Amnesty Links 'Rendition' Flights With Torture

Financial Times

By Daniel Dombey in Brussels and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

April 5 2006

Three Yemeni men abducted and mistreated by the US were probably held in eastern Europe, Amnesty International said in a new report.

A study by Amnesty, based on interviews with the former captives, is intended to cast light on Washington’s practice of “rendition”, or extra-legal abduction, which the human rights group says often paves the way to torture or maltreatment.

Washington insists it never sends detainees to places where they would be at risk of torture – but it also defines torture much more narrowly than do other governments.

The study said Muhammad Bashmilah, Salah Ali Qaru and Muhammad al-Assad were “held in at least four secret US-run facilities...from the information subsequently provided by the men [about the climate, food and prayer schedules] it is likely they were held in Djibouti, Afghanistan and somewhere in eastern Europe”.

Both Poland and Romania, named last year as likely centres of CIA “secret prisons” by Human Rights Watch, another campaigning organisation, have denied hosting any such facilities.

Wednesday’s report adds that after being arrested and transferred to US custody in 2003, the men were brought back to Yemen in 2005 and released in February this year. Although all were sentenced for forgery in connection with false travel documents, none was charged with any terrorism-related offences. The report also says they had been shackled, kept unaware of their location and not allowed to see daylight for months.

While CIA renditions have stirred controversy in Europe, criticism in the US has been relatively muted, particularly on Capitol Hill. John McCain, the Republican senator who was tortured in Vietnam, pushed through legislation banning torture, but other senior Republicans have avoided the renditions debate.

Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, and Edward Markey, a Democratic congressman, have introduced legislation that would compel the secretary of state to assure Congress that the administration would only transfer prisoners to countries where it believes they would not be tortured, but the legislation stands little chance of approval.

Jennifer Daskal, advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, says Democrats have been unwilling to push the issue because of the lack of Republican support and concerns they could be painted as soft on national security.