America's Shame

When Democrats say we need to restore US moral standing in the world, this is what they're talking about.

Exhibit one:

Despite denials by their governments, senior Polish and Romanian security officials have confirmed to the Council of Europe that their countries were used to hold some of America's most important prisoners captured after 9/11 in secret.

None of the prisoners had access to the Red Cross and many were subject to what George Bush has called the CIA's "enhanced" interrogation, which critics have condemned as torture. Although suspicions about the secret CIA prisons have existed for more than a year, the council's report, seen by the Guardian, appears to offer the first concrete evidence. It also details the prisons' operations and the identities of some of the prisoners.

And this was done with the full knowledge and complicity of Nato:

The council has also established that within weeks of the 9/11 attacks, Nato signed an agreement with the US that allowed civilian jets used by the CIA during its so-called extraordinary rendition programme to move across member states' airspace.

While this may seem like old news to us in the tubes, this report is significant because, as Dick Marty, the Swiss senator who headed up the inquiry, said:

"What was previously just a set of allegations is now proven: large numbers of people have been abducted from various locations across the world and transferred to countries where they have been persecuted and where it is known that torture is common practice."

Exhibit two:

In the most comprehensive accounting to date, six leading human rights organizations today published the names and details of 39 people who are believed to have been held in secret US custody and whose current whereabouts remain unknown. The briefing paper also names relatives of suspects who were themselves detained in secret prisons, including children as young as seven.

Yes, 7.

In September 2002 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s two young sons, aged seven and nine, were arrested. According to eyewitnesses, the two were held in an adult detention centre for at least four months while US agents questioned the children about their father’s whereabouts.

Rachel Maddow interviewed Jayne Huckerby, Research Director at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice on her show last night who referred to the treatment of the children as torture.

More:

The human rights groups are calling on the US government to put a permanent end to the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation programme, and to disclose the identities, fate, and whereabouts of all detainees currently or previously held at secret facilities operated or overseen by the US government as part of the “war on terror”.

In a related action, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), CCR and the International Human Rights Clinic of NYU School of Law today filed a lawsuit in US federal court under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) seeking disclosure of information concerning “disappeared” detainees, including “ghost” and unregistered prisoners.

On September 6, 2006, Bush admitted to the use of secret detentions and forced disappearance. According to Amnesty International:

The transfer of a detainee to Guantánamo in April 2007 proved that the US network of secret detention was still operating, though the authorities have never disclosed how many individuals have been secretly detained.

The Habeus Corpus Restoration Act is a step in the right direction toward returning our country to some recognizable version of its former self, but considering it will likely be vetoed it's clear that no real progress will be made on this until we have a Democratic president.