ghotir
03.04.05, 21:38
ponizszy tekst dotyczy nie tylko praw czlowieka ale takze praworzadnosci w
stanach zjednoczonych i wiarygodnosci najwyzszych urzednikow tego panstwa.
podaje to pod rozwage szczegolnie takich bezkrytycznych forumowiczow jak
kaptain america lub dragger. na marginesie, aclu nie jest 'lewacka' organizacja.
Army Memo Released By ACLU Suggests Perjury In Lt. Gen. Sanchez Sworn
Testimony on Torture, March 31, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Media@dcaclu.org
WASHINGTON - The American Civil Liberties Union today sent a letter to
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking him to open an investigation into
possible perjury by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the theater commander at the
outset of the Iraq War. The ACLU said that a memo sent by Lt. Gen Sanchez
flatly contradicts sworn testimony given by him before the Senate Armed
Services Committee, in which he denied authorizing highly coercive
interrogation methods.
"Lt. Gen. Sanchez?s testimony, given under oath before the Senate Armed
Services committee, is utterly inconsistent with the written record, and
deserves serious investigation," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive
Director. "This clear breach of the public?s trust is also further proof that
the American people deserve the appointment of an independent special counsel
by the attorney general."
Although the Washington Post first disclosed its existence, the memorandum at
issue was initially withheld from public release by the Defense Department
under national security grounds. The ACLU obtained a physical copy of the
memorandum, however, under an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, and
released a hard copy on Tuesday.
The memorandum, dated September 14, 2003, was signed by Lt. Gen. Sanchez and
laid out specific interrogation techniques, modeled on those used against
detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for use by coalition forces in Iraq. These
include sleep "management," the inducement of fear at two levels of severity,
loud music and sensory agitation, and the use of canine units to "exploit
[the] Arab fear of dogs."
During sworn testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lt. Gen.
Sanchez flatly denied approving any such techniques in Iraq, and said that a
news article reporting otherwise was false.
Specifically, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) asked Sanchez, "today's USA Today ,
sir, reported that you ordered or approved the use of sleep deprivation,
intimidation by guard dogs, excessive noise and inducing fear as an
interrogation method for a prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison." To which Sanchez
replied, using the acronym for Coalition Joint Task Force-7, "Sir, that may be
correct that it's in a news article, but I never approved any of those
measures to be used within CJTF-7 at any time in the last year."
"We deserve to know if our military commanders are being honest when reporting
to Congress and the American people what?s been done in our country?s name,"
said Christopher E. Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "The attorney general
clearly has to bring us those answers by appointing an independent
investigator, and possible perjury is a good place to start."
Earlier this month, the ACLU and Human Rights First filed a lawsuit charging
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with direct responsibility for the torture
and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody. The action was the first
federal court lawsuit to name a top U.S. official in the ongoing torture
scandal in Iraq and Afghanistan; many of the charges are based on documents
obtained through the FOIA lawsuit. The ACLU has also filed separate lawsuits
naming Brig. Gen. Karpinski, Col. Thomas Pappas and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.
The ACLU?s letter to Gonzales is at:
www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17866&c=206
The September Sanchez memo is available at:
www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17851&c=206
The exchange with Senator Jack Reed is at:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39851-2004May19_3.html
More than 30,000 pages of other released documents are posted online at:
www.aclu.org/torturefoia.html
Details about the Rumsfeld lawsuit are online at:
www.aclu.org/rumsfeld