MOSCOW, April 18 - RAPSI. America’s highest-ranking officials bear responsibility for the country’s “indisputable” practice of torture, according to a report released by influential bipartisan think tank the Constitution Project Tuesday.
Drawing attention to the historic impact of the evidence examined in its preparation, the report states: “The events examined in this report are unprecedented in [US] history. In the course of the nation’s many previous conflicts, there is little doubt that some [US] personnel committed brutal acts against captives, as have armies and governments throughout history. But there is no evidence there had ever before been the kind of considered and detailed discussions that occurred after September 11, directly involving a president and his top advisers on the wisdom, propriety and legality of inflicting pain and torment on some detainees in our custody.”
The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Freedom was formed in order to examine the practices of America’s past three presidential administrations with regard to the detention and treatment of suspected terrorists. The task force aim applies in part to casting light on US practices for purposes of establishing an accurate legal legacy. According to its website: “The project was undertaken with the belief that it was important to provide an account as authoritative and accurate as possible of how the United States treated, and continues to treat, people held in our custody as the nation mobilized to deal with a global terrorist threat.”
On this note, the report states from the start that all societies behave differently under stress, sometimes even acting in a manner that would seem to contradict their fundamental values. These methods may have seemed reasonable in the moment, under great duress, but will later be subjected to the harsh light of hindsight: “What was once generally taken to be understandable and justifiable behavior can later become a case of historical regret.”
Toward this end, the task force established two key findings. First, “[i]t is indisputable that the United States engaged in the practice of torture.” Second, “the nation’s highest officials bear some responsibility for allowing and contributing to the spread of torture.”
The report is the product of two years of intensive research, including a thorough examination of the public records and upwards of 100 interviews, including ones conducted with former detainees. The task force bills the report as “most comprehensive record of detainee treatment across multiple administrations and multiple geographic theatres yet published.”
The 600-page report details the situations in Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, as well as ultra-secretive detention facilities popularly known as “black sites” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Thailand, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Morocco, Kosovo, Djibouti, and Somalia. It further considers changes in the US federal legal climate post-9/11, the US rendition program, the role of doctors and psychologists in interrogation settings, the efficacy of torture, and the specific roles played by the Obama administration and Congress.
