A coalition of legal and human rights groups led by the Constitution Project, a Washington DC think tank, has issued recommendations to the Obama Administration on reforming the immoral and largely illegal practices of the Bush Administration and its “War on Terrorists.”
The paper, “Liberty and Security: Recommendations for the Next Administration and Congress” “reflects the ongoing, collaborative efforts of a coalition of more than 25 leading organizations and 75 individuals to provide policymakers with a framework for addressing liberty and security issues. The catalogue includes recommendations drawn from the shared knowledge and experience of a broad coalition of groups devoted to exploring the intersection of civil liberties and national security,” according to one of its lead contributors, Becky Monroe, Policy Counsel at the Constitution Project.
The paper specifically identifies 62 items for congressional action and 118 items for executive action. Its 20 chapters cover five broad issue areas: (1) detention, interrogation, and trials, (2) immigration and national security, (3) secrecy (4) separation of powers, and (5) charities and foundations.
The importance of these recommended reforms cannot be overstated. The paper, which can be viewed at www.2009transition.org/libertyandsecurity describes in sometimes agonizing detail the degree in which U.S. government officials have engaged in illegal activities in the name of national security. The paper covers a wide range of topics including torture, kidnapping, denial of due process, incarcerating innocent individuals, ethnic and religious discrimination, and indiscriminate and arbitrary detention of individuals without trial without evidence to justify detention. The list goes on at length.
As an example of the gross disregard for the rule of law, competent investigative techniques and human rights, the paper notes the following example of the problem:
For nearly two years, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, along with another friend from Tipton, Rhuhel Ahmed, consistently and vehemently denied any involvement in any terrorist activity. However, under extreme duress caused by hundreds of hours of interrogation, long periods of isolation, and physical and psychological abuse, Shafiq, Asif, and Rhuhel confessed to having been in a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and to have appeared in a videotape with Osama bin Laden in August 2000. Shafiq explained that he had been held in complete isolation for two long periods-many months–when an interrogator showed him the video of bin Laden, and he agreed that he was one of the people in it. “I could not bear another day of isolation, let alone the prospect of another year,” he said.[viii] The British intelligence agency MI5 undertook an investigation to determine the veracity of the men’s Guantanamo confessions. It took the agency less than 24 hours to determine definitively that “the men had been in England when the video was shot, and during the time they were supposed to have been in Al Qaeda training camps.”
The paper sets forth concrete recommendations for the President and Congress to consider in the coming months. What should be added to that list is the prosecution of the war criminals within the Administration, at the CIA and Justice Department and within the Department of Homeland Security for the gross violation of U.S. and International law and the fundamental disregard for human rights. Only then can America begin to restore its reputation in the world.
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