Amerikansky Gulag

4 November 2005



US Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Foreign Prisons

The Bush administration’s response to the Al Qaeda murders in New York and at the Pentagon has been frightening in its lack of respect for the good name of America. The Patriot Act was bad enough, and the refusal to treat Prisoners of War at Guantanamo as POWs is shameful. But the big news this week is that the CIA has been operating 11 secret prisons in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Can anyone in the White House spell “Habeas corpus?”

According to the Washington Post which broke the story on Wednesday, there are 11 “black sites” in 8 countries there terror suspects are being held outside local and international rules. While it hasn’t been proved yet, Human Rights Watch suspects Poland (co-invader of Iraq along with the US) and Romania (where the US has a significant military presence now that the Cold War is over, and New Europe beckons) are involved. The report also says the sites are on 3 continents.

Now, a great deal of nonsense has been written about the CIA and how it is behind all the evil in the developing world. The truth is the CIA is a relatively competent intelligence agency that makes up in technical prowess what it lacks in human talent. It was never as good as Mossad or the KGB, but it was in that league – with the Cold War over, though, it may not now be as good as France’s DGSE. Much paranoia needs to be abandoned about the organization.

That said, the Washington Post story rings true, true enough that the Red Cross has demanded access, and the EU is investigating where the black sites are. Add to this the recent White House snit over a pretty benign amendment to the defense appropriations bill from Senator McCain (which passed 90-9) that requires the US military to follow its own regulations about not torturing prisoners and there is reason to worry. Compound that with the White Houses’ insistence that the CIA gets a waiver on torture restrictions, and it’s clear that more ugliness lies ahead. Especially if America’s European allies find out the US has been torturing people on European soil.

The Bush administration, filled by men who never served in the military (save for Field Marshal Donald von Rumsfeld), is horribly insecure about its posture on security. Torture doesn’t yield solid intelligence, and it only blackens the name of the US. If the Washington Post story is correct, the Libby indictment is small beer. This administration may cause friendly governments to fall and may have fractured alliances for a generation, much to the detriment of the American people and their national interests.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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