Torture Survivors Reject Mukasey

المجموعة السودانية لمناهضة التعذيب*
فيلادلفيا- بنسلفانيا

أمهرست- ماساتشوسيتس

21 Nov 2007

Retired federal judge Michael Mukasey

www.usnews.com/

مناهضو التعذيب السودانيون يرفضون ترشيح موكاسي

بقلق بالغ استقبلت المجموعة السودانية لمناهضة التعذيب أمر ترشيح الرئيس بوش لشخص آخر مثير للجدل لمقعد النائب العام.
ففي أثناء مقابلته مع اللجنة التشريعية لمجلس الشيوخ رفض القاضي السابق/ مايكل موكاسي، المرشح للوظيفة أن يؤكد على أن "الغمر بالماء" هو وسيلة من وسائل التعذيب.
و لقد بدا واضحا أن السيد/ موكاسي كان يتهرب من الاجابة على السؤال دون أن يلزم نفسه بموقف واضح حيث قال "ان كانت هذه الوسيلة نوعا من التعذيب، اذا لايمكن استخدامها".
ولم يكتفي المرشح بهذا الموقف الهزيل و حسب،حيث كان قد صرح من قبل أن المعتقلين تحت طائلة قانون الحرب ضد الارهاب"يعتبروا نوعية مختلفة من البشر" و بالتالي ليس على المحققين الالتزام بمعاهدة جنيفا في التعامل معهم!

ان ترشيح شخصية كهذه لا تود الالتزام بتعريف التعذيب في القانون الأمريكي لهو بمثابة الأمر الخطير،بل المثير حتى للغضب و يشكل اهانة كبيرة لأكثر من 400 الف شخص من ضحايا التعذيب يعيشون الآن بالولايات المتحدة الأمريكية.
لقد لعبت الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية لأكثر من نصف قرن، دورا رئيسيا في محاربة التعذيب حول العالم و ذلك من خلال مساعدتها في كتابة مسودات القوانين و المعاهدات الدولية خاصة معاهدة مناهضة التعذيب لعام 1984. انه لمن المحزن أن نرى كيف تقوم ادارة الرئيس بوش بتشويه سمعة التاريخ التشريعي الأمريكي المشرف و التقاليد الداعية للفخر في المعاملة الانسانية للمعتقلين أثناء التحقيق في السجون الأمريكية.

ان فضيحة وزارة العدل المعروفة باسم "مذكرة التعذيب" كانت خطوة أولى ساهم في صياغتها النائب العام المستقيل البرتو جونزاليس ، ثم تلتها فضيحة أخرى كانت بمثابة جرم في حق اللاجئين بالولايات المتحدة الأمريكية ،خاصة السودانيين،وكان ذلك حين استضافت ادارة الرئيس بوش وعلى حساب دافع الضرائب، رئيس جهاز الأمن السوداني و المسؤول الأول عن مؤسسة التعذيب في السودان. و حينما تم اكتشاف أمر الزيارة السرية في عام 2005؛ بررت الادارة بأن أجهزتها الاستخباراتية كانت تنسق مع النظام السوداني في حربها ضد الارهاب!
كيف يمكن لهذه الادارة أن تطرح نفسها كشكل مغاير و معادي لنظام الهوس الديني في السودان والذي دوما يختار نائبه العام من زبانية و مهندسي التعذيب ذوي السمعة السيئة؟؟؟
وكيف يمكن لأعضاء منظمتنا منح الثقة للسيد/ موكاسي كنائب عام، و أن يطالب نيابة عنهم بتقديم من قاموا بتعذيبهم في السودان للمحاكمات القانونية؟؟؟

اننا نضم صوتنا الى بقية المنظمات الحقوقية و الناشطين في مجال مناهضة التعذيب بالولايات المتحدة الأمريكية في حث ممثلينا بالمجلسين لرفض ترشيح السيد/ مايكل موكاسي لمنصب النائب العام.

(*) المجموعة السودانية المناهضة للتعذيب هي منظمة لحقوق الانسان مقرها الولايات المتحدة الامريكية، و هي تعمل لاجل رفع مستوى الوعي بقضية التعذيب في العالم بشكل عام، و في السودان بشكل خاص.
ان هذه المجموعة تعمل و تدافع بشكل اساس عن مفهوم و خلق" مفوضية لاجل الحقيقة و المصالحة" في السودان ، وذلك لاجل الخروج من دوامة العنف، وكما انها تعمل و بحزم اكيد لتقديم متهم و مسئول عن ممارسة التعذيب الي ساحة العدالة.
أن العفو عن جرائم حقوق الانسان يجب يمنحه الضحايا انفسهم ، لان العفو في هذا الشأن حقٌ لا يمتلكه غيرهم.
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Date: 11/21/07

Philadelphia, PA & Amherst, MA: The Group Against Torture in Sudan (GATS) is seriously troubled by the Bush Administration’s nomination of another questionable person to the post of Attorney general. In his confirmation hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey refused to say that Waterboarding is torture. He appeared very hesitant and danced around the issue and only saying “if it is torture, it can't be used”. In his attempt to explain why interrogators should not abide with Geneva Conventions, he described a prisoner in the war against terror as a “very different type of person”.

To nominate a person who clearly does not want to commit himself to the rule of law and the clear US definition of torture is very dangerous. In addition, it is outrageous and insulting to the more than 400,000 torture survivors who live in this country.

For more than half a century the United States played a major role in fighting torture around the world. It helped to draft most of the international human rights treaties especially the Convention Against Torture of 1984. It’s very sad to see how this administration is bringing down this shining legislative history and proud tradition of humane detention and interrogation practices.

The scandal of the Justice Department, known in infamy, as the ‘Torture Memo’ during the time of the previous Attorney General was one step in this fall. It was followed by another blow to the Sudanese torture survivors who took refuge in the US when they found out that this administration was secretly cooperating with the head of the torture machine in Sudan in 2005. The CIA tried to justify this unethical act by claiming that they were taking advice from the engineer of torture in the war against terror!

How can we claim that we are different from the current fanatic regime of Sudan that always made the founders of the torture system their Chief Justice? How could GATS members trust that Mr. Mukasey, as Attorney General, to advocate on their behalf to bring the torturers in Sudan to justice?

We add our voice to all human rights organizations and call upon the United States Senate to reject the nomination of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General of the United States.

The Group Against Torture in Sudan-GATS, is an advocacy human rights group based in the United States. GATS works to rais awareness about torture worldwide and especially in Sudan. While GATS is advocating strongly for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission concept in Sudan in order to stop the vicious cycle of violence, it’s also working relentlessly to bring perpetrators to justice. Amnesty and forgiveness of perpetrators of their crimes should be given only by the torture survivors.

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Lou Ann Merkle: Torture is not an American Value

Torture is not an American value. Here's a test to determine whether Waterboarding & every other form of torture is right or wrong:

1. Could our Congress and President proudly host a program showing the Waterboarding of a man or woman with an American flag on the same stage and broadcast this to the world?

2. Could our Congressmen and Congresswomen, Senators and President expose themselves to Waterboarding as the courageous Presidential Advisor Levin did and still have doubts about it being torture?

3. Would our Congressmen and Congresswomen, Senators and President allow this to be done to their own children and/or our own American service people and consider it a tolerable means of gaining information?

I can't imagine anyone answering yes to any of these questions.

Torture is done behind closed doors away from the public eye for a reason. The torturers lose their humanity as they inflict pain without mercy and fail to hear the pleadings for mercy from their suffering victims. Torture is done to "others" who are dehumanized beyond the reach of international human rights protections.

An America that not only accepts torure, but has a school that trains American & international soldiers in its techniques fuels a climate of fear and sows the seeds of our own destruction.We lead by example.

We reap what we sow. Torture is wrong and this Administration has betrayed our most fundamental values by legalizing state-sponsored brutality.

Lou Ann Merkle

Executi Director

Darfur Alert Coalition

http://www.darfuralert.org/

Former 'Ghost House' prisoner gives a presentation at church

Disclaimer: There were some misinformation in the following article, which WMDC informed the reporter about and corrected it here in this edited version(in blue bold text)

By GEORGE AUSTIN
Editor

The Spectator, 11/07/2007

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071107/PUB05/711070407

SOMERSET — For the past year and a half, many members of the different churches around Somerset have come together to raise money for the refugees fleeing a genocide in the faraway country of Sudan.
On Sunday, a lot of those people got to hear a firsthand account of what life is like in that African country by a man who says he was tortured for 18 months (118 days) before leaving Sudan.
Mohammed Ibrahim Elgadhi, the co-founder of the Darfur Alert Coalition, told those in attendance at the Congregational Christian Christian Church that he had been on the run for three years before being arrested in 1992 and put in one of the "Ghost Houses," which the president of Sudan had said did not exist.
"There were more than 50 methods of torture they used," Dr. Elgadhi said of what occurred in the Ghost Houses where he said guards beat prisoners.
Dr. Elgadhi said there was both physical and mental torture in the Ghost House, from threats with trained dogs to electric shock. After the torture, he said prisoners would be put in small cells where they underwent ultrasound that made them forget tortures they had endured (made them forget what they had said under torture).
"They used a lot of sophisticated techniques because they have a lot of medical people who supervise the tortures with them," Dr. Elgadhi said.
Dr. Elgadhi said he was arrested for documenting human rights violations in Sudan and that is why he was put in a Ghost House. He said he had been talking to people who had been tortured in prisons in the country (before he got arrested).
Dr. Elgadhi was released from the Ghost House under the conditions that he would be an informant or a spy. At that time in 1993, he said he fled the country to Yemen to be with family members.
Dr. Elgadhi said Ghost Houses still exist in Sudan. He said the CIA from the United States has been using informants from Sudan (Security Agency)for what they say is information to help them fight terror.
"You can not use a terrorist to help you," Dr. Elgadhi said. "You can not use torture (you can not work with torturers). That is wrong."
Dr. Elgadhi talked about torture and genocide not only in Sudan, but also in other parts of the world and the U.S. He said torture is used in more than 150 countries, including the U.S. Dr. Elgadhi said the definition of genocide that is provided by the United Nations needs to be reconsidered. He said the definition only includes the genocide of groups because of nationalities, ethnicities or religion.
Dr. Elgadhi talked about other genocides over world history, including the Armenian genocide in Turkey during World War I, the Holocaust and genocides in Rwanda, Kosovo and Iraq. He said there was genocide in the U.S. when many Native Americans were killed off and (millions of African Americans) during slave trade times that included not only the U.S., but also European countries and the Ottoman Empire.
Before Dr. Elgadhi spoke, Holocaust survivor Janet Applefield gave a presentation. She told about surviving the Holocaust as a young girl in Poland where anti-semitism was severe. She talked about how her mother was killed and her father was put in a concentration camp while she stayed with a cousin who was cruel to her. She said when her cousin was arrested for being part of the Polish resistance, she was taken in at a farm where there were eight children. Ms. Applefield was put in an orphanage, but in time her father found her and brought her back to Poland. When they figured out they would not have a future in Poland, they moved to the United States.

The two speakers were sponsored by the Christian Congregations of Somerset and Swansea. The title of the program was called "Holocaust and Genocide: What Lessons Will We Learn? What Can We Do?"

Dr. Elgadhi also discussed the "forgotten genocides," which he said have included Palestinians who can not go back (to Palestine and) live (with no rights) in the oil rich countries, the Japanese in America during World War II, Chinese and Soviet genocides (in the 1930s) and the genocide in East Timor in 1975. He said under the definition of genocide, the large number of people who are killed after a war is not included. He said more than 500,000 Germans were killed in the five years after World War II.
Dr. Elgadhi said the U.S. recognized genocide in the Sudan in 2004, but despite a peace agreement, atrocities and violence are continuing in the country. He showed photographs that demonstrate the impact of genocide which can include malnutrition and contaminated water. He said rape is used as a form of torture, especially in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Dr. Elgadhi said the attorney general in the U.S. has also tried to change the definition of torture. He said CIA "enhanced interrogation techniques" can include attention slaps, belly slaps, making a prisoner stand for hours, cold treatment and water boarding which the Bush Administration has denied is torture. Dr. Elgadhi displayed the names and photographs of torturers in Sudan on a screen at the church. He said people need to support U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy on his strong stance against genocide and torture (regarding the Atorney General nominee, Michael Mukasey).
"It was a very moving presentation and very informative, very sad to hear the stories they had to tell," Somerset resident Shirley Denison, who has been raising money to help refugees in Sudan, said of the remarks of Dr. Elgadhi and Ms. Applefield.

Sheila Matthews attended the presentations and said what is alarming to her is the CIA's involvement in the affairs of other countries around the world. She said the U.S. has helped in overthrows of other countries that have turned around to cause problems for America.
"For me, the thing that really hits you is how we in the United States have been involved in the genocides, either directly or indirectly," Ms. Matthews said.

Say No to another Torture Advocate!

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/usls/2007/statement/380/
NEW YORK—Human Rights First (HRF) today announced its opposition to the confirmation of Judge Michael Mukasey as attorney general, citing his continued refusal to recognize that waterboarding – a method of torture that dates back to the Spanish Inquisition -- is unlawful.
“Above all else, America’s top law enforcement officer must uphold the laws of the United States, including those that clearly prohibit the use of torture and cruel and inhumane treatment,” said Maureen Byrnes, executive director of Human Rights First.
“Judge Mukasey has fallen short of this mark, notwithstanding repeated opportunities to clarify his positions,” added Byrnes.
Despite concerns about the views Judge Mukasey expressed on torture and on the power of the President as Commander-in-Chief to override laws passed by Congress during his initial confirmation hearing on October 18th, HRF decided to withhold judgment in hopes that Judge Mukasey’s written answers would clarify his views and alleviate these concerns.
On Tuesday, Judge Mukasey submitted written answers to the questions posed by members of the Judiciary Committee regarding waterboarding. In his responses, Judge Mukasey continued to insist, as he did in his confirmation hearing, that questions about the legality of waterboarding are hypothetical and thus impossible for him to answer before being briefed on the details of its use. This, despite the fact that active duty Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps Judge Advocates General had no difficulty declaring unequivocally that the practice is illegal.
“Judge Mukasey does not need to know every detail of the CIA program to conclude that waterboarding and other acts of official cruelty violate the law. In fact, the legal analysis in his letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee acknowledges that some acts are prohibited by the law regardless of the circumstances,” said Byrnes.
Recently Human Rights First and Physicians for Human Rights, released a landmark report finding illegal ten techniques, including waterboarding, widely reported to have been authorized for use in the CIA’s secret interrogation program. The report represents a critical collaboration between medical and legal research that is necessary to assess the extent of physical and psychological harm caused by these techniques as the basis for determining their legality. The knowing infliction of the “severe” or “serious” physical pain and suffering likely to be caused by each of these techniques used separately, or more commonly, in combination with one another, constitutes a violation of U.S. law on “torture” and “cruel and inhumane treatment.”
Another troubling feature of Judge Mukasey's written responses is his refusal to state clearly that the president is bound to uphold U.S. obligations under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. In response to a written question, Judge Mukasey stated that the issue of whether the president could authorize a violation of Common Article 3 that did not rise to a “grave breach” under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was “more complicated.”
“There should be nothing complicated about the President’s obligation to uphold the minimum standard of treatment under the Geneva Conventions — a standard upon which the U.S. military relies,” said Byrnes.
“We are still waiting for the clear and unambiguous statement that America will not allow torture or cruel and inhumane treatment as is clearly prohibited by U.S. law. Judge Mukasey’s continued refusal to say so, leaves us no choice but to oppose his nomination,” said Byrnes.