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Rumsfeld personligt involveret i tortur
Ifølge Human Rights Watch.
Historien er, at den amerikanske forsvarsminister Donald Rumsfeld personligt var involveret i mishandlingen af den saudiske Guantanamo-fange Mohamed al-Qahtani, og at han flere gange telefonisk orienterede sig om, hvordan afhøringen gik, og med hvilke midler den foregik.
Og disse midler var blandt andet, som det fremgår i The Guardian, at fangen blev:
...forced to wear women's underwear, stand naked in front of a woman interrogator, and to perform "dog tricks" on a leash, in late 2002 and early 2003. The US rights group [Human Rights Watch] said it had obtained a copy of the interrogation log, which showed he was also subjected to sleep deprivation and forced to maintain "stress" positions; it concluded that the treatment "amounted to torture".Men seksuelle ydmygelser, hundetricks, søvnmangel, sult og pinefulde stilliner er ikke "tortur" efter det amerikanske militærs begreber (gad vide, om glødende jern og afrevne negle ville kvalificere, eller der skal endnu mere til?), men blot "abusive and degrading".
Oplysningerne kommer fra en intern rapport fra den amerikanske hær, hvor et vidne påpeger, at der tydeligvis ikke var nogen bremser på "kreativiteten" og ingen grænser for, hvor langt man kunne gå:
"Where is the throttle on this stuff?" asked Lt Gen Schmidt, an air force officer who said in sworn testimony to the inspector general that he had concerns about the duration and repetition of harsh interrogation techniques. He said that in his view: "There were no limits."Og skønt såvel præsident Bush som Rumsfeld selv og diverse andre apparatchiks vanen tro bagatelliserer og benægter anklagerne, kan enden på i hvert fald Rumsfeld skimtes i horisonten:
Responding to the generals, Mr Rumsfeld said in an al-Arabiya TV interview yesterday: "If every time two or three people disagreed we changed the secretary of defence, it would be like a merry-go-round."Om hans afgang ville gøre nogen egentlig forskel i det store billede er en anden sag. Det er efterhånden svært at se, hvordan andet end en fuldstændig kortlægning af, hvad der er sket på Guantanamo de sidste fire år - komplet med retssager, erstatninger og en uforbeholden undskyldning til alle uretmæssigt tilbageholdne - skulle kunne gøre det.
However, in the wake of the inspector general's report, Human Rights Watch said: "The question at this point is not whether secretary Rumsfeld should resign, it's whether he should be indicted. General Schmidt's sworn statement suggests Rumsfeld may have been perfectly aware of the abuses inflicted on Mr al-Qahtani."