Inside the glass house

NEW YORK - The United States, whose military personnel and intelligence agencies are accused of abusing human rights and torturing suspected terrorists and prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, is trying to unsuccessfully defend itself once again against charges of double standards.

The Bush administration, which rightly condemns all forms of torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners outside its own borders, is arguing that a particularly controversial interrogation technique — called "waterboarding" — by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is justified and legal.

The White House says the CIA had the legal right to strap blindfolded prisoners and simulate drowning by pouring water into their mouths and noses. And it lamely argues it is not torture.

The technique has been widely condemned as a form of torture and is in clear violation of the 1987 UN Convention Against Torture, to which the US is a signatory.

Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said last week that violators of the UN Convention should be prosecuted under the principle of "universal jurisdiction." She said waterboarding qualifies as a form of torture.

She was backed by Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture and an Austrian Professor of Law, who said that waterboarding "is absolutely unacceptable under international human rights law."

"The time has come that the (US) government will actually acknowledge that it did something wrong and not continue trying to justify what is unjustifiable," he declared.

Senator John McCain, the Republican front-runner in the upcoming November US presidential elections, has publicly condemned the practice, while still being a member of the ruling party.

McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam and was himself subjected to torture, says unequivocally that "waterboarding is torture and illegal." At a Congressional hearing last week, the head of the CIA Michael Hayden admitted for the first time that the technique had been used at least on three suspected terrorists held in Guantanamo Bay. But he also said waterboarding was not used for the past five years.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have already passed legislation to bar the CIA from using this harsh interrogation technique. But it is not likely to become law because President George W. Bush has threatened to exercise his veto. Since the Senate vote fell short of the two-thirds majority, which is needed to avoid a presidential veto, the bill is as good as dead.

Still Bush is quoted as saying: "We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture. The values of this country are such that torture is not part of our soul and our being."

Since some of the terror suspects are to be brought to trial shortly, the Bush administration fears that defence attorneys may argue that any evidence or confessions extracted under torture will be unlawful and tainted.

As a result, the case against all six terror suspects accused of participating in the September 11 attacks on the US, could collapse. But if waterboarding is considered legal — as the White House contends — the confessions of the terror suspects will be admissible in court.

So, in order to indict the terror suspects, it has to sustain that waterboarding is legal — while at the same time refusing to concede it is a form of torture (which the rest of the world thinks it is).

Last week, the London-based human rights organization, Amnesty International, also weighed in with its comments. "Waterboarding is torture, and torture is an international crime," said Rob Freer, Amnesty International's researcher on the USA.

"No one has been held accountable for such crimes. Impunity in relation to the CIA programme remains a hallmark of the USA's conduct in the war on terror," said Freer. Amnesty International said it is gravely concerned that information obtained under torture or other ill-treatment will form part of the case against the six terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

This is just one flaw of a (military) commission system set up precisely to obtain convictions under lower standards than would apply in normal courts, it added. "No US citizen would be tried under these military commissions, rendering them discriminatory, in violation of international law," Amnesty said.

Amnesty International has called on the Bush administration "to pursue justice and security within a framework of respect for human rights and the rule of law." But an administration which preaches the same concepts to the outside world is incapable or unwilling to practise the principles of human rights and international law in its on own political backyard.

Torture: US stands exposed as Gitmo six face trial