Earlier this month, we marked 10 years since the release of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s report (PDF) about the CIA’s post-9/11 torture programme, which revealed that abuse was far more brutal than previously known.
While the full text of the 6,700-page report remains secret, its heavily redacted executive summary nevertheless represents the high-water mark of official US recognition of its role in one of the most egregious recent examples of systemic state torture.
The report, compiled following a three-year investigation, made it clear beyond dispute that the US repeatedly breached its obligations under the UN Convention against Torture, that US officials lied about the programme, and that it had held far more detainees than previously thought. Whereas it was hoped at the time that the publication of the report would lead to a full official investigation, accountability of the perpetrators and reparation for the victims, it is to the shame of the global community – the vast majority of whom agree with the prohibition of torture – that none of these hopes has been fulfilled.
Indeed, while the CIA played the lead role in the torture, personnel from other powerful liberal democracies, including those in Europe, have been deeply implicated in the abuses. The US Senate committee report provided a significant plank of the evidence which has facilitated efforts in Europe to seek justice for the role of European states in the programme, such as the cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights, including the case against Lithuania brought by a REDRESS client, Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
Al-Hawsawi, a Guantanamo detainee, whose case was detailed in the report, was tortured and suffered grave health issues after being subjected to what the CIA called “rectal feeding”, which medical experts have said was a form of rape or sexual assault. In the latest in a series of cases involving survivors of the CIA programme who were detained in Europe, the European Court found in his favour in January, and in doing so relied significantly on the report, not least in confirming he was illegally held in a CIA secret detention centre in Lithuania.
As the US tried to move interrogations and detentions outside of its territory after 9/11 to avoid various human rights obligations, such as the prohibition against torture and ill-treatment, establishing the truth has been an arduous task. However, some of this truth has emerged thanks to the courage of some of the victims who have spoken publicly – detailing stories of illegal rendition, detention and torture – as well as lawyers, human rights groups, investigative journalists, academics, and parliamentarians.
The US Senate committee report has provided the starting point for other significant research, such as the work of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Rendition Project, which has filled in some of the gaps in the public understanding of the CIA torture programme. However, more than 20 years after the abuses, official secrecy reigns. The majority of the report remains unpublished, and the full truth of the US programme, and the extent of cooperation it received from its allies, has not been revealed.
In a damning report by the British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee in 2018, the United Kingdom, a key ally of the US at the time, was found to be complicit in kidnap and torture in relation to the CIA torture programme, but the government refused to launch a judge-led inquiry to investigate this further.
Al-Hawsawi is waiting for the conclusion of an investigation by the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a special judicial body that hears complaints about the intelligence services, into the possible role of the UK intelligence agencies in his own torture. A similar investigation is under way in relation to Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, alongside a separate civil case before the UK High Court by Abu Zubaydah, both of whom are also imprisoned in Guantanamo.
The UK, and other European states, can still play an important role in providing justice and accountability for survivors of the CIA torture programme, particularly as the prospect of the closure of Guantanamo is likely to fade still further under a new Donald Trump presidency, and the potential for accountability for torture in the US continues to recede.
As Fionnuala Ni Aolain, the first UN human rights expert to be authorised to visit the US Naval Station at Guantanamo, noted in a scathing report two years ago, no one has been held accountable for the systematic practices of torture revealed – in part – in the US Senate committee report and “not a single man who was rendered across borders, tortured, arbitrarily detained, separated from family has received an adequate remedy”.
For as long as that remains the case, a stain remains on the record of all those states who had a role in these abuses. One day, the full truth will be known.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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