A human rights group said Tuesday that the CIA transferred at least 14 terrorism suspects to Jordan for interrogation after the Sept. 11 attacks.Human Rights Watch reported that the U.S. ally in the Mideast served as a proxy jailer for the CIA until at least 2004. "The Bush administration claims that it has not transferred people to foreign custody for abusive interrogation," said Joanne Mariner, the group's terrorism and counter-terrorism director. "But we've documented more than a dozen cases in which prisoners were sent to Jordan for torture."
The group said its 36-page report was based mainly on information from former Jordanian prisoners who had been held with non-Jordanian terrorism suspects. It said five of the suspects sent to Jordan were now at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
| The report is here. For each case, the pattern of the allegations is simple: each 'claimant' was arrested in a foreign country, 'held' for some time in that country by U.S. agents in cooperation with the country in which the claimant was arrested, and then flown to Jordan for interrogation. Now you'll be shocked to discover this, but as you read through each 'case', you'll find that not a single source is named. There's no one person brave enough to say, publicly, "I saw this on such and such a day and location." Further, not a single US agent is named. I guess it's because they're all CIA agents and all have better cover than Valerie Plame, but there isn't a single specific charge against a single American. And you'll be further distressed to learn that few of the claimants are currently available to make their allegations personally, though the blessed HRW assures us that each has been truncheoned by both the evil Americans and the almost-as-evil Jordanians. Some are indeed residing currently in Guantanamo, where I'm sure they're being further tortured by clean cells, warm showers and good food three times daily. |
"The United States does not transport individuals for the purpose of torture," he said.