Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: U.S. says it upholds U.N. torture rules (Reuters)

 Ovvero come si puniscono solo i pesci piccoli...
Am.
U.S. says it upholds U.N. torture rules
 
  Fri May 6, 6:48 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said in a report on Friday it 
was abiding by global anti-torture rules and any abuses of detainees in 
the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were not systemic but critics charged the 
report was a whitewash.
"The United States is well aware of allegations that detainees held in 
U.S. custody pursuant to the global war on terrorism have been subject 
to torture or other mistreatment," said the 95-page report by the State 
Department, submitted to the U.N. Committee Against Torture, which is 
based in Geneva.
"When allegations of torture or other unlawful treatment arise, they are 
investigated, and if substantiated, prosecuted," it said.
Jumana Musa, an advocacy director for the human rights group Amnesty 
International, said the report "denied or minimalized allegations 
against the United States."
"We've seen examples of short punishments or administrative punishment 
for what amount to serious war crimes," she said.
"This is an exculpatory document that hardly represents coming clean," 
said John Sifton, a military affairs and counter-intelligence researcher 
at Human Rights Watch.
Among key shortcomings was the lack of coverage of detainees held by the 
Central Intelligence Agency or the fate of prisoners sent to other 
countries for interrogation, Musa and Sifton said.
The report, which covers from Oct. 1999 to March 2005, deals with police 
brutality, prison conditions and other domestic issues. The United 
States ratified the U.N. treaty against torture in 1984 and issues 
reports every four years.
But the most keenly awaited segments were the two annexes, one dealing 
with captives taken by the U.S. military during the war against Al Qaeda 
and the Taliban in Afghanistan and the other on those detained in Iraq, 
including at Abu Ghraib.
U.S. investigators found 10 substantiated incidents at Guantanamo Bay, 
Cuba, where some 520 detainees are held, the report said. In 
Afghanistan, investigations of 22 substantiated allegations of abuse of 
detainees led to 10 non-judicial punishments and two courts-martial of 
U.S. troops, it said.
"There have been nine deaths in Afghanistan, and the best they can do is 
two courts-martial?" said Sifton.
The report's coverage of the treatment of 10,000 people in detention in 
Iraq as of April 1, 2005, said investigations of alleged abuses had lead 
to 30 courts-martial, 46 non-judicial punishments, 15 reprimands and 15 
administrative actions, with many cases still pending.
Summarizing nine different government investigative reports on Iraq or 
Abu Ghraib, the State Department report said: "none found a governmental 
policy directing, encouraging or condoning the abuses that occurred."
Sifton said the scandal the erupted when photos of U.S. soldiers abusing 
prisoners in Iraq were published worldwide probably helped curb 
mistreatment.
"But in the long term, we have concerns because of a lack of 
accountability in a situation where senior officers responsible faced no 
punishments," he said.

  Ovvero come si puniscono solo i pesci piccoli...
...fino a quando i fessacchiotti non saranno in grado di fornire prove
dell'esistenza di pesci grandi... :)
-Stefano