Investigation confirms European complicity

A big thank you goes out to Donkephant who has done one ... two ... three ... four(!) torture themed posts for June already. I think we should tie magnets to Cyberotter's fingers, to harness a valuable new renewable energy resource.

Inconvenient News has some news on tomorrow's Guardian article. The Guardian got a sneak preview of a report, which comes from a 7 month investigation study [did not have full investigative powers] by the Council of Europe into rendition flights. Inconvenient News writes:

The report will show that 14 European countries actively colluded with the CIA in facilitating CIA "rendition" flights and the kidnapping of their own citizens by the CIA, or they looked the other way while the CIA operated on their territory. ... The aspect of the report which may receive the most publicity is the finding that Roumania almost certainly, and Poland probably, have allowed the CIA to set up secret prisons on their soil.

I would like to quote from the last press conference held on the topic (April this year), which you can find here

[While we are waiting for the full assessment] we can already draw two important conclusions.

First, the second batch of replies confirmed that virtually none of our member states have proper legislative and administrative measures to effectively protect individuals against violations of human rights committed by agents of friendly foreign security services operating on their territory. It looks as if the analysis of laws and administrative practices regulating the use of civil aircraft will lead to a similar conclusion. Some governments are trying to remedy the situation by asking for diplomatic assurances, a method which in my view has not proven to be adequate and to provide the level of positive protection required by the European Convention of Human Rights.

Second, on the basis of the information I have received so far, I am now in position to say that we no longer need to speak about "alleged" cases of rendition. I am not in a position to go into any further detail at the moment, but we have received official acknowledgment of "handing over" individuals to foreign officials through procedures which ignore the standards and safeguards required by the European Convention on Human Rights and other legal instruments of the Council of Europe. A few other replies contain inconsistencies which we are in the process of clarifying in direct contact with the authorities of the countries concerned.

A press conference will be held at 1pm Paris time (UTC +2), and a video of the press conference will be up at about 4pm (Paris time) here [update: note that rapporteur's comments are in French]. Multimedia and background material from the January meeting is here, but for those who'd prefer a shorter version, Inconvenient News also provides a convenient background post here.

In an interesting coincidence, in my trip around the blogroll today I found two different bloggers writing on a similar theme -- the banalisation of torture. First Make Some Noise writes about torture in South America. Quoting Isabelle Allende:

You learn to live with things. For example, something is taken away, like let's say, the freedom of the press or... yeah, let's say that you're telephones are tapped so you say "Okay, I can live with that" and then the next day something else, and then you say, "Okay, I will have to live with that too," and so forth. And then after a few months, you realize that you have lost everything. But, you got sort of used to it. And then there's a point when you're talking torture at breakfast time with your kids. And all of a sudden you have this epiphany or this revelation in which you realize what kind of life you are having... and then there is a point where I left.

Then Les Politiques writes:

Our governments continue to torture. And with the debate about its justification, it is no more secretive, shameful, brutal and forbidden. It is around us, it is between us, it is with us, it is intractable. So it is something we are starting to talk about, like other things, organise an action day so we may feel good about the issue and powerful only during this day, like action day against mental illness or action day against tobacco or earth action day or mother's day or car free day and so on...

I don't think any of us want to live in a country where torture is breakfast-time conversation with the kids. Yet here we are, being dragged into this mess and being made accessories to this crime, even in Europe. It is our responsibility to stand against it with everything we've got.

Get out your Diary time

ReCollection links to 10 things you can do to shut down Guantanamo.

Today, CCR New York are holding a teach in. You can find out more about it here.

On 13 June, Amnesty BucksMont are holding a panel discussion in West Chester. You can find out more here.

UPDATE:

No need to do an update here, as the growing network of Bloggers Against Torture are on the story! See: The Osterley Times, Alabamian.net, The Nether-World.

(Add yourself in the comments if I've missed you).

Also Reykjavik Transit has been doing valuable work for some time collating info about the rendition programme.