4-14-05, 9:18 am

As the Bush administration scrambles to sidestep charges of both torture and corruption by the US military and the Iraq occupation regime it appointed under Paul Bremer, the Coalition Provisional Authority, US activists have plans to hold them responsible.

Organizations dedicated to preventing and punishing human rights abuses, regardless of their source, have stepped up their campaigns to hold the administration accountable.

Wednesday, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) announced another round of lawsuits filed by former detainees held at US prison facilities in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Lawyers for six Bosnian Guantánamo detainees accused the Department of Defense and Department of Justice of refusing to release information about severe torture conducted at the U.S. military base.

This lawsuit is an effort to get the courts to force the Pentagon to release information lawfully requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

Civil liberties and human rights groups have filed a number of major lawsuits to get information the Pentagon has been reluctant to release to the public. Information gathered after court orders have so far contained evidence of widespread abuse and torture that clearly violate the international conventions against torture that the US has agreed to, including the Geneva Conventions.

In 2002 and 2003 officials in the Bush administration prepared a policy statement, known as the Gonzales torture memo, which essentially argued that the US was not bound to live by the Geneva Conventions.

During his confirmation hearings for attorney general, Alberto Gonzales stated that he agreed with this policy at the time it was written.

In the recent lawsuit, lawyers for the six released detainees made shocking new allegations of torture of detainees by US forces, including severe beatings that resulted in facial paralysis for one prisoner, chemical irritant gassing, near suffocation by repeatedly ramming a prisoner’s head into a toilet, and religious persecution by forced removal of clothing required for prayer.

Barbara Olshansky, Director Counsel of CCR’s Global Justice Initiative, stated, 'The allegations of chemical gassing and brutal beatings, combined with the evidence of abuse disclosed in FOIA litigation and confirmed by other detainees, reveal a policy of torture and abuse at Guantanamo that is beyond the scope of what we could have imagined.' Olshansky called for 'a full independent investigation into the torture allegations at Guantánamo and other overseas U.S. detention facilities.'

Another attorney at CCR, Gitanjali Gutierrez, added, 'It has been my view that the information about prisoner abuse trickling out of Guantánamo is only the tip of the iceberg. The torture of the Bosnian detainees has come to light through the tireless efforts of their dedicated counsel.' The American public can no longer tolerate the secrecy that the Department of Defense and Department of Justice have drawn around their criminal conduct, Gutierrez stated.

CCR's work since early 2002 to block the arbitrary and indeterminate detention of suspects at Guantanamo without access to lawyers and without charges has forced the Bush administration to stop this practice. So far, the administration has refused to accept or even investigate numerous charges of abuse and torture.

Civil liberties activists are calling for a denunciation of torture by the US government and have begun a nationwide campaign to get local governments to demand the same.

Earlier this week activists with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) convinced the city and town governments of Amherst, Massachusetts and Eugene, Oregon to adopt the official position and sign a letter addressed to President Bush and Congress 'rejecting U.S. use of torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners.'

The letter signed by these two governments asks the United States government to affirm that it will not through its own actions, or through others acting on its behalf, engage in any acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment anywhere in the world.

BORDC says that denunciations of torture are important because the use of torture by US and allied military forces put US troops and civilians at greater risk of similar treatment if they are captured.

Initially, the local elected officials opposed the Eugene resolution because they claimed they weren't put into office to discuss or make resolutions about international events. One local organizer for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee reminded the council that 'when each of you was sworn into office, you promised to defend the United States Constitution.' She went on to describe the many ways in which the U.S. Constitution is clear in its rejection of torture and its commitment to human rights. 'We cannot violate our principles just because torture is happening in a far away country to citizens of other countries. Our own principles must be upheld for all the world to see,' she said.

Eventually, seven of the city's eight councilors voted in favor, including Andrea Ortiz who said, 'If we as leaders of the community can’t make a statement about war crimes, I don’t know what we can make a statement about.'

BORDC director Nancy Talanian echoed CCR's frustration with the Bush administration's unwillingness to take concrete steps to stop torture and to punish those involved. 'The American people,' she said, 'are frustrated by the lack of action from both President Bush and Congress in stopping this obvious wrongdoing.'