Explain role in CIA rendition, PKR man tells Putrajaya

(Malay Mail Online) – A PKR man demanded today the government explain allegations that it played a role in subjecting terror suspects to inhumane torture by the US authorities following the release of the American Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s cruel interrogation programme.

Party youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad noted the report gave harrowing details about the torture techniques by CIA operatives on captured detainees that contravened international standards on the treatment of prisoners, and pointed out that Malaysia had at least helped deport suspects on two occasions.

“The report has ramifications for Malaysia because it highlights the role that our country and other allies in the “global war on terror” played in the practice of “extraordinary rendition”, that is to say, the covert capture and transfer of such suspects to various clandestine detention facilities,” he said in a statement.

Although the Senate report did not name Malaysia as an accomplice, a study by the Open Society Justice Initiative entitled “Globalising Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition” published in February 2013 alleged that Putrajaya had assisted the CIA on the matter twice.

The Senate report detailed how CIA operatives had used cruel and nightmarish torture techniques on prisoners, which later proved to be ineffective in soliciting reliable information, as stated by the Senate’s report summary.

Detainees were reported to have been forced to stand on broken limbs for hours, kept in complete darkness, deprived of sleep for up to a week with their arms shackled above their heads.

Prisoners were also said to be subjected to “rectal feeding” and rectal exams were conducted with “excessive force”. One prisoner was said to have been diagnosed with anal fissures, chronic haemorrhoids and “symptomatic rectal prolapse”.

The report also cited one prisoner dying of hypothermia brought partly caused by being forced to sit on a bare concrete floor without pants.

Nik Nazmi said that while stopping terrorism is paramount, Malaysia should not have compromised its moral integrity in this way.

“Indeed the efficacy and quality of intelligence that the practice of extraordinary rendition has produced has repeatedly been questioned. There also have been allegations that innocent people were unjustly subject to extraordinary rendition,” he said.

The Seri Setia assemblyman added that both the US and Malaysia owe the world an explanation over the sordid and sorry affair.

According to a report by the UK’s Guardian, US president Barack Obama has described the torture programmes as contrary to American values.

“These harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as a nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests.

“Moreover, these techniques did significant damage to America’s standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners. That is why I will continue to use my authority as president to make sure we never resort to those methods again,” Obama was quoted as saying.

The Senate committee published nearly 500 pages of its investigation into the CIA’s detention and interrogation programme during the Bush administration’s “war on terror”, with dense details of the tortures in the declassified communications between the officials involved.

The communication also mentioned Malaysia among the transit points for key figures in the global Islamic terrorist network.

Putrajaya’s role in the extradition of suspects for interrogation in the US was however redacted in the report.