Black Site

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The term black sites ( dt. "Black system") refers to secret prisons used by the United States are operated, but are outside the national territory and officially do not exist. The term was adopted by the US secret services and later also in reporting after these institutions became public. The US operated a secret prison on Diego Garcia until its existence became apparent in 2003. In 2002, Amnesty International (ai) accused the USA of operating a worldwide network of secret prisons and camps in addition to well-known but legally questionable institutions such as the Guantanamo prison camp , in which people are sometimes illegally detained and treated. It was not until 2006 that the then US President George W. Bush indirectly confirmed that such a network existed.

International organizations such as the UN and several national governments have called for these facilities to be closed. On January 22, 2009, President Barack Obama ordered the closure of all secret CIA prisons with immediate effect and issued an executive order to ensure lawful interrogations. The CIA remains authorized by the president to kidnap terror suspects in secret and to send them to prisons in countries that cooperate with the United States ( extraordinary rendition ).

revelation

Location of prisons

Location of prisons

Timetable

From around September 11, 2001, the CIA changed its strategy of transferring abducted people to the United States and instead had them detained and interrogated outside the country.

Camp Delta is put into operation

Secret prisons become known

  • August 2003 - It became known that people were illegally detained and tortured on Diego Garcia .
  • December 31, 2003 - The German citizen Khaled al-Masri is abducted and abused due to a mix-up.

Torture becomes known

  • 03/12/2004 - Ill-treatment of prisoners in Guantánamo becomes known.
  • April xx, 2004 - It is known that the most brutal torture, which resulted in deaths, was used in Abu Ghuraib prison .
  • 06/28/2004 - The Supreme Court allows internees to appeal to US courts.
  • 11/30/2004 - The ICRC confirms treatment equivalent to torture in Guantánamo. A lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld is being filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in Germany. Due to his diplomatic immunity, it cannot be complied with.
  • 02/01/2005 - Frontal reveals that the CIA had abducted people before September 11, 2001.
  • 03/02/2005 - Donald Rumsfeld is sued by the ACLU for authorizing the torture of inmates.

Speculation about secret prisons in Eastern Europe

  • 11/02/2005 - The Washington Post reports on black sites in Asia and Eastern Europe.
  • 11/26/2005 - Transport of “ghost detainees” is observed in Turkey .
  • December 3, 2005 - According to reports by Der Spiegel, the CIA carried out 437 flights over Germany, which are associated with the transport of "ghost detainees".

German participation becomes known

  • December 14, 2005 - The Federal Intelligence Service's participation in interrogations is made public.
  • December 16, 2005 - Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble ( CDU ) defends the extradition of prisoners in German custody to secret prisons. The US Senate decides to ban torture. However, members of the CIA will not be prosecuted and others will receive legal assistance
  • January 23, 2006 - A US judge orders the names of people held in Guantánamo to be published.
  • 05/19/2006 - The UN calls on the USA to close the black sites.
  • 06/06/2006 - The Bush administration initiates the lifting of the ban on the humiliation of prisoners. The corresponding passage is to be deleted from the field manual of the armed forces.
  • 06/11/2006 - After more than four dozen suicide attempts have been recorded every year , three prisoners in Guantánamo succeed in suicide for the first time.
  • 06/21/2006 - George Bush claims to be looking for countries that are willing to continue to detain displaced persons in violation of international law in order to close the American internment camps.
  • 06/29/2006 - The Supreme Court declares the trial of ghost detainees by military tribunals to be unconstitutional. He also stated that it was not George W. Bush but only the Supreme Court that was allowed to interpret US law.
  • Jul 13, 2006 - Bush lifts a directive allowing degrading treatment of detainees.
  • 08/24/2006 - Murat Kurnaz (also known as the “Bremen Taliban”) who was abducted at the end of 2001 is released. He was suspected of being a member of a terrorist organization. However, this assumption did not materialize.

USA confirm existence of secret prisons

  • Sep 6, 2006 - On the occasion of the transfer of 14 Taliban fighters from secret prisons to Guantánamo, George W. Bush admits that the CIA operates secret prisons. He called the interrogation methods "harsh," "safe," and "legal," but denies that the US tortures its prisoners.
  • 09/10/2006 - The US Secretary of State confirms that the CIA's prisons will continue to operate despite international criticism .
  • Sep 18, 2006 - George W. Bush starts a legislative initiative to introduce a two-tier model. According to this, the military is bound by the Geneva Conventions in the treatment of prisoners , whereas the CIA has a free hand.
  • 09/19/2006 - The Canadian Maher Arar , from whom the CIA extracted a confession through Syrian torture, succeeded in proving his innocence after his release.

USA closes secret CIA prisons

  • 09/21/2006 - After interrogation specialists from the CIA had doubts about the legality of their activities, they refused to continue their duties. Because of this fact, the closure of the secret prisons was at least accelerated. According to Spiegel reports, there are currently no longer any prisoners in foreign CIA facilities, which, moreover, are again controlled by the respective national governments. However, Guantánamo appears to continue to exist as an internment camp.
  • 09/21/2006 - The UN is calling for the camps on Guantánamo to be closed as well and condemns Bush's draft law that violates the Geneva Conventions.
  • 10/17/2006 - After being sanctioned by Congress and Senate, the Military Commissions Act entered into force with the signature of the President. Unlawful combatants can now be officially sentenced by military tribunals, and the rule of law for legal proceedings has been greatly softened in the law.
  • October 18, 2006 - It is known that the German KSK guarded secret prisons of the CIA in Afghanistan and also came into contact with inmates. According to Murat Kurnaz , the German soldiers also participated in the mistreatment of the internees. So far, the German government had denied that there were any members of the KSK in Afghanistan during this period.
  • 14.12.2006 - After the Military Commissions Act detainees have no right to a judicial review of detention , a US federal judge confirmed. Moreover, the aforementioned law created a basis for the jurisdiction of the military tribunals for internees, so that doubts as to their legality were eliminated.

Exposure

According to a report in the Washington Post , the US secret service CIA maintains several secret prisons for high-ranking terror suspects in Eastern Europe and Asia . In addition to Thailand and Afghanistan , “several democracies in Eastern Europe” were also named for the locations of the hidden prison system . According to its own statements, the newspaper withheld the names of the Eastern European countries at the request of US representatives. They fear that there could be attempted attacks once the prison locations become known. A fax intercepted by the Onyx eavesdropping system of the Swiss foreign secret service , which reached the press, is considered a further clue to secret prisons in Europe. According to the paper sent by the Egyptian embassy, ​​23 people are detained in a secret prison in Romania. Other plants that serve this purpose are located in Ukraine, Kosovo, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Also, Poland and the Czech Republic came as possible locations of secret prisons this week. Furthermore, according to ZDF, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch has named the Romanian Constanta Airport as a possible location for a secret prison. Meanwhile, the Council of Europe wants to use satellite images to find possible secret prisons. In November 2005 it became known that the Rhein-Main Air Base was a fulcrum for prisoner transports. It has meanwhile become known that a total of 437 flights in Germany can be assigned to the jets that the CIA used to transport prisoners. These were chartered by civil companies via the US Navy and disguised as business flights. During this period, interrogations also took place in the Hercules machines.

Antaviliai horse farm in Lithuania

On November 19, 2009, the Washington Post published an article about a CIA camp at the Antaviliai riding school, which is about 25 kilometers from Vilnius and was probably used by the CIA as a secret prison from 2004 to the end of 2005. In March 2004 the site was bought by the US company Elite LLC . This company was registered in Delaware , Panama, and Washington, DC. The sole shareholder of this company was the Star Finance Group and Holdings Inc. , which was based in Panama. In 2007 the site was sold again to the government of Lithuania.

A former member of the Lithuanian secret service, Domas Grigaliunas , gave details of the use of the site and confirmed that the Lithuanian secret service knew that a US secret service had been the client for the construction of the camp. In November, the US broadcaster ABC reported that eight prisoners were being held in the camp. The Lithuanian government set up a commission of inquiry to clarify the situation around the camp by December 22, 2009 in a report.

The former President of Lithuania, Rolandas Paksas , testified before the parliamentary committee that he had received information from the Lithuanian head of the secret service that Lithuania was involved in a secret program after the spring of 2004 to transport suspects. According to former presidents Valdas Adamkus , Ailgirdas Brazauskas and Rolandas Paksas, there were two prisons in Lithuania called Project No. 1 and Project No. 2 . According to published articles, the first project was in Vilnius and was never held with prisoners. The second project was the Antaviliai horse farm. Although CIA flights and transports to Lithuania can be proven, there is no evidence of the specific transport of prisoners, as the transports were not controlled by the Lithuanian authorities.

On October 27, 2011, Abu Subeida filed a lawsuit against Lithuania with the European Court of Human Rights .

Enlightenment efforts

The EU Commission has now intervened in response to these media reports . The reports will be checked, a spokesman for EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini assured in Brussels . This is a "delicate matter" because the EU has no direct competences in this area. The US Senate intervened on the basis of these reports and demanded clarification about secret prisons of the CIA abroad. On November 28, 2005, the US government announced that it would respond to representatives from Europe on questions relating to the suspected practice. This happened after the British Foreign Secretary Straw made a formal and official inquiry in Washington on behalf of all his EU colleagues.

Opinions

  • In response to the allegations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke out in Ukraine. From now on, officials in the country are prohibited from treating prisoners cruelly. That applies worldwide. The obligations under the Convention apply to US servants wherever they are, whether in the United States or outside the United States. So far, the ban has only extended to US territory.
  • However, interrogation techniques authorized by US authorities and “creative interrogation methods” such as waterboarding and generally white torture were not torture according to the language of the Bush administration , so that nothing stood in the way of their worldwide use by US officials.
  • Previously, then Security Advisor Stephen Hadley had assured that if there were secret prisons, the treatment of prisoners would be legally safe.
  • "Doubtful questioning techniques" were personally authorized by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in a tightened form. He has also commissioned reports that certify the legality of the use of interrogation methods legitimized by US President George Bush.
  • In his own words, the American EU ambassador Claytone Boyden Gray deals “calmly” with the issue of secret prisons, as they are completely legal (under US law) and the treatment of the detainees does not fall under the US definitions of torture and inhumanity .
  • The practice, prisoners for more severe torture measures after z. For example, flying Syria is not considered illegal, according to CIA agent Melissa Boyle Mahle, but merely "out of the law". Interrogating suspects under legally dubious circumstances outside the USA had been common practice even before September 11, 2001, albeit to a lesser extent with 70 people. In 2005, an estimated 3,000 people were reported to have been detained by the CIA without trial. The human rights organization Reprieve estimated in 2008 that 27,000 people were held in secret prisons operated by the US authorities.
  • A US federal judge has since ordered that the names of the Guantánamo prisoners be published. To date, however, only an incomplete list has been published under a pretext. In addition to locking people up, the purpose of black sites is also to gain information.
  • Critics claim, however, that findings are not only difficult to use according to the legal situation, but also turn out to be incorrect in some cases afterwards. Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi confessed that he had given false information in order to avoid interrogation. However, these were cited as reasons for the need for Operation Iraqi Freedom .
  • Investigations by the EU have since shown that the CIA systematically kidnapped people on its territory and transported them to torture countries. In some cases it has done so with the knowledge or even aid of national governments.
  • Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary dissociated themselves from the assumption that secret prisons were located in their countries.
  • However, the Czech Interior Minister František Bublan admitted that the US government had asked if it could detain suspects in the Czech Republic. However, he did not respond to this request.
  • Romania and Poland also rejected the respective allegations, although the allegations are the most specific in these countries. Due to the lack of cooperation with the EU investigator, it is generally difficult to determine the credibility of the denials.

Involvement of Germany

The BND , the BKA and the BFV should have been involved at various levels in the system of secret prisons according to media reports. The authorities reportedly disclosed names of suspected terrorists and other wiretapping material to the CIA . Furthermore, the BKA not only had knowledge of secret prisons, but also carried out interviews in them, for example with Murat Kurnaz in Guantánamo and with Muhammad Haidar Zammar in Syria. Also Khaled al-Masri assumed one of his tormentors in Afghanistan, BND to be. At least reports suggest that the questions came from the BND. These circumstances are not only known to German politicians, but the use of knowledge gained under torture is used by z. B. Wolfgang Schäuble ( CDU ) vehemently defended. The fact that an interrogation was carried out on Guantánamo by German agents has also been publicly confirmed. It was also acknowledged that the KSK protected black sites.

In the case of the German Reda Seyam , the BKA was able to prevent a kidnapping by the CIA by transferring the person to Germany. He had previously been interrogated by Americans in Indonesian custody. However, nothing is known of protests against the imprisonment of German citizens or diplomatic efforts to free them. The initiation of legal action was also waived.

The establishment of a committee of inquiry, which was supposed to shed light on the participation of the BND, initially failed because the Bundestag did not get the required number of 25% of the votes. In the second attempt, the opposition parties ( FDP , Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and Die Linke ) cast the required number of votes in the Bundestag on March 15, 2006.

On August 12, 2009, a report in the New York Times announced that the planning of black sites in Morocco, Romania and an unspecified city in the former Eastern Bloc was being coordinated by a CIA supply base in Frankfurt am Main. The then head of the CIA's Frankfurt branch, Kyle D. Foggo , was found guilty of corruption by a US court in 2008. He got a friend, Brent R. Wilkes, commissions from the CIA to build and equip the secret prisons. In return, Wilkes gave Foggo, among other things, the prospect of a highly paid position in one of his companies.

functionality

Procrastination

Most of the detainees (internal term: "ghost detainees") were apprehended during the war in Afghanistan , but their rights under the Geneva Conventions were denied. Many were held after the war ended. After the end of the war there were also arrests of people around the world who were suspects on CIA wanted lists, including many minors. In some cases, the US government insists that the prisoners reach the age of majority in order to avoid criticism from human rights organizations, despite the birth certificates being issued to the contrary.

Research by the EU has shown that at least 100 people have been abducted in Europe alone. The respective European states often knew about the events or even supported the kidnappings. It is unclear how many of the estimated 3,000 people who were at least illegally detained by kidnappings and not as part of combat operations. In addition to Italy , there are also Macedonia and Sweden in European countries in which it can be proven that there have been abductions . The kidnapping of a Canadian citizen is also documented in the USA .

In Afghanistan, Marines, together with local warlord militias, “hunt down” suspected Taliban supporters. In practice, the tribal chiefs use the controls rather than harassment against members of other ethnic groups who are arrested and abducted. The prisoners are abused and dishonored with regard to all the rules of Islam. For example, they have to undress and are photographed naked, sometimes inserting objects into the anus and touching their genitals. Each prisoner is assigned a number with a data sheet; if there is a specific suspicion, they can be transported to Guantánamo. Abductees who are released by the Marines after a few days are also threatened with internment in secret prisons.

Regarding the actions of the Marines, two so far inconclusive investigations have been initiated. Another problem is that the US government paid a bounty for every suspected terrorist, so that many innocent people were abducted on suspicion.

Detainees

(originally around 3,000 - now 1,000 (450 of them in Guantánamo))

Surname nationality Abducted in Place of detention Duration of detention, comments
Ramzi bin al-Schaiba Yemen Pakistan unknown
Ahmed Agiza Egypt Sweden 25 years imprisonment
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr Egypt Italy Egypt
Muhammad Haidar Zammar Germany Morocco Syria released in the course of a prisoner exchange
Murat Kurnaz Turkey, grew up in Germany Pakistan Guantánamo released after years - innocent
Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi Libya Pakistan unknown
Zacarias Moussaoui France United States life sentence
Ahmed Quddus Pakistan Pakistan unknown
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Pakistan Pakistan unknown
John Walker Lindh United States Afghanistan 20 years imprisonment
Sami Al-Haj Sudan Pakistan Guantánamo dismiss
Mohammed al Zery Egypt Sweden dismiss
Sulayman al Bahlul Yemen Guantánamo
Salim Ahmed Hamdan → Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Yemen Afghanistan Guantánamo
David Matthew Hicks Australia Afghanistan Guantánamo
Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmud al Kosi Sudan Afghanistan Guantánamo
Khaled al-Masri Germany Macedonia innocent
Jamal al Harith Great Britain Afghanistan innocent
Maher Arar Canada United States innocent

transport

Flights from government organizations must be registered as such , at least in Europe . In order not to be associated with the immediate disappearance of people when transporting prisoners, the CIA decided to declare the flights carried out as business flights. The aircraft used for this were chartered through the US Navy by private or bogus companies and ultimately used by the CIA. The CIA is also said to have its own airlines as cover companies such as " Tepper Aviation ", "Pegasus Technologies", "Premier Executive Transport Services", "Crestview Aerospace Corporation" and " Aero Contractors ". Of the 41 machines, however, only four could without any major doubt be assigned to transports of prisoners.

  1. N44982 - Gulfstream V - (N581GA, N8068V, N379P) - Transports: Ahmed Agiza, Mohammed al Zery
  2. N227SV - Gulfstream IV - (N85VM) - Transports: Abu Omar
  3. N4476S - Boeing Business Jet - (N313P) - Transports: Khaled al-Masri
  4. N221SG - Learjet 35 - Transports: According to the press in Turkey and Denmark people recorded. In larger aircraft, however, the purpose is not supposed to have been for transport. The aviators, equipped with equipment for torture techniques , were used to interrogate prisoners. The interrogations were carried out during the flight to avoid complications with national laws. The landings were just stopovers.

Secret prisons

In order to be able to withhold rights from prisoners to which they are entitled under US law, the facilities are not located on US soil. Since military bases located abroad are not US soil, the people detained here, according to some lawyers, do not have to be treated under US law. Thus, the prisoners are held indefinitely without any contact with the outside world or access to legal means. More than 280 prisoners are still interned on Guantánamo today . It was also made public early on that there should have been a camp on Diego Garcia . People are or have been arrested at various other US bases. The best known are "salt pit" and "dark prison". In Europe, the locations of the “ Szymany Airport ” in Poland , the “Mihail Kogălniceanu” airport in Romania and the “Camp Bondsteels” in Kosovo are under discussion. The human rights organization Reprieve estimates the number of people held in secret prisons operated by the US at 27,000.

Detention conditions

The world public already got its first insight into the handling of prisoners in US secret prisons with the discovery of the Abu Ghuraib prison . However, it is unclear whether the reported conditions correspond to the rule, as untrained personnel were used due to insufficient personnel capacities. On the basis of reports such as that of the German citizen Khaled al-Masri , who was kidnapped due to a mix -up , one can however sketch a rough picture. The inmates are not given the opportunity to contact the outside world. Apart from the fact that they are usually not told why they are being held, they are cut off from any legal recourse.

The guards' treatment is accompanied by blows and kicks. Food and water are usually spoiled or sometimes inedible served to the prisoners. The practice of religion is made more difficult by withholding prayer books and other measures. One inmate's mouth was also taped shut because he was praying. Sanitary facilities are not always part of the cages in which people are held. Humiliations and humiliations are a basic part of treatment. According to reports by Murat Kurnaz, who was innocently imprisoned for 5 years, torture was the order of the day in the prison camp on Guantánamo. The diet also consisted mainly of tomatoes and rice. Fasting was carried out at regular intervals so that at least a few could eat their fill; the prisoners took turns at regular intervals. The cells were also constantly illuminated by neon lights to make it difficult for the inmates to sleep.

In Camp Nama, a former torture cellar of Saddam Hussein , which was used by the DIA (secret service of the US military), the mentality of the agents was recognizable. A sign with the inscription "No blood - no rule violation" shows the limits. Torture, for example, was mainly used without permanent physical consequences, including beating with blunt objects such as the butt of a rifle. Prisoners were also used as targets for target practice with paint ball bullets. Task Force 6-26 continued to operate the facility not far from Baghdad airport even after the Abu Ghuraib scandal and, according to the New York Times, was not subject to any political control. Even CIA agents were advised not to be in person during interrogation.

Guard

Sean D. Baker provided an insight into the everyday life and tasks of a guard at an internment camp. The war veteran tortured and supervised inmates at Camp Delta, Guantánamo. As already known, the guards play a major role in preparing prisoners for interrogation. It was customary to keep the prisoners from sleeping. This was done z. B. by two groups of guards taking turns every quarter of an hour to lead a prisoner up and down the yard. This procedure was extended throughout the night so that the internee was exhausted during the interrogation. It was also common to expose people in climatic chambers for hours without protection to extreme heat or cold. But it was most effective to use prostitutes on the inmates. In order to avoid the pollution, most devout Muslims quickly became talkative here. Sean Baker stated that he was involved in these measures and that he never doubted the legality of the treatments. On the contrary, it was an honor for him to serve the United States in this way. Baker was unable to provide any information about the interrogations themselves, since as a guard he only took the prisoners to the interrogation building, where they were taken over by CIA agents. He often heard screams from people during interrogation. When he had to take them back to their cells, they were usually completely distraught, trembling all over, or unable to walk. In such cases he would then carry them back to the cells. Furthermore, one of the guards' duties is to prevent suicide. During his shifts alone, there were more than 50 suicide attempts, some of which he personally cut off the internees. Sean Baker played an internee in an exercise. The guards beat him, and even after he revealed the code word and his real identity, they did not stop. Only when his orange jumpsuit was torn by the kicks and blows and the uniform underneath came to light did they stop the abuse. Due to severe head injuries, he is now receiving a disability pension and is injured.

Torture techniques

In order to break the will of people as quickly as possible, a treatment that is individually tailored to their person is carried out. The techniques used are predominantly white torture .

  • A general humiliation is z. B. pink underwear. Interrogation specialists from Islamic countries are being consulted to devise particularly humiliating applications for Muslims. So z. B. reports that on Guantánamo prostitutes pollute prisoners with their menstrual bleeding or sexually stimulate those bound. These measures are carried out specifically before the times of prayer, as this is a prerequisite for this purity. In late 2002, inmate Kahtani was mistreated for over 54 days in Guantánamo using interrogation techniques allegedly approved by Donald Rumsfeld . He had to be interrogated naked by a woman, put on women's underwear and perform dog tricks on a leash. The soldiers also called him homosexual.
  • Sensory deprivation or stimulus withdrawal is a form of white torture that is visible to the public. In this case, disturbances of consciousness are caused by the people being tied up with overalls, breathing masks, blindfolds and hearing protection. In this state, prisoners are particularly vulnerable to brainwashing .
  • The opposite is the use of stress techniques . The prisoners are exposed to extreme heat or cold, permanent light or noise. In addition to anxiety and hallucinations, the consequences are also an increased tendency to suicide.
  • When adapting their sleeping habits, prisoners are systematically prevented from sleeping. The consequences of sleep deprivation are the loss of the ability to make decisions , speech disorders, high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases.
  • So-called waterboarding is used for a faster effect . Here people are strapped to a board and doused with water, so that they endure fear of death due to reflexes, which are similar to those of actual drowning.
  • Other treatments include among others the insertion of objects into the anus, including solitary confinement is applied, and mock executions .

Participation of doctors

According to a confidential report from the Red Cross in 2007, medical personnel were regularly used to mistreat terrorist suspects. The doctors served as observers and as actors to dose the intensity of the abuse. According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, US doctors are involved in developing more effective torture techniques.

According to an article in "Spiegel", however, doctors and psychiatrists are now refusing to continue to participate in this inhuman goings-on. The gap is filled by psychologists whose umbrella organization, the American Psychological Association, justifies their involvement through national security. As a result, some members stopped paying their dues, threatened to leave and started an online petition to end their cooperation with the military.

Outsourcing

If the methods used in US prisons do not produce the desired results, it is also not uncommon for prisoners to be transferred to prisons of friendly intelligence agencies who use more severe methods. In particular, these are countries like Syria , Jordan and Uzbekistan . The US government's statement is that people would be treated according to the laws of the country. From the perspective of the victims it looks like this; “ [...] he was tortured with electric shocks to the genitals and hung up by his arms and legs, and his cell was filled with dirty water knee-high. Two other suspects, who had been sentenced to death in absentia, were executed [...] He also knew of two cases in which prisoners were boiled to death. ".

Resistance of the prisoners

As a reaction to the inhuman and unreasonable conditions within the secret prisons, the prisoners protested mainly through hunger strikes and suicide attempts. According to news reports, the number of those who refuse to eat appears to vary between a fifth and a half of the prisoners. A few have also been on hunger strike for years. Force-feeding is therefore a common means of keeping those affected alive. Suicides are also ubiquitous; 32 prisoners tried to kill themselves in the first 6 months. The US government tries to cover up this by listing the suicide attempts in the statistics no longer as suicide attempts, but rather as "self-harming behavior". Sometimes suicide attempts are only confirmed after a delay of several years. The increased willingness to commit suicide goes hand in hand with the torture methods used, which, like depression, provoke them. Reuters reported on a day on which four people tried to kill themselves. Three were using drugs they had previously hoarded. The fourth tried to hang himself in a communal cell. When the guards tried to take the dying away, the cellmates attacked the guards with fans and lamps. Ultimately, however, everyone's life could be saved. The first successful suicide attempts came to the public on June 11, 2006, according to which three prisoners from Yemen and Saudi Arabia hanged themselves. The military interprets this as an "act of war against the USA". A tragic fact is that the three ignorant people were about to be released. No charges were ever brought. They had previously participated in hunger strikes.

On May 30, 2007, 34-year-old Saudi Arabian Abdul Rahman Maath Thafir al-Amri was found dead in his cell. According to the army, he allegedly committed suicide.

Punish

Only ten of the more than 500 people detained in Guantánamo were charged in court. Most of them are accused of being members of Al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters. Several hundred have now been released without charge after having been illegally detained for years. Only have been a punishment of imprisonment imposed. The death penalty has so far prevented the US military from executing people only at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . In order to execute inmates in secret prisons, they would have had to be brought into US territory so that their execution could have resulted in legal complications. According to an article by Spiegel Online on January 24, 2006, this problem was remedied by changing the guidelines so that illegal combatants can now be executed anywhere. In this way you no longer get embarrassed to have to execute a person convicted outside of US law in the USA. Zacarias Moussaoui initially faced the death penalty. However, after extensive confessions, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. After the verdict, he appealed because he only confessed to avoid further torture. The “Spanish Taliban” Hamed Abderrahman Ahmed, interned in Guantánamo for two years, was sentenced in Spain to a six-year prison term for membership in a terrorist organization. In the second instance, however, he was acquitted because his statements were obtained under torture.

Discharge

Of the 450 people currently being held in violation of international law in Guantánamo alone, the US government wants to release 130 prisoners. These are innocent or potentially dangerous people who have not yet taken action. Various problems arose in both groups when they were transferred to their home countries. A large number of Uyghurs who were associated with terrorism were picked up in Pakistan. It turns out that they are innocent, but they are assigned by the Chinese government to rebels fighting for an independent East Turkestan. A transfer to China is therefore excluded. The German government refused to accept the Uyghurs in Bavaria, where their compatriots are already living there in exile, so as not to burden diplomatic relations with China. Albania took in 5 of the 22 people who have since been living in a refugee camp. For the rest of the Uyghurs in Camp Iguana, a country that is ready to accept them has been sought since 2002. Some people cannot be returned to their home countries because they deny that the prisoners are citizens of their country. As early as 2002, the USA wanted to fire the innocent “Bremen Taliban”. However, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution rejected the request to accept the Turkish citizen. According to more recent reports, however, the German government refused to do so simply because the US linked his release to the admission of three more prisoners. Successful layoffs have taken place in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Human rights organizations criticize this because the prison conditions there are allegedly generally worse than in Guantánamo. Another internment camp is being built there for US $ 30 million, as there is little confidence that prisoners will be released to the desired extent.

Permanently "disappeared" people

In 2006, a merger publish six human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch , a list of 36 people, caught either known or highly likely by US authorities under suspicion of terrorism were held, and " disappeared " (English. Disappeared ) are. They did not appear again, nor would the US authorities answer questions about their fate or their whereabouts. This situation had not changed significantly by April 2009. The US law professor Margaret Satterthwaite said:

“By the time the US government clears up the fate and whereabouts of these individuals, these people will still be missing, and enforced disappearances are one of the most serious international human rights violations . (Until the US government clarifies the fate and whereabouts of these individuals, these people are still disappeared, and disappearance is one of the most grave international human rights violations.) "

Black sites by country

  • Diego Garcia - The island of Diego Garcia is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It is territorial owned by Great Britain but was leased to the US until 2016 (later extended to 2036) . As early as 1965, the United States began to build infrastructure for the military and intelligence services. Unlike Guantánamo , the detention center there was completely secret until it was exposed in 2003. The camp is said to have been closed in the meantime.
  • Guantánamo - To maintain its independence, Cuba had to lease Guantánamo Bay to the United States. Termination is only possible with the will of the US government. In addition to the bases there, the military has also set up various internment camps. The first camp was Camp X-Ray , which operated from January to April 29, 2002. It only had a capacity of 320 prisoners and consisted mostly of cages. These stood in the blazing sun, so that the occupants were exposed to the weather without protection. Since the cages could be seen from all sides, they were also completely robbed of their privacy. After pictures of the internees went around the world, the fences of the camp were covered with cloths, supposedly to protect the prisoners from photographers. Because the camp did not have enough capacity to accommodate displaced persons, it was replaced by the larger Camp Delta . At times, up to 1,000 people were detained and tortured there in violation of international law. The camp still exists and is divided into 7 camps. Camp Echo is another extension of the prison camp. It is located outside of Camp Delta and is guarded by the US Military Police. Unlike in Camp X-Ray, toilets are in the cells and inmates have the opportunity to speak to their lawyers. Camp Iguana is also an outsourced complex. Children were originally interned here. In the meantime, innocent people are being housed there who cannot be transferred to their home countries for various reasons. The warehouse is currently being expanded with $ 30 million.
  • Kosovo - According to numerous eyewitness reports, the US has also illegally detained people at the US KFOR base Camp Bondsteel . The prisoners are said to have often been seen in their typical orange uniforms. It is not known whether and to what extent this is still the case today.
  • Poland - Employees at Szczytno-Szymany Airport have described in detail a temporary use by the CIA. So you had to clear a certain part of the facility, which was then locked. After a convoy of various vehicles had arrived, a machine landed and rolled up to the cordoned-off part before it came to a standstill. Several people are said to have been brought into the halls and questioned there. The Polish government denies this event to this day. In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg sentenced the Third Polish Republic to paying compensation for pain and suffering of 100,000 and 130,000 euros to two prison inmates from the Black Site in Stare Kiejkuty near Szczytno .
  • Iraq - Thousands of people were imprisoned during the 3rd Gulf War . In prisons such as Abu Ghuraib and Camp Bucca in Umm Qasr, separate torture chambers have been set up in order to obtain information about the Iraqi resistance. The US Military Police used torture to prepare the prisoners for interrogation. Several prisoners died before, during or after interrogation. The soldiers photographed and filmed all of the elements for several reasons. On the one hand they wanted to have private souvenirs, on the other hand the photos were part of the humiliation of the prisoners and should also serve as documentation and teaching material. Camp Nama was a torture facility for Saddam Hussein, which the USA continued to operate. Torture was used here by specially trained personnel in order to gain knowledge about Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In 2004 this camp was closed. Camp Cropper is located near Baghdad International Airport , where high-ranking suspects are also detained. Saddam Hussein was held here. However, other people were also kept secretly without control by the ICRC .
  • Lithuania - November 2009, it is revealed that Lithuania has agreed to use a riding academy near Vilnius as a torture prison. For this, Lithuania was allowed to join NATO.
  • Romania - The television magazine Panorama reported on December 8, 2011 about a secret prison in the Romanian capital Bucharest . In the prison ⊙ coordinates: 44 ° 28 ′ 4 ″  N , 26 ° 2 ′ 45.1 ″  E , which serves as the headquarters of the ORNISS security authority , Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri are said to have been held.

Legal situation

  • The assessment of the processes is problematic depending on the country and legal system from which one starts. The US State Department insisted that the practice should not violate the Geneva Conventions and had a legal battle with US lawyers John C. Yoo and Alberto Gonzales, who developed the opinion that secret prisons and extraditions to torturing countries were following their interpretation of national and international law, under certain circumstances, does not violate US or international law.

These circumstances would apply when interrogating illegal combatants (1) outside the United States (2) and carried out by the CIA (3) using only white torture (4) and when transferring a person to countries in which she is not 100% (5) tortured if she is an illegal combatant .

  • Because they believe US secret prisons and extradition practices meet these requirements, they are not illegal under this definition.
  • Most of the loopholes in the law have been closed due to the public reaction associated with the exposure of the practices.

According to this, torture would now be banned within the US and also on US military bases, as well as generally by people who work for the US government. In fact, only the vocabulary was changed. Instead of justifying torture, the measures used are now classified as “degrading and degrading treatment”.

Justification of the USA

(1) “Illegal” combatant status

  • Status according to the Geneva Conventions - The Geneva Conventions protected people involved in armed conflicts by granting them various privileges according to the type of participation. A rough distinction is made between combatants (combatants) and civilians. None of the groups may be detained longer than at the end of the war and under no circumstances be treated inhumanly. There are two major differences, combatants have the right to take part in combat operations and cannot be punished for doing so, civilians do.
  • Failure to apply the Geneva Conventions - The US government would actually be bound by international law, but interprets this to mean that it is not applicable in the case of the Black Sites, as this only applies to bilateral disputes between states, but the war on terror is different Nature. The attack on Afghanistan would also not be a war between states, since Afghanistan, because it was shattered by the civil war, was merely a " failed state ". This interpretation of the Geneva Conventions is highly controversial as it actually covers every armed conflict.
  • US Constitutional Protection - On US soil, people are protected by the habeas corpus law, which is built into the constitution . This protects, among other things, against arbitrariness by the state such as indefinite detention without trial. The prisoner also has the right to know what he is accused of.
  • Non-application of the US Constitution - in 1942, however, it was decided in the “ Ex Parte Quirin ” case that domestic and foreign “enemies of the USA” could not invoke this right. The term “unlawful” or “enemy combatant” has already been coined.
  • Applicable US Law - In relation to wars, their treatment has been regulated by the Geneva Conventions since 1949. If a war is not accepted within the meaning of the Conventions as here, the person will be treated under other US law. This has been the Patriot Act since 2001 in conjunction with the Military Order. These allow "enemies of the USA" (illegal combatants) to be detained without a time limit and without charge. In addition to the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Israel and England also apply this status.
  • Jurisdiction of military tribunals - Since a military conflict is not assumed, civil courts should actually have jurisdiction. Nevertheless, the US convened military tribunals on the grounds that the changed security situation after 9/11 would justify this. In the meantime, based on the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the military tribunals have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court Judge John Roberts, with the decision written by John Paul Stevens.

(2) Scope of US law

US law generally prohibits detention without trial due to the integrated habeas corpus law . However, a 1950 ruling states that American jurisdiction does not apply to foreigners imprisoned abroad. According to some US lawyers, secret prisons are therefore legal on foreign US bases , as US law does not apply there. US judges still grant people detained there certain rights, so they can find out what they are being accused of and appeal to US courts. Furthermore, it has now been established that the USA is not only bound by the human rights conventions it has signed on its territory. However, people involved in interrogations are not prosecuted if they have relied on the legality of the interrogation methods, and if charged, they will receive legal assistance and financial assistance.

(3) Definition gap for CIA

Bush explained that, although we must not apply the Geneva Conventions, prisoners human would treat. However, this only applies to the military and not to the CIA . It has since been made clear that all US employees are bound by US law, including the CIA. However, intelligence agents refrain from prosecuting them.

(4) Legality of Torture

The authorization of white torture is based on the definition of the US Department of Justice that pain (must) occur during torture " which is comparable in its intensity to such pain as is caused by severe physical injuries (organ failure, impairment of physical functions and even death) ”. Treatments like white torture are not torture by the US definition . Recently, the separation of inhuman treatment and torture has been viewed as null and void. The fact that the US is unwilling to deviate from current practice can be seen from the fact that the Pentagon is endeavoring to remove the prohibition of “degrading and degrading treatment” prescribed by the Geneva Conventions from the field manual of the armed forces.

(5) Extradition Practice

Since, according to the Geneva Conventions , a delivery is to a country only prohibited if "substantial reasons" to use of torture, US experts say: " The Convention is applicable only if it can be assumed that the person is being tortured. But what if you don't really know? That is not enough. So there are always ways to get around this. ".

US President

The belief that orders from the US President are above the law benefits this practice. Anyone who obeys orders from the President is not liable to prosecution, even if they violate US law. One could initiate impeachment proceedings because of the orders .

The powers of the US President were given to the US Supreme Court on June 29, 2006 in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld limits shown.

Prosecution

  • The European Court of Human Rights has no jurisdiction because the US is not one of the signatory states.
  • The US refuses to extradite US citizens to the International Criminal Court and reserves the right to use military means to liberate US citizens detained in the Netherlands.
  • Since NATO troops in NATO countries are bound by the national rights of the country in which they are stationed according to Article 8 of the NATO troop statute, they are liable to prosecution if they are involved in the transport of prisoners via Germany to torturing countries Torture in German airspace or the preparation or implementation of kidnappings were involved, as these acts violate the Geneva Conventions applicable in Germany as well as the Basic Law , the European Convention on Human Rights and the Criminal Code . However, jurisdiction over the troops does not have Germany, but the respective country to which they belong.
  • The European Parliament has set up a committee of inquiry into possible secret prisons in Eastern Europe. As a possible consequence, the suspected states, namely Poland and Romania , were threatened with the withdrawal of their voting rights in the Council of Ministers.
  • A memo from the British government was leaked to the “New Statesman” magazine stating that kidnappings and involvement in them are illegal under British law and should be covered up if possible. Prosecution is still pending.
  • According to Article 1 of the International Criminal Code , Germany can commit crimes against international law, even if they are committed between foreigners abroad ( world law principle ). For this reason, human rights organizations from the United States such as For example, the “Center for Constitutional Rights” has brought legal action against the Bush administration in Germany. However, for reasons such as the defendant's diplomatic immunity , none of the 26 reports were accepted. The people who committed the crimes are not to be prosecuted on this basis, because people who have committed crimes under orders or orders are exempt from prosecution if they could trust the lawfulness of the order.
  • Italy has issued a European arrest warrant for the CIA agents involved in the abduction of Abu Omar. It enables every member state of the EU to arrest the wanted person for the purpose of prosecution and / or enforcement.
  • The mistakenly kidnapped and abused for 5 months German Khaled al-Masri sued privately for damages of $ 75,000. The lawsuit was dismissed because the CIA feared it would have to divulge classified information in the process. Furthermore, the claim to compensation for pain and suffering is generally not enforceable. If Khaled al-Masri was actually kidnapped, the US authorities responsible would provide him with adequate compensation of their own accord.
  • The US judiciary has brought charges against the civilian interrogation specialist David Passaro hired by the CIA, because the Kurdish prisoner Abdul Wali died after two days of treatment as a result of the interrogation methods used. He was charged with participating in an attack on a military base. In 2006 the trial was opened for "violence," not killing. The defense attorney claims that his client only followed orders.
  • The US military has charged an officer with murder . He had put the shackled Iraqi general Abed Hamed Mowhoush upside down in a sleeping bag and sat on his chest during an interrogation. Mowhoush suffocated during the procedure. The US officer was found guilty of negligent homicide in Fort Carson, Colorado, with a reprimand and a $ 6,000 fine.
  • Lynndie England , who was involved in torture in Abu Ghuraib prison , was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment in a US military tribunal. The prosecution had requested 9. Her boyfriend at the time, Charles Graner , who had also abused prisoners, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He had defended himself by saying that he had acted on orders. Sabrina Harman , who was also involved in torture, was sentenced to 6 months in prison.
  • The Munich public prosecutor's office has drawn up an extradition request for 13 CIA agents in the case of Khaled al-Masri's kidnapping. However, under pressure from Wolfgang Schäuble ( CDU ), this has not yet been forwarded to the US government.

photos

  • On the island of Diego Garcia (Indian Ocean) there was a now closed secret prison.

  • Abu-Ghuraib - torture of a prisoner.

  • Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life imprisonment.

  • Boeing Business Jet - In larger aircraft like this one, interrogations are said to have been carried out during the flight.

  • Base of the US military at Guantanamo . A variety of CIA internment camps such as Camp X-ray are located here.

Appendix - Facts

criminal code

  • Section 223 of the Criminal Code bodily harm : Anyone who physically abuses another person or damages their health is punished with imprisonment for up to 5 years or with a fine.
  • Section 227 of the Criminal Code bodily harm resulting in death : If the perpetrator causes the injured person to die through bodily harm, the term of imprisonment is not less than 3 years. In less serious cases, imprisonment from 1 year to 10 years can be recognized.
  • Disappearances of persons within Germany is under German law pursuant to § 234a paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code is not punishable by less than 1 year imprisonment, pursuant to paragraph 2 in less serious cases with imprisonment from 3 months to 5 years and the preparation with imprisonment up to five years or a fine .
  • According to § 5 Alternative 6 StGB, kidnapping of Germans who take place outside of Germany will be punished in accordance with § 234a StGB if the kidnapped person is domiciled or habitually resident in Germany.

International Criminal Code

  • § 7 Paragraph 1 Number 5 VStGB : Anyone who, in the context of an extensive or systematic attack against a civilian population [...] tortures a person who is in his custody or in any other way under his control [...] by causing physical or mental harm or inflicts suffering […] is punished with imprisonment for not less than 5 years. In less serious cases not with a penalty of less than 2 years. If the perpetrator [...] causes the death of a person, the punishment is [...] life imprisonment or imprisonment not less than 10 years. In less severe cases […] not under 5 years.
  • § 7 Paragraph 1 Numbers 7a + 7b VStGB : Anyone who forcibly disappears a person in the context of an extensive or systematic attack against a civilian population [...] by commissioning him with the intention of removing him from the protection of the law for a longer period of time [...] of a state [...] kidnapped or deprived of physical freedom in any other way without being given truthful information about its fate and whereabouts immediately upon request, or refusing on behalf of a state [...] or contrary to a legal obligation, providing information about the fate and whereabouts of a person immediately or providing false information is punishable by imprisonment not less than 5 years. In less serious cases not with a penalty of less than 2 years. If the perpetrator [...] causes the death of a person, the punishment is [...] life imprisonment or imprisonment not less than 10 years. In less severe cases […] not under 5 years.
  • Section 7 (1) number 8 VStGB : Anyone who inflicts serious physical or mental damage on another person in the course of an extensive or systematic attack against a civilian population […] , in particular of the type specified in Section 226 of the Criminal Code […] is not subject to imprisonment under 3 Years punished. In less severe cases […] not less than 1 year. If the perpetrator [...] causes the death of a person, the penalty is [...] imprisonment not less than 5 years. In less severe cases […] not under 3 years.
  • § 7 Paragraph 1 Number 9 VStGB : Anyone who in the context of an extensive or systematic attack against a civilian population [...] seriously deprives a person of physical freedom in violation of a general rule of international law [...] is punished with imprisonment not less than 3 years. In less severe cases […] not less than 1 year. If the perpetrator [...] causes the death of a person, the penalty is [...] imprisonment not less than 5 years. In less severe cases […] not under 3 years.
  • Section 8 (1) number 3 VStGB : Anyone who, in connection with an international or non-international armed conflict […], treats a person to be protected under international humanitarian law cruelly or inhumanly by inflicting considerable physical or mental damage or suffering, in particular torturing or mutilated […] will be punished with imprisonment for not less than 3 years. […] If the perpetrator […] causes the victim's death […] then […] the penalty is […] imprisonment not less than 5 years. In less serious cases [...] imprisonment not less than 1 year.
  • § 8 Paragraph 1 Number 7 VStGB : Anyone who, in connection with an international or non-international armed conflict [...], imposes or executes a substantial penalty, in particular the death penalty or a custodial sentence, against a person to be protected under international humanitarian law , without this person in an impartial judicial proceedings that offer the legal guarantees required by international law, [...] will be punished with imprisonment for a term of no less than 2 years [..].
  • § 8 Paragraph 1 Number 9 VStGB : Anyone who in connection with an international or non-international armed conflict [...] seriously degraded or degraded a person who is to be protected under international humanitarian law [...] will be [...] imprisoned for not less than one year fined.
  • § 8 paragraph 3, point 1 CCIL : Who in the context of an international armed conflict [...] a protected person . Referred to in paragraph 6, No. 1 has imprisoned unlawfully or their delayed repatriation unjustified , shall be punished with imprisonment under 2 years.

Definitions

  • Section 8 (6) number 1 of the VStGB : Persons to be protected under international humanitarian law are: […] wounded, sick, shipwrecked, prisoners of war and civilians.
  • § 8 Paragraph 6 Number 2 VStGB : Persons to be protected under international humanitarian law are: [...] wounded, sick, shipwrecked and persons who are not directly involved in the hostilities and are controlled by the opposing party in a non-international conflict.
  • § 8 Paragraph 6 Number 3 VStGB : Persons to be protected under international and non-international humanitarian law are: [...] members of the armed forces and fighters of the opposing party who have given up their arms or are otherwise defenseless.
  • A Physical abuse ( StGB ), each bad inadequate treatment by which the physical well-being or physical integrity is compromised more than negligible.
  • Damage to health ( StGB ) is the creation or increase of a pathological condition, i.e. a condition that deviates from the normal functioning of the body, even if it is only temporary.

See also

literature

  • Seymor Hersh: The chain of command. From September 11th to Abu Ghreib . Rowohlt, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-498-02981-9
  • Alfred McCoy: Torture and let torture. 50 years of torture research and practice by the CIA and the US military . Two thousand and one, Frankfurt a. M. 2005, ISBN 3-86150-729-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Saar Echo , November 7, 2005
  2. ↑ Does the US maintain secret prisons? News January 14, 2006
  3. ↑ a b CIA operates secret prisons . Spiegel Online , September 7, 2006
  4. ↑ Executive Order Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantanamo bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities. In: globalsecurity.org. January 22, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2009 .
  5. ↑ Guantanamo will be closed within a year. In: the standard. January 22, 2009. Retrieved January 22, 2009 .
  6. ↑ Executive Order Ensuring Lawful Interrogations. In: globalsecurity.org. January 22, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2009 .
  7. ↑ Obama leaves the CIA a loophole. In: The Standard. February 2, 2009, accessed February 2, 2009 .
  8. ↑ Duncan Campbell / Richard Norton-Taylor: US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships. - Report says 17 boats used. In: The Guardian . June 2, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
  9. ^ Joseph Pugliese: State Violence and the Execution of Law: Biopolitical Caesurae of Torture, Black Sites, Drones , Routledge, Oxford 2013, p. 165.
  10. ^ CIA flights: USA kidnap and torture ( Memento from August 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) . Amnesty.ch
  11. ↑ Caught beyond the rule of law . ARD, January 12, 2006
  12. ↑ Ingrid Brunk Wuerth: The (powerless) power of international law . Tagesspiegel supplement from the Free University of Berlin, August 26, 2006
  13. ↑ Rumsfeld allowed torture . TAZ / afp, October 28, 2004
  14. ^ Dana Priest, Barton Gellman: US Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations . In: Washington Post , December 26, 2002, p. A01
  15. ↑ kidnapped from Italy by the CIA and tortured in Egypt. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 29, 2008 ; accessed on September 1, 2014 .
  16. ↑ United States of America / Yemen - Secret Detention in CIA "Black Sites". (No longer available online.) November 8, 2005, archived from the original on November 25, 2005 ; accessed on September 1, 2014 (English).
  17. ↑ Nicolas Richter: I am an innocent man . Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 9, 2005. (Interview with Khaled al-Masri)
  18. ^ Brite describes Guantánamo as hell ( Memento of April 5, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) . Netzeitung, March 12, 2004.
  19. ↑ Three years imprisonment for Lynndie England . In: Spiegel Online , September 28, 2005
  20. ↑ Guantánamo: The courts of the United States have jurisdiction to review the legality of the detention of foreign prisoners . UNI Kassel, June 28, 2004
  21. ↑ The ICRC accuses the US military of torture , Neue Zürcher Zeitung of December 1, 2004, accessed December 15, 2014.
  22. ↑ The complaint against Rumsfeld is purely a PR campaign . WDR, November 30, 2004 (source no longer available.)
  23. ↑ a b Jörg Brase, Johannes Hano: Kidnapped and mistreated - A German in the clutches of the secret services . ( Memento from March 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) ZDF, February 1, 2005
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  25. ^ Dana Priest: CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons . Washington Post, Nov. 2, 2005, p. A01.
  26. ↑ Germany is said to have helped CIA with illegal prisoner transports . ngo-online, June 7, 2006.
  27. ^ Allegedly 437 CIA flights over Germany ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). ARD, December 3, 2005.
  28. ↑ SaarEcho , December 14, 2005
  29. ↑ Schäuble fuels debate about torture ( Memento of January 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) . ARD, December 16, 2005
  30. ↑ Bush gives way to anti-torture law ( Memento December 18, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) . ZDF, December 16, 2005
  31. ↑ Guantanamo: USA name names ( Memento of October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) . ZDF, March 4, 2006
  32. ↑ UN panel tells America to end torture and close Guantanamo . Times, May 19, 2006
  33. ↑ Saudis suspect torture instead of suicide . Focus, June 11, 2006
  34. ↑ Guantánamo military tribunals are illegal . In: Spiegel Online , June 29, 2006
  35. ↑ Torsten Krauel: USA recognizes the Geneva Convention for Al-Qaida fighters too . In: Die Welt , July 13, 2006
  36. ^ Four and a half years in Guantánamo . FAZ, August 24, 2006
  37. ↑ US government holds on to CIA prisons . In: Spiegel Online , September 10, 2006
  38. ^ Weser Kurier , September 18, 2006
  39. ↑ Moral protest thwarted Bush's interrogation plans . In: Spiegel Online , September 19, 2006.
  40. ↑ Torture debate: CIA officials refused to interrogate them in secret prisons . In: Spiegel Online , September 21, 2006
  41. ↑ Controversial interrogation methods: Bush rebels give in . In: Spiegel Online , 21. September 2006
  42. ^ Weser Kurier, October 18, 2006
  43. ↑ The Kurnaz case: A delicate encounter in Kandahar . In: Spiegel Online , October 18, 2006
  44. ↑ Guantanamo: Inmate is not allowed to sue. In: Spiegel Online , December 14, 2006
  45. ^ Dana Priest: CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons . In: Washington Post , November 2, 2005
  46. ^ Dana Priest, Barton Gellman: US Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations . In: Washington Post , December 26, 2002
  47. ↑ Hans Leyendecker: Fax from Cairo charges the CIA . Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 8, 2006
  48. ↑ Florian Rötzer: CIA Secret Prison in Poland or Romania? Telepolis, November 3, 2005
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  51. ↑ a b CIA planes also land in Germany. Interrogate in the air . In: Berliner Zeitung , November 22, 2005
  52. ^ Craig Whitlock: Lithuania investigates facility that may have been CIA 'black site' - Townspeople tell of secretive Americans at mysterious building . In: Washington Post , November 19, 2009
  53. ↑ Antaviliai: Lithuania's alleged US 'war on terror' jail . In: DawnCOM, DAWNMediaGroup, November 21, 2009
  54. ^ Secret prison in Lithuania - CIA tortured in the riding arena . In: Spiegel Online , November 19, 2009
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  57. ↑ Senate wants information on alleged CIA secret prisons Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 11, 2005
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  60. ↑ Florian Rötzer: The unlimited power of the US president . Telepolis , January 7, 2006
  61. ↑ Christoph von Marschall: The first complaint . In: Tagesspiegel , December 8, 2005
  62. ↑ Larry Neumeister: Publication of the names Newsday, January 23, 2006 (page no longer exists)
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  65. ^ DasErste.de : ARD ( Memento from August 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  66. ^ ARD ( Memento from August 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
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  68. ^ Moritz Kleine-Brockhoff: Hunting among friends. Die Zeit, December 21, 2005
  69. ↑ The Greens let the BND committee of inquiry fail. ( Memento from February 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Financial Times Deutschland, January 23, 2006; Article is no longer freely accessible
  70. ^ A Window Into CIA's Embrace of Secret Jails The New York Times, August 12, 2009
  71. ^ Ex-CIA Official Admits Corruption The New York Times, September 29, 2008
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  77. ^ New CIA torture flights row The Copenhagen Post, November 3, 2005 [13. January 2006]
  78. ↑ Mario de Queiroz: Questions in Portugal About CIA Flights to Guantánamo ( Memento of May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), IPS, April 4, 2008
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  80. ↑ Thomas Kielinger: What is happening on Guantánamo? . In: Die Welt , March 17, 2004
  81. ↑ Lars Langenau: Pentagon confirms sexual humiliation of inmates. Spiegel Online, February 10, 2005
  82. ↑ Red Cross: CIA used doctors in torture. In: The Standard. April 7, 2009, Retrieved April 7, 2009 .
  83. ↑ Kate Randall: US doctors tied to torture at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib. In: World Socialist Web Site. January 13, 2005, accessed April 7, 2009 .
  84. ↑ Interrogation Methods: Torture Dispute Divides America's Psychologists. In: Der Spiegel. July 30, 2006, accessed February 21, 2010 .
  85. ↑ a b c d e f Jane Mayer: Outsourcing torture. The secret history of America's “extraordinary rendition” program. The New Yorker, February 7, 2005; German translation by Matthias Fienbork: weltwoche.ch . Weltwoche, edition 13/2005
  86. ^ Off the Record. ( Memento from June 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 47 kB) US Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the “War on Terror”. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch et al. Retrieved from Ney York Law School
  87. ↑ Dafna Linzer: The Detention Dilemma. Dozens of Prisoners Held by CIA Still Missing, Fates Unknown. ProPublica, April 22, 2009
  88. ↑ Florian Rötzer: The American-British base Diego Garcia violates international law. Retrieved May 12, 2020 .
  89. ^ Illegal CIA prison in Poland. The human rights court sees Warsaw as an accomplice. Spiegel Online , July 24, 2014, accessed May 23, 2015 .
  90. ↑ Poland convicted of CIA prison. Wiener Zeitung , July 24, 2014, archived from the original on October 23, 2015 ; accessed on May 23, 2015 .
  91. ↑ Poland pays compensation for pain and suffering because of imprisonment in the CIA prison. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , May 18, 2015, accessed on May 21, 2015 .
  92. ↑ CIA tortured in the riding arena . In: Spiegel Online , November 19, 2009 and the CIA was allowed to torture Lithuania to join NATO . In: Der Standard , November 19, 2009
  93. ^ John Goetz , Kristopher Sell: CIA prison in Bucharest exposed . December 8, 2011, accessed December 9, 2011
  94. ↑ Romania denies secret CIA prison , December 9, 2011 published in the Hamburger Abendblatt (accessed December 9, 2011)
  95. ↑ Goetz, John; Richter, Nicolas: CIA secret prison discovered in Romanian authorities . sueddeutsche.de on December 8, 2011, accessed December 9, 2011
  96. ↑ a b c Bush gives way to anti-torture law ( Memento of December 18, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) . heute.de, December 16, 2005 [26. January 2006]
  97. ↑ Peter Strutynski: Accused of war crimes . University of Kassel
  98. ↑ Red Cross: Torture in Guantánamo FAZ.NET, November 30, 2004 [13. January 2006]
  99. ↑ European arrest warrant. , Der Standard, December 29, 2005 (page is no longer freely accessible)
  100. ↑ Ghost prisoners and secret prisons . Die Welt, May 18, 2004 (link no longer available)