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US marines lead a hooded detainee out of a military vehicle in Fallujah.
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WASHINGTON,
October 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - American
intelligence officers have secretly moved detainees outside Iraq for
interrogation, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, reported a
leading American newspaper on Sunday, October 24.
The
CIA invoked a secret memo by the Justice Department to justify the
transfer of up to a dozen detainees in the last six months, said The
Washington Post, citing an intelligence official familiar with the
operation.
The
confidential memo, drafted by the Justice Department's Office of Legal
Counsel last March, covers both Iraqi citizens and foreigners in the
oil-rich country, said the mass-circulation.
It
permits the CIA to take Iraqis out of the country to be interrogated
for a "brief but not indefinite period," and allows
permanent removal of persons deemed to be "illegal aliens."
Geneva
Breached
According
to the Post, which said it had obtained a copy of the memo, the
author wrote a footnote that a violation of this provision constitutes
a "grave breach" of the accord and a "war crime"
under US federal law.
"For
these reasons, we recommend that any contemplated relocations of
'protected persons' from Iraq to facilitate interrogation be carefully
evaluated for compliance with Article 49 on a case by case
basis," reads the footnote.
Article
49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention protects civilians during wartime
and occupation, prohibiting "individual or mass forcible
transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied
territory... regardless of their motive."
The
Bush administration transferred many people arrested in Afghanistan to
the notorious Guantanamo detention camp, claiming they are "enemy
combatants" who are not protected under the Geneva Conventions.
The
United States has been massively criticized for detaining at least 660
prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for years without pressing charges against
them or giving them access to legal representation.
More
than 200 have either been released or transferred to the control of
their own governments since the American Supreme Court endorsed
the right of Guantanamo prisoners to challenge their captivity in
American courts.
However,
Washington had said that former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath
Party and military, fighters and other civilians in Iraq, were to be
protected by the Geneva Conventions, the Post pointed out.
"The
Geneva Conventions are applicable to the conflict in Iraq, and our
policy is to comply with the Geneva Conventions," White House
spokesman Sean McCormick told the paper when asked about the memo.
Hidden
From ICRC
The
CIA has not disclosed the identities or locations of prisoners
captured in Iraq, the Post said.
It
added that American authorities also concealed the detainees from the
International Committee of the Red Cross.
A
Pentagon spokesman admitted that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
personally ordered a secret
detention of an Iraqi detainee without giving him an
identification number so that he can escape the eyes of ICRC teams.
The
ICRC accused the US of hiding hundreds of suspects captured
in its so-called war on terror in secret locations worldwide.
In
a report entitled "Ending Secret Detention", the American
Human Rights First said the United States has more than 24
world detention camps , at least half of them operate in total
secrecy, where the abuse of detainees is "inevitable".
Also,
the Observer reported on Sunday, June 13, that Washington and
its allies are running a wanton global
network of detention camps allowing the US to fly terror
suspects to other countries where they are tortured for information.
In
an unprecedented move, 31 United Nations human rights experts pressed
Friday, June 25, for access
to so-called terror suspects around the world.
