Experts on human rights abuses and torture say the CIA waterboarding is similar to the technique employed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the French in Algeria, and the security services in Myanmar (Burma).

CIA Director Michael V. Hayden recently confirmed the use of waterboarding for the first time but said the practice is no longer allowed under CIA rules. One of those subjected to the tactic, he said, was Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged masterminded of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He is one of six detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who is scheduled to be tried by Military Commission.

Guantanamo Bay continued to be subjected to ongoing scrutiny by legal experts and civil liberties advocates. A new study announced by Prof. Mark Denbeaux of the Seton Hall University School of Law revealed that more than 24,000 interrogations have been conducted at Guantánamo since 2002 – and claimed that every one was videotaped.

Conducted by Seton Hall faculty and students, the study is based largely on U.S. Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The study concluded it was not possible to determine which videotapes still exist, and which have been destroyed.

In a 2005 case, a federal judge issued an order to the Government mandating that "all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at (Guantánamo Bay) be preserved." But in November 2005, CIA officials destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogations of two Guantánamo detainees.

The destruction of the two tapes has caused a firestorm of protest in congress and among human rights advocates.

Gabor Rona, International Legal Director of advocacy group Human Rights First, summed up the situation, telling us, “The administration refuses to name torture torture, destroys the evidence of torture, and obstructs the efforts of torture victims to seek justice in the courts. It does so to protect those who authorized and administered torture from having to face criminal accountability for war crimes and civil liability to the victims.  It also does this to maintain its ability to offer illegal and unreliable evidence that is based on torture in the Guantanamo military commissions.”

He added, “The authorization, implementation and cover-up of torture violates U.S. and international law, undermines U.S. standing to promote democracy and human rights, and serves as a green light to despotic regimes around the world to trample human rights in the name of counterterrorism." 

 1  |  2