U.N. report on secret detention lumps U.S. in with Stalin, Pinochet

A group of four independent U.N. rights investigators has just published a detailed history of global secret detention practices that accuses the Bush administration of violating international law in its global war on terror by hauling its enemies into a network of clandestine prisons, and in some cases, torturing them.

The 221-page report constitutes the most exhaustive U.N. study of secret detention practices, examining abuses by the United States and dozens of countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China, Russia, and Sri Lanka. It places the United States in the company of a long line of despotic regimes, from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet, that have used secret prisons — although the scale of alleged U.S. abuses is infinitesimally small in comparison.

The report traces the modern use of secret detentions to the Soviet Gulag system and the Nazis’ "night and fog decree," which provided for the arrest of suspected resistance movement members in occupied Europe and their secret transfer to Germany "under cover of night."

During the 1970s and 1980s, Latin American military regimes, including Argentina, Chile, and Peru also used secret detention centers as part of a wider counterterrorism strategy. "Thousands of Latin Americans were secretly kidnapped, tortured and killed by national security services," the report notes.

The report focuses primarily on CIA practices — including the use of secret detention facilities and harsh interrogation techniques for "high value" detainees. The authors say the Bush administration’s defense of its detention practices in recent years undercut international efforts to pressure other states to stop the practice. In Asia, for instance, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka have all invoked anti-terror rhetoric to justify their secret detention policies.

In spite of America’s position as "a global leader in the protection of human rights," the United States "embarked on a process of reducing and removing various human rights and other protection mechanisms," including the U.S. Patriot Act of 2001 and the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the report states. The report says that the U.S. bears responsibility for abuses committed against individuals it handed over to foreign states, particularly those with poor human rights records.

In response to a questionnaire sent to the United States, the Obama administration said that the president has undertaken a broad range of decisions to end his predecessor’s detention policies. The CIA, the administration noted, was instructed immediately after Obama took office to close any secret detention facilities as expeditiously as possible, and not open new ones. The administration also said that the U.S. intends to close Guantánamo detention facility "as soon as practicable" and will provide the International Committee of the Red Cross access to any individual detained in armed conflict.

"Secret detention is irreconcilable with international human rights law and international humanitarian law," the report states. "It amounts to a manifest human rights violation and cannot be justified under any circumstances, including during states of emergency."

Critics of the Bush-era detention policies say that the Obama administration needs to hold those Americans who violated international law to account. "While the Obama administration has thankfully ended the Bush administration’s secret detention program, it has not yet launched a full and independent investigation into the gross human rights violations that happened in those secret detention facilities," said Jamil Dakwar, of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The U.S. is still obligated under international law to conduct full and independent investigations into crimes of torture and forced disappearances. Without taking credible and full accountability measures, the U.S. will remain in violation of international legal obligations as found by the U.N. study."

The report was produced by the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; the special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment; the working group on arbitrary detention; and the working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances.

UPDATE: A U.S. official declined to comment publicly on the report, saying the administration is still in the process of reviewing it. But the official said on first glimpse the report "fails to adequately acknowledge the changes of detention polices in the Obama administration."

"This is an administration that has clearly reiterated its commitment to the rule of law," the official added. "We are committed to countering the threat [of terrorism] in a manner consistent with our values and ideals."