Sexual Threats Among Techniques to be Revealed in CIA Torture Report
-Expected to Spark Violence Around the Globe when it is Released today
- One detainee threatened with sexual assault with broomstick, it is claimed
- Man accused of USS Cole bomb plot 'menaced with a buzzing power drill'
- Security has been increased at U.S. facilities across the globe today
- Worldwide backlash anticipated ahead of release of damning report
Daily Mail UK, 9 December 2014
Sexual threats and menacing one detainee with a power drill are expected to be among controversial CIA torture techniques revealed in a report later today.
The report will detail interrogation techniques used by CIA agents in the wake of 9/11, including threats to sexually assault one captive with a broomstick, according to sources.
It also describes how terrorist Abdel Rahman al Nashiri, suspected mastermind of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, was threatened with a buzzing power drill. The tool was not used on him.
The White House has increase security at U.S. facilities across the globe today in preparation for a global backlash at the contents of the report.
Scroll down for video
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest sparred with reporters today over news reports claiming that Secretary of State John Kerry called the chairwoman of the Senate committee discharging the torture report to ask her to delay its distribution, arguing that Kerry 'strongly supports' the release of the declassified document 'for the same valued-based reasons that the president does'
White House Announces Release of Senate CIA Torture Report:
However the Obama administration remained committed to publishing the incendiary details, insisting that the torture program 'should never happen again'.
The report, which took years to produce, charts the history of the CIA's 'Rendition, Detention and Interrogation' program, which President George W. Bush authorised after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Most of the program was shut down by Bush before he left office, while Obama outlawed 'enhanced interrogation techniques' after his inauguration.
Yesterday a government official sparred with journalists over reports claiming that Secretary of State John Kerry tried to have the report delayed at the 11th hour.
Mr Earnest said that Kerry 'strongly supports' the release of the declassified document 'for the same valued-based reasons that the president does'.
At the same time he declined to extend the administration's proclaimed zeal for transparency to possible phone calls between the current president and former president Bush to discuss the contents of the report.
Earnest said any talks that may have taken place between Obama and Bush would remain private.
Even though the redacted paper will reportedly absolve the former president and his White House of knowledge of the extent of which the CIA was allowed terrorism suspects to be tortured in Europe and Asia in the wake of 9/11, Bush has openly opposed the the release of the document.
'We’re fortunate to have men and women who work hard at the CIA serving on our behalf,' he told CNN’s Candy Crowley during an interview that aired Sunday.
'These are patriots. And whatever the report says, if it diminishes their contributions to our country, it is way off base,' he continued, calling the CIA operatives and directors about to be chastised 'really good people'.
Bush has been joined by other Republicans and members of the intelligence community in calling on the Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate's Intelligence Committee, to bag the truncated version of the still-classified 6,000 page report.
'I think this is a terrible idea,' House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rodgers, a Michigan Republican, told Crowley on Sunday.
'Our foreign partners are telling us this will cause violence and deaths. Foreign leaders who have approached the government say you do this, it will cause violence and deaths. Our own intelligence community has assessed that this will cause violence and deaths,' he said
According to a report, Kerry called Feinstein on Friday to voice similar concerns and asked her to keep a lid on the report
After word of Kerry's call to the California senator spread like wildfire, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement that;
Kerry 'called his former colleague to discuss the broader implications of the timing of the report's release because a lot is going on in the world.'
'He wanted to make sure that foreign policy implications were being appropriately factored into timing,' including 'our ongoing efforts against ISIL and the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world,' she said.
'That anyone would mischaracterize this call or question reasonable, proper, private discussions raises questions about what they’re trying to accomplish,' she added.
John Kerry allegedly tried to have the report delayed at the 11th hour and 'called his former colleague to discuss the broader implications of the timing of the report's release because a lot is going on in the world'
Asked today about claims that Kerry tried to get Feinstein to shelf the report, White House spokesman Earnest pointed reporters to the State Departments statements and reiterated the administration's approval of the Senate committee's decision to make public certain sections of classified document.
'I will allow Secretary Kerry to explain exactly why he made the phone call,' Earnest said.
He later stated that he stated that the legislative branch is constitutionally guaranteed oversight of the executive branch and it is 'free to exercise that oversight authority without inappropriate interference' from president and his administration.
At another point he said the White House has 'been candid from the beginning we believe it's the committee's decision to determine the appropriate timing for the release of this report.'
'The administration has taken the prudent steps to ensure that the proper security precautions are in place' and has been preparing 'for months now for this report's eventual release,' he said today.
Earnest refused to tell reporters what precautionary measures had been taken and at which embassies, saying that 'wouldn't be a wise security strategy,' but a Defense official told CNN on Monday that more than 6,000 Marines deployed abroad had been put on standby.
Pointing out that in his in his first days in office used executive action to put a stop to the harsh interrogation procedures detailed in the report, Earnest told reporters that Obama 'does not believe' they are 'justified
The president's spokesman said Obama believes that regardless of where one comes down in the debate, 'the use of these techniques was not worth it because of the harm that was done between our national values.'
Torture: The report concentrates on the activities of the CIA under the Bush administration, which also saw the establishment of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay which al Qaeda suspects continue to be held
The Obama administration official said that it doesn't matter if the torture tactics did 'unearth useful information.'
'Even if they did,' he said the president believes 'that it wasn't worth it, and it did not enhance the national security of United States of America.'
Feinstein told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published on Sunday that the interrogations undermined 'societal and constitutional values that we are very proud of.'
'Anybody who reads this is going to never let this happen again,' she said.
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden on Sunday pushed back against critics of the agency's behavior under his direction during the final years of Bush's time in office, from 2006 to 2009.
'To say that we relentlessly over an expanded period of time lied to everyone about a program that wasn’t doing any good — that beggars the imagination,' he said on CBS' Face the Nation.
Hayden and other former CIA directors who served under Bush have promised to release a report of their own setting the record straight once the Senate has published the redacted document that it spent five years making.
'Once the release occurs, we’ll have things to say and will be making some documents available that bear on the case,' John McLaughlin, a former deputy director under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush told the NY Times on Sunday.
McLaughlin, who also served as acting director of the CIA for a short time in 2004, criticized the Senate report and claimed it 'uses information selectively, often distorts to make its points, and as I recall contains no recommendations.'
White House Announces Release of Senate CIA Torture Report
RELATED:
Six Guantanamo Prisoners Arrive in Uruguay After 12 Years in US Detention Without Charge
- The six men — four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian — are the first prisoners transferred to South America from the US base in Cuba
- All were detained as suspected militants with ties to al-Qaeda who were cleared for release in 2009 - only now would a country take them
- Uruguayan President Jose Mujica agreed to accept the men as a humanitarian gesture while asking Obama to end Cuba embargo
9 December 2014
Six prisoners held for 12 years at Guantanamo Bay have been sent to Uruguay to be resettled as refugees, the U.S. government announced Sunday — a deal that had been delayed for months by security concerns at the Pentagon and political considerations in the South American country.
The six men — four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian — are the first prisoners transferred to South America from the U.S. base in Cuba, part of a flurry of recent releases amid a renewed push by President Barack Obama to close the prison.
All were detained as suspected militants with ties to al-Qaeda in 2002 but were never charged. They had been cleared for release since 2009 but could not be sent home and the U.S. struggled to find countries willing to take them.
Pictured: The ambulances transporting the six detainees arriving from Guantanamo heads for the Military Hospital in Montevideo on December 7
Arrived: Six men detained at Guantanamo for more than a decade have been resettled in Uruguay, as US President Barack Obama attempts to fulfill his long-delayed promise to close the US military prison
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica agreed to accept the men as a humanitarian gesture and said they would be given help getting established in a country with a small Muslim population.
'We are very grateful to Uruguay for this important humanitarian action, and to President Mujica for his strong leadership in providing a home for individuals who cannot return to their own countries,' U.S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan said.
Among those transferred was Abu Wa'el Dhiab, a 43-year-old Syrian on a long-term hunger strike protesting his confinement who was at the center of a legal battle in U.S. courts over the military's use of force-feeding.
The Pentagon identified the other Syrians sent to Uruguay on Saturday as Ali Husain Shaaban, 32; Ahmed Adnan Ajuri, 37; and Abdelahdi Faraj, 39. Also released were Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, 35, and 49-year-old Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi of Tunisia.
Uruguayan officials declined comment Sunday on the transfers. Adriana Ramos, a receptionist at a military hospital in Montevideo, the capital, said the six men were being examined there but declined to provide any details.
Hunger strike: Among the six was Syrian prisoner Jihad Diyab, 43, who had staged a hunger strike and requested a US court to order prison officials to stop force-feeding him
Arrival: The Pentagon identified the other Syrians sent to Uruguay on Saturday as Ali Husain Shaaban, 32; Ahmed Adnan Ajuri, 37; and Abdelahdi Faraj, 39. Also released were Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, 35, and 49-year-old Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi of Tunisia
Cori Crider, a lawyer for Dhiab from the human rights group Reprieve, praised Mujica, a former political prisoner himself, for accepting the men.
'Despite years of suffering, Mr. Dhiab is focused on building a positive future for himself in Uruguay,' said Crider, who was heading to Montevideo to meet with him. 'He looks forward to being reunited with his family and beginning his life again.'
The U.S. has now transferred 19 prisoners out of Guantanamo this year, all but one of them within the last 30 days. Saturday's move brings the total number of prisoners still at Guantanamo to 136 — the lowest number since shortly after the prison opened in January 2002. Officials say several more releases are expected by the end of the year.
Obama administration officials had been frustrated that the transfer took so long, blaming outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for not approving the move sooner. They said after Mujica had agreed to take the men in January, the deal sat for months on Hagel's desk, awaiting his signature as required by law. The Pentagon didn't send the notification of the transfer to Congress until July.
Quote:
EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Insider says Hagel 'Couldn't Hold His Nose Anymore' backing Obama's policies...
- Senior officer close to the office of the Secretary of Defense told MailOnline that the outgoing secretary was 'relieved' to part ways with the White House
- 'He jumped at the chance to get out, and couldn't wait to announce it,' the well-placed source said
WINTER OF HIS DISCONTENT: Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel couldn't wait to leave, a high-ranking Pentagon officer says, because he tired of carrying President Obama's water
|
Quote:
URUGUAY PREZ TO OBAMA: WE'LL TAKE GITMO DETAINEES BUT PLEASE END CUBA EMBARGO
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica reiterated last week his willingness to resettle six Guantanamo prisoners in his country while calling on the United States to end its decades-old embargo against Cuba.
Mujica's open letter to President Barack Obama appeared Friday on his presidency website.
Uruguay's leader agreed earlier this year to resettle the men for humanitarian reasons. Held at the U.S. base in Cuba, they are not charged with a crime. The U.S. says they pose no threat, but cannot return to their countries.
'We have offered our hospitality for human beings who suffered an atrocious kidnapping in Guantanamo,' Mujica said Friday, hinting a transfer could occur soon.
The Pentagon in the fall gave Congress a required 30-day notice that it intended to transfer the prisoners to Uruguay, but resettlement was postponed.
Jose Mujica, President of Uruguay, speaks during the UNASUR summit in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014. Mujica reiterated his willingness to resettle six Guantanamo prisoners in his country while calling on the United States to end its decades-old embargo against Cuba
|
New home: A soldier stands guard at the front gate entrance to Guantanamo's Camp 6 maximum-security detention facility. Six men who called the prison home for 12 yeras have been sent to resettle in Uruguay
The public Maciel Hospital in Montevideo, where one of the six Guantanamo detainees arrived on December 7, according to local sources. Six Guantanamo detainees, including four Syrians, one Palestinian and one Tunisian, have been transferred to Uruguay
By then, the transfer had become an issue in Uruguay's political election and officials there decided to postpone it until after the vote. Tabare Vazquez, a member of Mujica's ruling coalition and a former president, won a runoff election on Nov. 30.
Upon taking office, Obama had pledged to close the prison but was blocked by Congress, which banned sending prisoners to the U.S. for any reason, including trial, and placed restrictions on sending them abroad.
The slow pace of releases has created a tense atmosphere inside the prison. A hunger strike that began in February 2013 totaled about 100 prisoners at its peak, including Dhiab and Faraj.
The U.S. now holds 67 men at Guantanamo who have been cleared for release or transfer but, like the six sent to Uruguay, can't go home because they might face persecution, a lack of security or some other reason.
Prisoners from Guantanamo have been sent around the world but this weekend's transfer was the largest group sent to the Western Hemisphere. Four Guantanamo prisoners were sent to Bermuda in 2009 and two were sent to El Salvador in 2012 but have since left.
Quote:
WHAT DOES THE PRISON AT GUANTANAMO LOOK LIKE NOW?
Here is a look at the prison on the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following the release of six prisoners to Uruguay:
The detention center now holds 136 prisoners spread out over several camps depending on the category and behavior of the detainee. That is the lowest number since shortly after it opened in January 2002 to detain and interrogate detainees suspected of involvement in terrorism or having links to al-Qaida and the Taliban. About 600 prisoners have been released under President Barack Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, most of them sent to their home countries.
A detainee walks outside his cell in Camp Delta 4 at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The latest move by the Obama administration comes as the president tries to make good on a years old promise to close the Cuba prison
President Obama pledged to close the prison within a year of taking office but was blocked by Congress, which has enacted legislation that prohibits transferring any prisoners to the U.S. mainland for any reason, including trial or imprisonment, and imposed rules making it harder to sending them overseas. Congress eased the transfer restrictions last year and they have resumed after a lull. The U.S. has released 19 so far this year and more releases are expected by Dec. 31.
Of the 136 still detained, there are 67 prisoners who have been determined to be suitable for release by a task force of U.S. government agencies. Some of these men can't go back to their homelands for reasons that include the possibility that they could face persecution or torture or because the U.S. considers their countries too unstable to provide adequate guarantees that they can be monitored and kept from engaging in militant activity.
The remaining prisoners pose the biggest challenge to any effort to close the detention center. They are a mix of prisoners who have either been deemed too dangerous to release or are at some stage of the process of trial by military commission. This last group includes five men charged with terrorism and other crimes for their alleged roles in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Their case is in the pre-trial stage and no date has been set for the death penalty trial.
|