{"id":141982,"date":"2014-11-14T19:26:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T19:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=141982"},"modified":"2014-11-14T19:26:57","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T19:26:57","slug":"united-states-admits-crossed-line-torture-thats-least","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/human-rights\/united-states-admits-crossed-line-torture-thats-least\/","title":{"rendered":"The United States Admits It &#8220;Crossed a Line&#8221; on Torture. That\u2019s the Least of It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Sarah Mehta<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture began its review of the United States\u2019 record on torture\u2013not only at the infamous Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay but closer to home, in our prisons, police forces, and immigration facilities.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. delegation acknowledged, \u201cwe crossed the line\u201d on torture. Many of us believe that line matters, and that American values and law should define us as a country that stands against torture and cruelty. But as committee member Domah said, even \u201cdemocratic institutions join forces to frustrate democratic principles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday the United States gave its response to the dozens of questions posed about the treatment of those in U.S. custody and all individuals it fails to protect. And the response was incomplete, defensive, and disheartening.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take three of the many issues the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/capital-punishment-criminal-law-reform-human-rights-immigrants-rights-national-security-prisoners-ri\">ACLU raised<\/a><\/span> for this review. First, accountability for torture committed under the Bush administration. Committee members found U.S. responses on accountability and remedies for the \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/obama-we-tortured-some-folks-after-911\/\">some folks<\/a><\/span>\u201d we tortured was wholly inadequate.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to see why. The U.S. failed to conduct a comprehensive and independent criminal investigation, including into the role of the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/national-security\/infographic-torture-architects\">architects of the torture program<\/a><\/span>. While the U.S. delegation reiterated its commitment to holding those who torture accountable, it couldn\u2019t even provide assurances that the Department of Justice, in a recent inquiry led by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham, looked into the role of senior officials. Durham recommended full investigations be opened in two detainee death cases\u2013Gul Rahman at the Salt Pit Prison in 2002, and Manadel al-Jamadi in Iraq in 2003\u2013but the Justice Department closed both without charging anyone.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/blog\/immigrants-rights-human-rights-national-security-prisoners-rights\/united-states-admits-it-cross\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sarah Mehta On Wednesday, the United Nations Committee Against Torture began its review of the United States\u2019 record on torture\u2013not only at the infamous Guant\u00c3\u00a1namo Bay but closer to home, in our prisons, police forces, and immigration facilities. The U.S. delegation acknowledged, \u201cwe crossed the line\u201d on torture. Many of us believe that line matters, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":141983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-141982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-human-rights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}