By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 27th, 2013
The American Spark quotes for its readers the Constitution Project’s twenty-four essential findings. Numbers one through sixteen were quoted in yesterday’s article – today the Spark quotes findings seventeen through twenty-four, below. Or one may read the entire, more detailed report straight from The Constitution Project itself.
“The Constitution Project brings together policy experts and legal practitioners from across the political spectrum to foster consensus-based solutions to the most difficult constitutional challenges of our time,” declares the watchdog group’s mission statement.
“The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment is an independent, bipartisan, blue-ribbon panel charged with examining the federal government’s policies and actions related to the capture, detention and treatment of suspected terrorists during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations,” states the introduction to the Project’s report.
Many of the findings quoted below discuss what the Obama Administration appears to have gotten right – and where the current administration may not be any better than the previous one.
Consequences Findings
Finding #17
It is the view of the Task Force that it is harmful for the United States to release detainees without clear policies or practices in place for the re-introduction of those individuals into the societies of the countries of release.
Recidivism Findings
Finding #18
The Task Force finds a large discrepancy between the recidivism figures published by government agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the House Committee on Armed Services, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as the New America Foundation. The Task Force believes that it is not possible to determine an accurate rate of re-engagement (or engagement for the first time) in terrorist activity without systematic and detailed data indicating whether each particular individual is “confirmed” or “suspected” of such activity.
Obama Administration Findings
Finding #19
The high level of secrecy surrounding the rendition and torture of detainees since September 11 cannot continue to be justified on the basis of national security.
Finding #20
The Convention Against Torture, in addition to prohibiting all acts of torture, requires that states ensure in their “legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation.” The United States has not complied with this requirement, in large part because of the government’s repeated, successful invocation of the state-secrets privilege in lawsuits brought by torture victims.
Finding #21
The Convention Against Torture requires each state party to “[c]riminalize all acts of torture, attempts to commit torture, or complicity or participation in torture,” and “proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction.” The United States cannot be said to have complied with this requirement.
Finding #22
The Obama administration’s standards for interrogation are set forth in the Army Field Manual on interrogation. In 2006, a small handful of changes were introduced to the Manual that weakened some of its key legal protections.
Finding #23
Detainees’ transfer from United States custody to the custody of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Afghanistan has resulted in their torture. The United States has a legal obligation under Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture not to transfer detainees to NDS custody unless it can verify that they are not likely to be tortured as a result.
Finding #24
The available evidence suggests that the Obama administration has dramatically improved the process of notifying the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of detainees’ status, and providing access to detainees.
