws. And to the extent that people say, "Well, America is no longer a nation of laws," that does hurt our reputation. But I think it's an unfair criticism. President George W. Bush, quoted in The Washington Post December 21, 2004 The final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States emphasized that military power is only one of a set of critical tools in the nation's toolbox to reduce the chances of more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Other means - what some have called "soft power" - include diplomatic and economic measures, cultural and educational exchange, and the ability to credibly leverage moral and popular authority. Former Secretaries of State James Baker and Warren Christopher wrote together to highlight the security relevance of these tools in the Washington Post. "[A]ctivities such as economic development and democratization abroad are not simply good things to do as members of the international community, they are strategic imperatives that address the link between a failed state and our own country's vulnerability to foreign threats." And indeed, the United States has devoted substantial resources to so-called public diplomacy in Muslim-majority countries thought to be strategically important in the "war on terrorism." Since September 11, 2001, both the State Department and the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) – the agency responsible for non-military U.S. international broadcasting have expanded their efforts in the Middle East. BBG's budget for fiscal year 2004, for example, includes more than $42 million for radio and television broadcasting to the Middle East. Since 1999, the BBG has reduced the scope of operations of more than 25 language services and reallocated about $19.7 million toward Central Asia and the Middle East, including $8 million for Radio Farda service to Iran." The United States' ability to deploy these tools effectively depends critically on visible demonstration that the United States' deeds match its words in supporting democracy and human nights. Responding to the State Department's recently released human rights country reports, China, Russia, Venezuela, and Mexico all questioned the United States' standing to criticize other countries in light of the torture and abuse in U.S. detention facilities. In Indonesia, a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Ministry stated: "The U.S. government does not have the moral authority to assess or act as a judge of other countries, including Indonesia, on human rights, especially after the abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. The extent to which the United States' detention practices represent a failure in this regard is also painfully evident when one compares the Administration's statements to revelations about acts of torture by U.S. personnel: • On March 23, 2003, after American soldiers were captured and abused in Iraq, the United States condemned Iraqi treatment of American prisoners as violating the Geneva Conventions and contrasted it to the United States' own treatment of prisoners it had taken. President Bush 24- The Purpose Behind the Law demanded that American prisoners "be • On June 26, 2003, President Bush af- • On April 28, 2004, Supreme Court Justice • On June 22, 2004, then White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales reiterated at a press conference that "in the war against al Qaeda and its supporters, the United States will follow its treaty obligations and U.S. law, both of which prohibit the use of torture. And this has been firm U.S. policy since the outset of this administration and it remains our policy today." At Mr. Gonzales' confirmation hearings for his nomination to be Attorney General, he refused to acknowledge that the President was invariably bound by federal laws banning torture and other cruel treatment.** Unsurprisingly, U.S. detention operations appear to be inflaming those whose aid we most need. As a CATO Institute military analyst explained, "[a]fter Abu Ghraib, [the U.S.] does not] have a level of trust and credibility with many people inside the Arabic and Islamic world. This certainly doesn't help us make our case with them." Polling in Iraq last summer confirms this, finding that US detention practices have helped galvanize public opinion in Iraq against U.S. efforts there. Muslim clerics have railed against the United States for the abuse of Iraqi captives at Abu Ghraib prison. As one Muslim preacher was quoted saying: "No one can ask them what they are doing, because they are protected by their freedom... No one can punish them, whether in our country or their country. The worst thing is what was discovered in the course of time: abusing women, children, men, and the old men and women whom they arrested randomly and without any guilt. They expressed the freedom of rape, the freedom of nudity and the freedom of humiliation. And our enemies are perhaps more emboldened than ever. The Pakistani Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e-Tayba has used the internet to call for sending holy warriors to Iraq to take revenge for the torture at Abu Ghraib Instead of being able to deploy U.S. power to promote democracy abroad, U.S. policies that promote secrecy and lack of accountability have encouraged authoritarian regimes around the globe to commit abuses in the name of counterterrorism abuses that undermine efforts to promote democracy and human rights. These regimes self-consciously invoke the very language the United States uses to justify such security policies in order to suppress lawful dissent and quell political opposition in their own countries. To cite a few examples: In Georgia (where Former President of • In Colombia (where the govemment of • In Malaysia (where in September 2003, • In Zimbabwe (where President Robert Mugabe, voicing agreement with the Bush Administration's policies in the "war on terrorism," declared foreign journalists and others critical of his regime "terrorists" and suppressed their work):** and • In Eritrea (where the govering party arrested 11 political opponents, has held them incommunicado and without charge, and defended its actions as being consis tent with United States' actions after September 11).*** That we are now used as an example of unchecked government power by the most repressive regimes in the world does not make the United States responsible for those regimes' repression. But it is one of the surest signs that the United States is losing the critical moral high ground that is essential to achieving success against terrorism. And all the advertising dol lars in the world will not be able to restore our moral authority once it is lost. Behind the Wire - 25 V. Recommendations Behind the Wire - 27 T The past nine months have revealed a fair amount about U.S. policy and practice of detention and interrogation in the "war on terrorism. Despite a number of positive steps taken by the US Govemment, there remain outstanding questions regarding the status of those held in US detention facilities around the world. The US Government needs to provide a baseline accounting to the Red Cross and the families of those detained of the number, nationality, legal status, and general location of all those the United States currently holds. And it must establish the legal basis for continuing to hold the thousands detained, and identify and protect those detainees' rights under law. Human Rights First thus calls on the Bush Administration to take the following steps: 1. Disclose to Congress as required under recently enacted legislation the location of all US-controlled detention facilities worldwide, and provide a full and regular accounting of the number of detainees, their nationality, and the legal basis on which they are being held. 2. Order a thorough, comprehensive, and independent investigation of all U.S.-controlled detention facilities, and submit the findings of the investigation to Congress. 3. Take all necessary steps to inform the immediate families of those detained of their loved ones' capture, location, legal status, and condition of health. 4. Immediately grant the Red Cross access to all detainees being held by the United States in the course of the "global war on terrorism." 5. Publicly reject suggestions by Administration lawyers that domestic and intemational prohibitions on torture and cruelty do not apply to the President in the exercise of his commander-in-chief authority. 6. Investigate and prosecute all those who camed out acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in violation of US and international law, as well as those officials who ordered, approved or tolerated these acts. 7. Publicly disclose the status of all pending investigations into allegations of mistreatment of detainees and detainee deaths in custody |