Ten Questions: #4

When the United States appeared before the U.N. to defend its human rights record, State Department legal advisor Harold Koh assured the world that the U.S. had “thoroughly investigated” alleged abuses of detainees in U.S. custody, and that “appropriate corrective action has been taken.” Koh also asserted that the Justice Department’s initial investigation into torture was actively looking into allegations of abuse by the CIA and other civilian agencies.

Drawing largely from material that has been covered in thetorturereport.com, we have come up with 10 follow-up questions for the U.S. about its compliance with domestic and international prohibitions against torture.

In granting the habeas corpus petition of Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman in March 2010, Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. wrote, “The court will not rely on the statements of Guantánamo detainees [Sharqwi Abdu Ali Al-] Hajj and [Sana Yislam Ali Al] Kazimi because there is unrebutted evidence in that record that, at the time of the interrogations at which they made the statements, both men had recently been tortured”—Hajj first in Jordan and then at the CIA's “Dark Prison” in Afghanistan, and Kazimi in both the United Arab Emirates and the Dark Prison.

Who ordered the rendition of Hajj and Kazimi to third countries and their abuse in CIA custody in Afghanistan , and who, if anyone, has been investigated or prosecuted in connection with their torture? Is their treatment in CIA custody in Afghanistan under investigation by Special Prosecutor John Durham?