Rice Clarifies U.S. Interrogation Policy

[Eugene]

Rice Clarifies U.S. Interrogation Policy

Wednesday December 7, 2005 10:46 AM

AP Photo XEL105

By ANNE GEARAN

AP Diplomatic Writer

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought
Wednesday to clarify U.S. policy on harsh interrogation methods,
saying no U.S. personnel may use cruel or degrading practices at
home or abroad.

Rice's remarks followed confusion in the United States over whether
CIA employees could use means otherwise off limits for U.S. personnel.

<snip>

"As a matter of U.S. policy," Rice said the United Nations Convention
against Torture "extends to U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether
they are in the U.S. or outside the U.S."

The U.N. treaty also prohibits treatment that doesn't meet the legal
definition of torture, including many practices that human rights
organizations say were used routinely at the U.S. military prison
camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5462884,00.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. I heard a clip of her last night "We don't torture" and thought how sad

it is that the USA even has to go there.....

how far we have fallen with these idiots in charge.

[liveoaktx]

33. Video of Rice with German Chancellor and El-Masri

He talks about how he was renditioned and tortured

[izzie]

2. Well she said a lot of nothing.

---

[Journeyman]

3. All I can add is, I'm glad I turned down the offer from Stanford. . .

whew. . . I'd have been there before her, but what's it say about that University that they'd hire such an intellectual flyweight? Shrub? I understand why he surrounds himself with mental midgets. But what's the collective inadequacy of the Stanford poli-sci staff?

[ixion]

4. see the loophole in her statement?

"no U.S. personnel may use..."

This phrase is a loophole. Who, exactly, constitutes U.S. personnel? What if the US hires a contractor to do the 'dirty work' and simply has the 'US personnel' present to ask the questions. See, it's the lackey who would actually do the nasty stuff. Presto! No torture, sort of.

Whenever a qualifier like that is added to a statement, you know it's for a reason.

Seriously, these people (and I use that term loosely) make me :puke:

[bowens43]

6. That is the loop hole.

We don't torture but we do send detainees to countries where they do torture.

More distortions and misleading from the most dishonest administration we have ever seen.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. Don't tell me we're outsourcing our torture, too.

:cry:

[Eugene]

7. Condi is just plain lying.

Handing someone over for others to torture also
violates the UN Convention Against Torture.
By claiming to obey international law (which BushCo
despises), Secy. Rice just told her biggest lie yet.

[Divernan]

8. Exactly. I just returned from Istanbul, where this is happening.

Here's the story from the English language Istanbul paper, The Turkish Daily News. I'm quoting from my actual newspaper. The link to the paper itself is:
www.turkishdailynews.com.tr

In the Friday, December 2, 2005 issue, on page nine, there is a column titled "From The Columns" The fourth article therein reads as follows:

What Did Personnel on CIA Plane Do While In Istanbul?

Pointing to a series of mysterious and as of yet unexplained landings permitted in Turkey to foreign charter and government flights, Hurriyet's Yalcin Dogan complains that Turkish air traffic controllers should not be as compliant and lethargic as they have been recently. Focusing on the recent landing of a CIA owned plane that has been accused of being part of an international terrorist round-up and torture operation, Dogan says: 'It is normal to request permission to land and refuel at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen Airport. But what is abnormal is that the CIA plane spent the night at the Istanbul airport.' Dogan then says that the prisoners held at the Izmit F-type prison claim that personnel from this CIA questioned them while the plane sat on the apron at Sabhia Gokcen. 'The Justice Ministry is denying this,' notes Dogan. Dogan calls for stricter controls and paperwork on which planes are landing and then states: 'In past experience, these type of planes have been recorded as having landed. This is a way of protecting the country after all. It is unfortunate that Turkish air traffic controllers have left this unsupervised.'" (End of article)

Clearly it will be quite simple for the CIA to provide the questions and then sit and "observe" while local officials carry out the questioning/torture.

[Supersedeas]

19. knods...exactly why RENDITION is so important Dr. Rice

[cantstandbush]

29. Heard that immediately. They just think everyone is as stuipid as they .

[flordehinojos]

5. damn! ms. countoleezzaa rise lying through her teeth again!

[Briar]

9. Hm. So on Monday she said the USA did not torture

On Wednesday she says they are going to stop torturing overseas.

[jody]

10. Rice is lying just like Powell lied to the UN. n/t

[Loonman]

11. Hey Condi, what do you say?

How many lies have you told today!

[Crayson]

13. Blahblahblah... Status Quo ....

When you analyze the blahblah you quickly notice that it still allows foreign countries and their representatives to do what they want...

Somewhere I read another one where she said that nobody would torture nowhere, unfortunately she only talked about "US citizens" in that sentence... everybody else is fair game.

and so on... much blahblah about NOT torturing but none of it actually applies to the kidnap and torture cases we actually talk about.

[VaYallaDawg]

14. Abominable lies from another Bush shill.

Everytime I see her on TV - with that fake "sincere" look - I become even more disgusted and depressed about how our beloved country could have fallen into this mess.

[Bandit]

15. no U.S. personnel may use cruel or degrading practices at

Well Duhhh, that is why they are swept away to some foreign country so foreigners can torture them...

[sabra]

16. US rules out inhumane treatment of prisoners abroad

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07518924.htm

US rules out inhumane treatment of prisoners abroad


KIEV, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The United States explicitly banned its interrogators around the world from treating detainees inhumanely in a policy shift made public on Wednesday under pressure from Europe and the U.S. Congress.

...

But on a trip to Europe to defuse widespread anger over U.S. treatment of detainees, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice articulated a new legal interpretation of an international treaty that U.S. officials said resulted from a policy shift.

"As a matter of U.S. policy, the United States' obligations under the CAT (Convention against Torture), which prohibits cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment -- those obligations extend to U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States," Rice told reporters in Ukraine.

A senior U.S. official who asked not to be named because he was discussing internal decision-making said there had long been debate within the administration about how to interpret the convention.

[havocmom]

17. 'Believe what we say, not what evidence shows we do'

There's a spin for ya.

[darkmaestro019]

18. ah, but--define "inhumanely"

Surely no one is suggesting our little hazing--mere PRANKS--harmless wittle short-of-organ-failure FUN--which saves lives, magically, somehow--is INHUMANE?

Why, every interrogator we have is, in fact, a human, therefore it is not possible for him or her to do anything inhumane. We'd need a team of trained gorillas or perhaps the sharks with frickin laser beams for that! Silly European bleeding hearts!


:sarcasm:

edit: "ah but" is not very clear as a subject line

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. US 'shifts' position on torture

7 December 2005

The US secretary of state says the UN treaty on torture applies to American interrogators in the US and overseas, in an apparent shift in US policy.

The Bush administration has previously said the convention, which bans cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, does not apply to US personnel abroad.

Correspondents say a reason for the shift might be pressure from Congress.

Condoleezza Rice's European tour has been dogged by claims the CIA used foreign bases to hold terror suspects.

The UN high commissioner for human rights has called on the US to provide information about any secret detention centres and to provide access to them.

Louise Arbour said such detention centres could create conditions where torture might be used, but she welcomed Ms Rice's statement.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4506682.stm


What's the matter Condi? Your tough talking trash isn't going over so well? Seems the Europeans have had some bad experiences with torture that they can still remember and they really don't intend to stand by and watch it happen again?

[spindrifter]

21. Is it a shift or is it simply dissimilating?

This new talking point is all about how Americans can't do the torture. Well, unfortunately, we have contracts with a lot of different outfits that are not American and that do not use Americans in their "security" work. So I'm not holding my breath that this "new" policy is really the operational one.

[peaches2003]

22. Means nothing

Don't worry, Condi is just like Bush and takes her orders from him. So no one believed her lies? Change the message until it says what Europe wants to here and then Bush will do as he pleases anyway. After all, he's the Emperor, the Dictator, or whatever he will eventually demand we call him.

[JuniperLea]

23. Fekking Bush!

I'm betting the UN is behind this as payback for President Chimpy McNumbNutts thumbing his nose at them! Rightfully so, but hell!

That bastard needs yanked out of office before he gets us all fekking killed! If I'm this pissed I can only imagine how people in other countries that have been snubbed or used by this asshole feel!

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. I am sure Bush qualifies

has the most hated man in the world at this point. What an achievement.

[bemildred]

24. Gitmo. What about Gitmo? Gitmo is right there in plain sight.

:puke:

[pinto]

26. Somebody ask her: What is the plain speak purpose of rendition, please...

[Solly Mack]

27. It has ALWAYS applied to US personnel - abroad or otherwise

they lied when they claimed it didn't

But at least they admit their "policy" has been to ignore both the GC and federal law.

[Poet Lariat]

28. I heard most of her talking point list for the day

Seems to me that the Misadministration still has plenty of plausible deny-ability to allow it's torture machine to continue through surrogates. I heard that all the "renditionee's" were swiftly removed from Europe prior to Condi's arrival the other day.

This is all another giant lip service PR smokescreen by Bushco to pacify the Europeans. They're going to continue to do what they want to do. All lies followed by more lies.

[kskiska]

30. WP: Rice Acts To Clarify Policy on Prisoners

Cruel, Inhuman Tactics Also Prohibited Abroad

Thursday, December 8, 2005; A01

KIEV, Ukraine, Dec. 7 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that the United States has prohibited all its personnel from using cruel or inhuman techniques in prisoner interrogations, whether inside or outside U.S. borders. Previous public statements by the Bush administration have asserted that the ban did not apply abroad.

U.S. obligations under the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, extend as "a matter of policy" to "U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States," Rice said here at a news conference with Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko.

The remarks were her latest effort during a week-long European trip to convince skeptics that the United States is committed to fair and decent treatment of terrorism suspects. At every stop of her trip, she has faced reporters' questions about torture at a time of widespread outrage in Europe over reports that the CIA has operated secret prisons in East European countries.

In Washington, supporters of an anti-torture bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a former prisoner of war, greeted her statement as a sign that the White House was abandoning claims that the measure could complicate the fight against international terrorism.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120700215.html

[rodeodance]

31. wonder if she is tired yet?

[MazeRat7]

32. Thats exactly what it was... "Acting". She should get a Peabody (n/t)

[gtar100]

34. So is anybody buying this?

I wouldn't believe her if she said "hello".

[rodeodance]

35. blah blah ms condi--Your 'husband' is so proud of you.