Public won’t let Washington sweep CIA torture under the rug – Russian diplomat
The Obama administration won’t be able to throw the torture issue under the table, as the US Senate report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program has sparked a global public outcry, the Russian Foreign Ministry's human rights ombudsman told RT.
“It’s to be continued. If you wish, this report is to be
continued against the will of those who would like to hush it
down,” Konstantin Dolgov stressed.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture following
9/11 will be “discussed in the international forum,
including, hopefully, in the UN Council of Human Rights and in
some other international formats,” he added.
READ MORE: 'Enhanced interrogation' program was flawed, US Senate & CIA agree
The ombudsman believes that “very significant” public
interest towards the document is explained by the fact that it
describes not only breaches of human rights, but violations of
the “principle of supremacy of law, the rule of law.”
“It’s high time to bring those responsible for tortures to
justice. But, unfortunately, the Obama administration reaffirmed
its longstanding position that nobody will be punished,” he
said.
Dolgov has called Washington’s stance “shameful,”
stressing that it “isn’t only criticized by human rights
defenders around the world, but...by a significant portion of the
American society and the American establishment.”
The authorities in European countries that hosted the CIA’s
secret prisons – such as Lithuania, Poland, and Romania – are
also “under increasing pressure, not only internationally,
but also from the public opinion that investigations are to be
done finally and perpetrators are to be punished because the mere
existence of those prisons in their territories was a major
transgression of international law,” he stressed.
In such conditions, “I don’t think that the Obama
administration or any future administration in DC will be able to
completely take it [the torture issue] out of the focus of
international attention,” Dolgov said.
The ombudsman reminded that less than 500 pages from the
6,000-page Senate report were made available to the public.
“Those pages remain secret upon the insistence of the
administration. So there’s a lot of information in those pages
which the administration wants to still hide from the American
public and the international community,” he said.
READ MORE: CIA medical professionals accused of committing war crimes
Dolgov suggested that most of the report remains classified
because “maybe some names are cited, those who were
responsible for giving orders, for perpetrating those orders,
because we’re speaking about horrible violations of international
obligations of the US.”
According to the Foreign Ministry official, similar reasons are
preventing the Obama administration from closing the infamous
Guantanamo prison, “where, basically, unlawful practices
continue, including those which human rights defenders categorize
as tortures or being close to tortures.”
“Once again, the issue of responsibility arises: who will be
made responsible, who will bear the responsibility for Guantanamo
– this shameful page of American history. It might very well turn
out that nobody will be punished like in the case of other
tortures in Afghanistan and in secret prisons in European
countries,” he said.
The US Senate report was released on December 9, revealing the
CIA's use of torture in an attempt to gain intelligence from
suspected terrorists.
According to the inquiry, which cost $40 million, US intelligence
services implemented techniques such as sleep deprivation and the
simulated drowning practice known as waterboarding during
interrogations.
Furthermore, it was determined that such torture was ineffective, as it failed to produce any significant intelligence data.
READ MORE: 'I'd do it again!' Cheney defends CIA torture, calls interrogators heroes
In his interview with RT, Dolgov also spoke about the Ukraine
crisis, stressing that the Foreign Ministry has put together
three ‘White Books’ containing human rights violations by Kiev
authorities – including the use of cluster and phosphorous bombs
against civilians.
“We must ensure that the international community pushes the
Ukrainian authorities to finally investigate those crimes and to
bring those responsible – I mean perpetrators and organizers – to
justice. This is the moral duty of the international community
that impunity doesn’t exist for the crimes committed during the
Ukrainian conflict,” he said.
The ombudsman also slammed the US for “continuing what we
call a worldwide hunt for Russian citizens, whom they accuse
of...certain unlawful, as they say, activities. They pressurize
the governments of sovereign countries to arrest our citizens.
Then they insist on their extradition to the US, where they face
– in the absolute majority of cases – unfair justice.”
He said that such cases – such as ones involving Viktor Bout and
Konstantin Yaroshenko – are “politicized,” adding that
the Foreign Ministry will continue to provide consular support to
Russians held in US prisons.
READ MORE: Feds’ fight to withhold CIA torture photos may soon end
