Following yesterday’s revelations that the CIA tortured people in their custody, advocacy group CAGE has said it will be re-releasing detailed interviews and reports of CIA and MI5 complicity in detentions-without-trial and torture around the world, including at Guantanamo Bay.
The reports, originally published in 2006, include descriptions of CIA officers who were involved in torturing detainees, and the methods used.
CAGE has been documenting detention centres, secret prisons, torture and interrogation methods used by the CIA, MI5 and their complicit intelligence agencies, for eleven years.
“When the Pentagon refused to identify the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, CAGE (then CagePrisoners) compiled and published 330 names, pictures and documents obtained from families,” says CAGE spokesperson Amandla Thomas-Johnson.
CAGE has also compiled numerous reports over the years detailing the disappearances, rendition, torture and even deaths in detention, that have been the fulcrum of the War on Terror.
An executive summary of the CIA’s torture report by the Senate Intelligence Committee was released yesterday – but it stops short of naming officials responsible and provides little detail of the extent of torture, nor any avenues for executive accountability. The 480-page summary has also been ratified by the CIA itself, essentially nullifying its objectivity.
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“CAGE is re-releasing recorded interviews with ex-detainees who identify torture methods and which describe the individuals who tortured them. This provides clear evidence for prosecution,” says CAGE spokesperson Amandla Thomas-Johnson.
“This kind of dodging of accountability is not new. We have recorded a series of crimes, identified victim and known perpetrators, but with no redress under the law. This shows that the US and its allies are operating outside the bounds of the law.”
“Just as in the case of Pinochet, perpetrators of torture need to be held accountable so that those who have suffered can gain real closure.”
“Claims of an ISIS threat have been over-worked to the point that they are threatening to mask the truth of who is ultimately responsible for torture and the rise of extremism.
“Human rights groups must unite to demand accountability within the rule of law so that the cyclical violence that is characterising the War on Terror is stopped and its perpetrators are brought before the international court.”
Shafiq Rasul, former Guantanamo detainee: “Knowing these people are walking the streets is difficult. It seems there is a law for the Muslims and a law for the non-Muslims.”
Ruhal Ahmed, former Guantanamo detainee: “Those people who have committed crimes should be brought to justice, taken to court, and given a fair trial.”
