US policy included torture

In a characteristically self-regarding claim on June 26th of last year, George Bush said: "The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example." The evidence now is that the use of torture for political ends has been the conscious and deliberate policy of the administration of George Bush .

Last Friday Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International, wrote to Bush. The letter recalled that last July Amnesty had sent him a memorandum which detailed allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Iraqis by US and other coalition forces, including beatings, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, hooding and prolonged forced-standing and kneeling. Amnesty received no response.

Her letter records: "During the past two years, consistent allegations of brutality and cruelty by US agents against detainees, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been presented by Amnesty International and others at the highest levels of US government, including the White House, the Department of Defence and the Department of State."

The report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the treatment of detainees in Iraq states: "Since the beginning of the conflict the ICRC has regularly brought its concerns to the attention of the CF (Coalition Forces)." It records that last May the ICRC sent a memorandum to Coalition Forces authorities "based on over 200 allegations of ill-treatment of prisoners of war during capture and interrogation at collecting points, battle group stations and temporary holding areas".

Credit will be claimed by the Bush administration for instigating the investigation of allegations of torture conducted by Maj General Antonio Taguba, which has resulted in quite the most damning indictment of conduct within detention centres in Iraq. However, that report arose from circumstances in which photographs of abuse were being widely circulated within the US military and pressure was building up internally for an inquiry, and the indications are that the report was never intended to be made public.

In her letter to George Bush last Friday, Irene Khan states: "Amnesty International is concerned that the Taguba report was not intended for public release and that the administration's current response has only come once the report and the photographic evidence came into the public domain."

Evidence that the practice of torture and abuse has been part of the Bush administration's conscious and deliberate policy starts with the assertion by Donald Rumsfeld in 2002 that "enemy combatants" do not have rights under the Geneva Conventions that prohibit torture.

The placement of thousands of detainees captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in Guantanamo has been a deliberate strategy to circumvent rights detainees may have under the US Constitution (the US Supreme Court is now considering a challenge to the legality of that). Guantanamo detainees that have been released have given vivid descriptions of torture and abuse markedly similar to the allegations of abuse emanating from Iraqi jails, suggesting that what has been happening in Iraq is not the product of freelance, dysfunctional amateur soldiers but part of a pre-ordained plan to break the will of "intelligence-rich" prisoners.

Indeed the pattern of abuse closely resembles the abuse of detainees in Northern Ireland by the British army following the introduction of internment in August 1971. The ICRC reports the following practices in Iraq:

* Hooding "used to prevent people from seeing and to disorient them and also to prevent them from breathing freely.

* "Beatings with hard objects (including pistols and rifles), slapping, punching, kicking with knees or feet on various parts of the body.

* "Being stripped naked for several days.

* "Being paraded naked outside cells in front of other persons deprived of their liberty and guards, sometimes hooded or with women's underwear over the head.

* "Acts of humiliation such as being made stand naked against the wall of a cell with arms raised or with women's underwear over the head for prolonged periods, while being laughed at by guards, including female guards and sometimes photographed in this position."

The Taguba report reveals that the former head of the Guantanamo centre, Maj Gen Miller, was placed in charge of detainee operations in Iraq in mid-2003.

Taguba records: "Miller led a team of personnel experienced in strategic interrogation to (Iraq) to review current Iraq theatre ability to rapidly exploit internees for actionable intelligence."

Maj Gen Miller had stated: "It is essential that the guard force be actively engaged in setting the conditions for successful exploitation of the internees."

The Irish Times reported yesterday that Bertie Ahern will raise the issue of human rights with the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, who has arrived in Ireland. Will Bertie Ahern raise the issue of human rights with George Bush when he arrives in Ireland in June? Like hell he will.