The UN special rapporteur on torture, Juan Ernesto Mendez, urged Washington to prosecute offenders as well as senior officials who ordered the abuse of prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
“The United States has a duty to investigate every act of torture. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen much in the way of accountability,” Mendez said.
The Argentinean diplomat also said he plans to visit Iraq to investigate what he called a “very widespread practice of torture” of detainees by US-led forces, following the 2003 occupation of the war-torn country.
The new UN expert who, himself, is a victim of prison torture during Argentina’s dictatorship in the 1970s, also plans to visit Guantanamo prison.
Mendez says he wants to conduct his own probe there on condition that US officials allow him to interview prisoners still being held at Guantanamo by the Obama administration.
In his book Decision Points, Bush confirms that he personally approved a request by CIA agents to use waterboarding and other forms of torture in the interrogation of so-called “terror suspects.” He claims that his decision helped save lives.
Amnesty International has also stated that the United States must prosecute Bush for torture after a criminal probe into his admissions.
Title: UN urges full US torture investigation
Publication: http://presstv.ir/detail/151336.html
Date of Publication: Nov 17, 2010
Faculty Evaluator: Noel Byrne, Sonoma State University
Student Researcher: Jamie Bee, Sonoma State University