UN asked to probe conspiracy to block investigations into illegal killings and torture

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Two legal rights groups recently requested that the United Nations conduct an investigation into allegations targeting officials in the United States and Spain who reportedly conspired to block criminal probes into the authorization of illegal killings and torture of suspected terrorists during the Bush administration.

The request was made by the Center for Constitutional Rights, based out of New York, along with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights out of Berlin.

According to McClatchy, the request was made to the United Nations’ special rapporteur for judicial independence.

The two groups say that the United States interfered with the Spanish justice system in three separate criminal cases and they asked the UN to demand that both the Spanish and American governments cease their meddling in court cases.

I think this is pretty much a pipe dream, given that the United Nations is based in the United States, has incredibly close ties with the American government, and is far from the legitimate, accountable, and representative organization some make it out to be.

All we need to do is look at their inaction over the breaches of the Geneva Conventions carried out by the Bush and Obama administrations, the illegal invasion of Iraq, the invasion of Libya which left unknown numbers of civilians dead while breaching the Constitution of the United States of America, just to name a few examples.

The United Nations has no interest in justice unless it serves their needs, as we have seen with their deafening silence over the many illegal assassinations carried out by the United States in recent history.

“When arguably the leading human rights country in the world is engaged in torture and then gives impunity to those torturers, it sends a pretty bad message,” said the President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner.

I think Ratner’s assertion is laughably misguided, given that the United States is far from “the leading human rights country in the world” and I find it to be a hardly arguable point.

Sure, there are worse countries out there, but I would very much like to debate the assertion that the United States leads the world in human rights with Ratner or anyone else who genuinely believes this to be true.

I’m not sure how anyone could say such a thing knowing how our prison system works, how our so-called justice system works, how we are criminalizing childhood behavior, how we have passed laws allowing the military to indefinitely detain Americans without charge or trial and remove them from the United States if they please, how torture is allowed, how we have secret death panels which are wholly unaccountable and can decide if an American citizen can be assassinated, etc.

These are not the hallmarks of “the leading human rights country in the world” but instead one of the most expansive high-tech police states, and one of the leading militaristic and neo-imperialistic/colonialist nations which regularly flouts international law and common decency.

However, it seems that Ratner is aware of the fact that the UN is hardly the ideal institution to deal with this in saying that they chose the UN because “it’s very hard to hold the U.S. accountable in any forum in the world.”

Indeed, there are in fact no forums which the United States could truly be held to account; even the United Nations could be cast aside just as they were in the buildup to the invasion of Iraq.

According to McClatchy, a spokesman for the United States Department of State refused to comment and instead referred questions on the matter to the Department of Justice.

However, the Department of Justice has not responded to any requests for comment which is hardly surprising.

The complaint filed by the two groups is requesting that the United Nations investigate how the three cases were handled.

These cases involve the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay (not to mention the murder of some individuals who were suspected of being terrorists or having ties to terrorism), the Bush administration’s authorization of the use of “enhanced interrogation” also known as torture, and the death of Spanish cameraman Jose Couso Permuy in Baghdad in 2003.

Interestingly, the complaint was reportedly based on cables published by WikiLeaks in 2010 which detail high-ranking diplomats from the United States putting pressure on Spanish officials in order to halt the criminal investigations.

It is worth noting that some individuals, like Webster Tarpley, assert that WikiLeaks is in fact a CIA “limited hangout operation” designed to control the opposition.

The fact that no real harm has been done to the United States as a result of these leaked cables is a strong indicator that Tarpley very well might be correct.

Personally, I do not think I am qualified to make a concrete assertion either way at this point, but I can definitely see how the Western intelligence community would leverage a tool like WikiLeaks to their advantage.

In one of the cables, the United States Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre reportedly details his efforts to block criminal charges related to Couso’s death.

Couso was allegedly killed during the United States’ operation to capture Baghdad on April 8, 2003, when an American tank fired upon the Palestine Hotel, where journalists were residing at the time.

“While we are careful to show our respect for the tragic death of Couso and for the independence of the Spanish judicial system, behind the scenes we have fought tooth and nail to make the charges disappear,” Aguirre reportedly wrote in a cable.

This statement is hilariously nonsensical as there is no way to respect the independence of the Spanish judicial system while working behind the scenes to manipulate and remove charges.

Recently, a Spanish judge reopened the case of four former detainees at Guantanamo Bay who allege that they were humiliated and tortured by United States forces at the camp.

Since the United States is not conducting an independent inquiry into the allegations (for obvious reasons) the Spanish judge said that he had jurisdiction in the matter.

“We’re very excited about these cases in Spain,” Ratner said, adding, “It’s only happening because neither the Bush administration nor the Obama administration is willing to do anything to investigate the torture at Guantanamo.”

This is due to the fact that both the Bush and Obama administrations are well aware of what goes on there, and actually support it by actively blocking investigations and disregarding the allegations of those who were tortured.

The entirety of Guantanamo Bay should be illegal and shut down immediately due to the fact that it completely nullifies whatever small claim we can make as to the respect of human rights.

Furthermore, it is a travesty of justice seeing that individuals are indefinitely detained without charge or trial, and if one is lucky enough to get a trial it is a closed military tribunal.

Even more absurd is the fact that if one is found not guilty in the tribunal, there is no obligation for the United States to release said individual.

Another ludicrous aspect of this situation is that those who cannot afford a lawyer to defend them against the United States military are appointed a defender from the military itself.

To make matters even worse, if such a thing is even possible, the military gets to decide what witnesses the accused can call to their defense and what evidence they can present, essentially controlling every aspect of the trial.

Unfortunately I seriously doubt the UN will do anything, and if they do, it is even more doubtful that the United States government will take whatever they do seriously.

It is quite tragic indeed, but the UN as an institution has had a long history of injustice and if they refuse to probe these cases it will just be icing on the cake.

It is my personal opinion that the United Nations should be disbanded entirely, as it is an affront to sovereignty and encourages unconstitutional behavior, as we saw with the invasion of Libya; which, according to the Obama administration, did not qualify as hostilities under the War Powers Act.

People seem to forget that it is possible for nations to have multilateral agreements and treaties outside of the framework of a corrupt institution like the UN, and that international relations are indeed quite possible without such an institution getting in the way.

Whatever the UN does in this case will likely just serve to further delegitimize it, but it will be interesting to see if they actually do step up and take action, even if it is just in a superficial manner. 

This article first appeared at EndtheLie.com