Daily brief: CIA report details prisoner abuse

Oh unhappy torment

A CIA Inspector General’s report from 2004 released yesterday shows that interrogators in overseas prisons went far beyond accepted guidelines for gleaning information from captured terrorists (New York Times and Washington Post). Among other things, interrogators told September 11 operational planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that his children could be killed and Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri, who is accused of plotting the U.S.S. Cole attack, that his mother could be brought in, implying that she could be sexually abused. The full report is available here (NYT).

The Justice Department has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate these claims, to the frustration of CIA director Leon Panetta (Wall Street Journal). The Obama administration is changing the way U.S. operatives can interrogate prisoners, bringing in the FBI and saying they must be controlled by the strict guidelines of the Army Field Manual (AP).

To make a true election

Incumbent Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s finance minister announced Monday that the president was poised to declare an overwhelming victory in last Thursday’s election, winning 68 percent of the vote (Washington Post). The finance minister told journalists that the figures he had seen suggested about five million voters, for a turnout rate of around 33 percent.

The finance minister also said that Karzai has won more than 3.5 million votes, his chief rival Abdullah Abdullah 1.5 million, and longshot candidates Ramazan Bashardost 4.5 percent and Ashraf Ghani 1 percent, respectively (Reuters and New York Times). Some half a million votes have yet to be counted, and provisional, partial results were due today, though officials warn that investigations into claims of irregularities will take some time.

The Independent Election Commission may release results from less than 20 percent of the vote as counting continues, though full results will take at least another ten days (BBC and VOA). The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has announced that there were more than 400 insurgent attacks on election day, making it one of the most violent since 2001.

Ghani, a former World Bank executive, and Bashardost, a former cabinet minister, have entered into the fray of post-election claims of corruption and vote-rigging (Wall Street Journal). Abdullah Abdullah is reportedly under pressure to concede defeat and make a deal with Karzai, according to the governor of Balkh province, in the north of the country (Telegraph).

Vigilante justice

The bodies of 22 suspected militants have been found in Pakistan’s Swat Valley in recent days, and local residents reportedly say Pakistani security forces are carrying out these extrajudicial killings as part of their campaign against the insurgents (BBC and AP). Some 200 bodies have turned up in the past two months, sparking concerns about "brutal revenge attacks" (AFP).

Analysts say that now is a good time for Pakistani security forces to exploit internal rifts within the Taliban, as the succession contest to former TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud lurches murkily along (AFP and Foreign Policy).

Pour some sugar on me

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik has told the owners of sugar mills to release their stocks within three days or face legal action, prompted by a subcontinent-wide shortage of the sweet stuff (The News). Sugar prices have risen more than 15 percent in Pakistan in recent months (BBC).

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