US Gov't Officials Face UN Panel on Torture

It's quite convenient that CIA Director, Porter Goss, resigned on the same day that a UN panel began questioning 25 US government officials from the Justice, Homeland Security and Defense departments about the administration's horrendous human rights violations. Goss's resignation has kept news pundits busy speculating about the reasons for his sudden departure and the talk on the Sunday morning shows will certainly revolve around that, the Patrick Kennedy incident and Ray McGovern's attack on Rumsfeld this past week. You can bet that you won't hear one word about the probe going on in Geneva about the US's torture policies. The media love sensationalistic stories and the topic of torture has become passe since the outrage over the Abu Ghraib photos and the CIA's secret prisons has all but subsided.

The response to the first day of questions was predictable:

'We don't think that it's proper to provide details on intelligence activities,' Bellinger [US State Department legal adviser John Bellinger] said later. But he said it was 'an absurd allegation' to suggest that any US intelligence flight in Europe might be carrying a detainee, because many carry analysts, officials and forensic information.

Tell that to Maher Arar.

The UN panel has taken on an almost impossible task but detailed reports from groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU cannot be ignored. Neither can the US government commissioned Taguba Report. (All of these links provide an immense amount of information about the Bush administration's human rights abuses. Please take the time to review the evidence.)

Despite the Bush administration's denial to adequately address these violations by refusing on the grounds of 'national security' related concerns, there is more than enough evidence to support the fact that the country has grievously and consistently ignored its responsibilities under international treaties and coventions to treat those citizens in its custody humanely.

Questioning of the US officials will resume on Monday and the UN panel will release its report on May 19. Hopefully, they will offer recommendations that will be hard-hitting enough to have an immediate impact on the fate of these detainees and kidnap victims. Barring that, it's absolutely vital that those concerned about these violations keep up continuing pressure on the Bush administration. If you have not yet done so, please contact your congresspeople and sign the ACLU's Torture is Un-American petition. Make your voice heard in any way you're able to.