By Mustafa Caglayan
NEW YORK
Two American civil rights groups on Monday asked the U.S. attorney general to independently investigate the interrogation of terror suspects after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Watch urged a special prosecutor be provided with files from an earlier inquiry into the deaths of prisoners in CIA custody and with the full 6,700-page version of a Senate report that detailed the methods used by CIA interrogators. A 500-page summary of the report was released Dec. 9.
The summary, compiled by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the CIA employed “brutal” interrogation techniques including the use of nudity, waterboarding, sleep deprivation for as long as 180 hours, and “rectal hydration.”
It said lawmakers and the White House were misled by the agency about the effectiveness and the extent of the brutality of the techniques.
“Against this background, we believe the failure to conduct a comprehensive criminal investigation would contribute to the notion that torture remains a permissible policy option for future administrations; undermine the ability of the United States to advocate for human rights abroad; and compromise Americans’ faith in the rule of law at home,” the letter said.
It also said a special prosecutor must be permitted access to the files from a 2009 Justice Department investigation that examined alleged law violations by the CIA while interrogating terror suspects at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003 and at a secret prison in Afghanistan in 2002.
That inquiry ended in 2012 without bringing criminal charges.
In its editorial “Prosecute Torturers and Their Boses,” the New York Times argues that a criminal investigation would mean ensuring that “this never happens again and regaining the moral credibility to rebuke torture by other governments.”
“These are, simply, crimes. They are prohibited by federal law, which defines torture as the intentional infliction of ‘severe physical or mental pain or suffering,’” it said.
www.aa.com.tr/en
