The Great Unravelling…UN Investigates US

From the BBC

The UN is to investigate the use of secret detention centres allegedly used by the CIA and other groups as part of US counter-terrorism efforts.

The decision follows a UN report which uncovered what it said were serious abuses by the intelligence services.

The report said secret prisons were “one of the most horrendous practises” adopted by intelligence services.

…

Martin Scheinin, UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, said that in many cases states receiving detainees had “reportedly engaged in torture and other forms of ill-treatment”.

From Reuters

“Australian, British and United States intelligence personnel have themselves interviewed detainees who were held incommunicado by the Pakistani ISI in so-called safe houses, where they were being tortured,” he said, referring to Pakistan’s spy agency.

Scheinin later told reporters that such “wrongful acts” violated international law.

The system, put in place by the Bush administration following the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States, had reflected a “dark page” in U.S. history, he said. But “it was only possible through collaboration from many other states.”

“Now that the witch hunt is hopefully over, it is time for the law to step in,” Scheinin told the Council.

From McClatchy

Scheinin cites “consistent, credible reports” that countries involved in facilitating extraordinary renditions in various ways included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Britain, Canada, Croatia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kenya, Macedonia and Pakistan. Suspects then were transferred to “mostly unacknowledged” detention sites in Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Pakistan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan “or to one of the CIA covert detention centers, often referred to as ‘black sites,’ ” according to the human rights report.

Apparently, the US has to rely on others to bring justice to its domestic War criminals.