7 December :: Sec. Rice in Kiev says US has forbidden all forms of cruel or inhumane treatment, anywhere US personnel operate... 6 December :: ACLU files suit against Bush admin. for kidnapping foreign national... :: HRW: Rice "miscast" rendition as legal; it is clearly banned under international law... 5 December :: McCain holds firm, torture ban must be total, must be law; Hadley pushing CIA exemption... Human Rights Watch :: Reports on abuse...

Under Article VI of the US Constitution:
"...all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land..."

Under Article 1 of the Convention against Torture:
"1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession"...

Under Article 2 of the Convention against Torture:
"2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

Under Article 4 of the Convention against Torture:
"1. Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture."

Under the US Foreign Assistance Act:
Section 502b: "a principal goal of the foreign policy of the United States shall be to promote increased observance of internationally recognized human rights by all countries".

Prelminary findings from the Council of Europe's investigation into human rights abuses and a secret CIA network of extralegal detention facilities report high probability that European governments knew what US forces were doing on their soil and in neighboring countries.

Swiss senator Dick Marty, overseeing the investigation, says that while finding strong evidence from numerous sources that the "outsourcing" of torture did occur through a clandestine network, there is no hard evidence so far that Poland or Romania hosted prison camps.

Human Rights Watch had alleged early on that as evidence emerged suggesting secret "black site" detention centers in eastern Europe, Poland and Romania were two possible destinations for the CIA "ghost flights", removing terror suspects to untraceable locations. This would have dramatic implications, as such participation would directly violate fundamental European human rights treaties, and the two nations could be subject to serious political sanctions, even be stripped of the right to participate in EU government.

If the Marty investigation has not uncovered direct involvement or evidence of the particular sites themselves, the revelation of evidence that the network of rendition for the purposes of aggressive or abusive interrogation did exist, with the knowledge of European governments, is likely to cause a new uproar. European populations have been adamant in their lack of support for any such involvement by their governments, and domestic investigations could become serious political fallout as more evidence comes to light.

Senator Marty said in the report that despite a lack of formal or incontrovertible evidence, "there are many indications from various sources which must be considered reliable, justifying the continuation of ... investigative work", to determine whether Poland, Romania or other European nations had hosted illegal prison camps or participated in prohibited prisoner abuses.

The interim Council of Europe report declared "There is a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing' of torture", adding that the system of rendition was designed so that "Acts of torture or severe violation of detainees' dignity through the administration of inhuman or degrading treatment are carried outside national territory and beyond the authority of national intelligence services."

The report also suggests that more than 100 individuals may have been subject to this system of abduction and abuse during "recent years". There is also concern that the extent of the program may have been well beyond what governments suspected or approved.

Allegations have been levelled that literally hundreds of rendition flights passed through British and German airports. A recently leaked memo said the UK government was not made aware of the number of flights involving extraordinary rendition which may have used British airports or passed over British airspace.

The UK foreign secretary Jack Straw has said he is only aware of 4 requests for permission to route flights through British airports (all prior to 11 September 2001—a strange detail, considering it is widely held that the rendition network either came into being or accelerated dramatically after that date), and that 2 had been refused.

While stating that the UK has been "open" about its knowledge of the transfer of terror suspects via rendition, PM Tony Blair says he is not aware of any instance of such flights or requests for flights, other than the 4 mentioned by Mr. Straw.

European governments essentially find themselves in the same untenable bind as when the ghost flight stories first emerged in early November: either, they knowingly participated in a scheme apparently designed to circumvent the rule of law and allow torture, or they failed to secure their nation's borders against such acts by another nation or nations.

The US government has been strong in its suggestions that while nothing about their methods violates human rights law —this is opinion or interpretation, not unswerving fact—, no governments were deceived or left in the dark about any of its activities.

The issue still threatens to become an even more worrying international diplomatic crisis, should it be revealed that the CIA had not only circumvented standard international human rights laws, but also had denied its allies the due process they require under their own laws for legally participating in the transfer of prisoners. [s]

• The Guardian: "European Governments 'Knew of' CIA Flights"
• Council of Europe: "Alleged secret detentions in Council of Europe member states, Information Memorandum II"
• AOL: "Probe Finds U.S. May have Outsourced Torture"

SERIOUS LEGAL PROBLEMS INHERENT IN GHOST FLIGHTS & 'EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION'
9 December 2005

The principal legal problem relating to alleged "ghost flights", secret interrogations and the policy of "extraordinary rendition" is the extralegal nature of all three techniques. The issue centers on these processes being designed to operate beyond the scope of ordinary legal constraints. [Full Story]

RICE STAKES OUT "NUANCED" POSITION ON ABDUCTIONS, TORTURE
7 December 2005

Amid growing concern relating to press reports of undisclosed CIA flights through or over European nations, with possible connections to the abduction of terror suspects and the use of secret detention centers, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has sought to defend US policy. She admitted that the US might make mistakes in the "war on terror", but did not make specific reference to controversy over the alleged abduction of an innocent German citizen who, after 5 months of questioning in Afghanistan, proved to be a case of mistaken identity.

STORY UPDATE:
Secretary Rice spoke to the press while in Kiev, Ukraine, today, Wednesday, and announced that the US had prohibited all inhumane treatment of prisoners. She said "As a matter of U.S. policy, the United States' obligations under the CAT [U.N. Convention Against Torture], which prohibits cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment -- those obligations extend to U.S. personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the United States or outside of the United States".

8 December Update:
Human Rights Watch has issued a statement calling Rice's comments in favor of international torture bans "inadequate". The organization stated that the Secretary of State's comments did not address any specific allegations of secret or extralegal procedures which, if true, would violate those prohibitions. [Full Story]

BACKGROUND:
The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment —based in part on the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was adopted by the General Assembly on 9 December 1975— was formally adopted by the UN in 1984 and entered into force on 26 June 1987.

Under Part I, Article II, Section 1 of the treaty, "Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction." [emphasis added] the US Constitution specifically requires that ratification of any treaty binds the standards of the US system of laws to those of the ratified treaty. Some legal clauses relevant to stories in this special section can be found in selected excerpts to the left of this page, above.