And Geneve Mantri, Amnesty International USA's terrorism and counterterrorism director, told us, "Amnesty International is urging President-elect Obama's transition team to immediately examine the options of a Congressional Select Committee, a Presidential Commission of Inquiry or legislative enactment of a Commission of Inquiry. The transition team should ensure that an inquiry is a priority on the agenda and build consensus toward a strong, independent, and non-partisan approach. Our organization then calls on President-elect Obama to appoint this commission of inquiry and ensure its independent operation within his first 100 days in office."
The Amnesty plan urged that, in the transition period and before taking the oath of office, President-elect Obama and his team should examine the options for establishing a comprehensive, independent commission to investigate U.S. detention policies and practices in the war on terror and. consider either establishing a task force in the Attorney General's office or appointing an independent prosecutor to take action on pressing individual cases. These tasks should be completed during Obama's first 100 days in office, Amnesty says.
The commission's investigation should include activities conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other agencies, as well as the secret transfer of detainees - known as rendition -- between the United States and other countries. It should have access to classified material, subpoena power to compel the appearance of witnesses, and a mandate to make recommendations as to criminal investigations.
The Amnesty plan calls on the president to present a progress report to the nation within 18 months of taking office, and to provide a full report of the commission's findings and recommendations by 2010.
In introducing its plan, Amnesty president Larry Cox said, "As the nation moves in a new direction, we must not forget the shameful actions of the past. Instead to fully learn from them we must know the extent of the illegality and vow to never repeat mistakes. President-elect Obama has a mandate from the American people for change and that begins with restoring the United States' reputation as a country guided by the rule of law and human rights."
The first installment of the Armed Services Committee report was issued last June, but the then-Republican majority on the committee effectively blocked release of the report's concluding section. But even the first part of the report described a pattern of humiliation, abuse and even torture inflicted on detainees, and charged that these practices were a deliberate policy of the Bush administration - debated by mid-level lawyers at the CIA and the Pentagon, given legal cover at the Justice Department and approved at the highest levels of government.
"The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees," the Senate report said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted for the first time in September that she led high-level discussions beginning in 2002 with other senior Bush administration officials about subjecting suspected al-Qaeda terrorists detained at military prisons to the harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding, according to documents released by Levin.
"Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority," the Senate report said.
The panel's investigation also suggested that the harsh interrogations methods used against detainees preceded a Department of Justice legal memorandum issued on Aug. 1, 2002 authorizing the CIA to use long outlawed tactics, such as the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, against prisoners in apparent violation of the Geneva Conventions.
The committee's report said an action memorandum signed by President George W. Bush on Feb. 7, 2002 opened the door to "considering aggressive techniques" by signing a memorandum stating that the Third Geneva Convention did not apply to the conflict with al Qaeda and concluding that Taliban detainees were not entitled to prisoner of war status or the legal protections afforded by the Third Geneva Convention," the report said.
Last April, President George W. Bush told an ABC News reporter that he had approved of meetings of a National Security Council's Principals Committee, whose advisers included Vice President Dick Cheney, then National Security Adviser Rice, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, former CIA Director George Tenet and former Attorney General John Ashcroft, where these officials discussed specific interrogation techniques the CIA could use against detainees.
Civil libertarians are pressing President-elect Obama to make good on his pledge to close Guantanamo Bay and investigate the prisoner abuses that occurred there, at Abu Ghraib and at other locations, including the CIA's "black sites" - secret prisons believed to have been located in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
One such advocacy organization, Human Rights First (HRF), prepared a plan to close Guantanamo some months ago. Other groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights Watch, have long advocated the closing of Guantanamo.
Along with Amnesty, these organizations have urged President-elect Obama to implement "an unqualified return to America's established system of justice for detaining and prosecuting suspects" when he fulfills his pledge to shut down the Guantánamo Bay prison camp and military commissions."
In a letter delivered to the presidential transition team, the organizations state that they "categorically oppose the creation of any other ad-hoc illegal detention system or 'third way' that permits the executive branch to suspend due process and hold suspected terrorists without charge or trial, essentially moving Guantánamo on-shore."
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