USA and Torture- A timeline since WWII
Created | Updated Jul 5, 2005
USA and Torture- A timeline since WWII
This document was intended to give a general but somewhat thorough look at the topic. Updates and revisions pending. For purposes of determining what qualifies as torture I used the international guidelines such as the Geneva Conventions Against Torture. Some of the headings\topics are only of relevance since they impact the future of the US and Torture.
-Mike Corlew, 8th Day Center Staff
"The U.S.A. has supplied arms, security equipment and training to governments and armed groups that have committed torture, political killings and other human rights abuses in countries around the world."
Amnesty International
""United States of America —— Rights for All""
October 1998
"[F]rom September 1991 to December 1993 the U.S. Commerce Department had issued over 350 export licenses worth more than $27 million for: thumb-cuffs, saps (bludgeons), thumb-screws, leg-irons, shackles and handcuffs, specially designed implements of torture, straight jackets, plastic handcuffs, police helmets and shields “
Amnesty International
"United States of America —— Rights for All"
October 1998
"[T]he U.S. Commerce Department had licensed the export of thousands of stun guns to Indonesia in 1993, in the face of persistent reports of electro-shock torture by Indonesian government agents...
"Another State Department report on the use of U.S. military equipment was issued in July 1997. This admitted that Turkey's special units of paramilitary gendarmes and police — two of the forces most frequently accused of political killings, ‘disappearances' and torture — were using M-16 and AR-15S assault rifles, M-203 grenade launchers and helicopters obtained from the U.S.A.... In April 1998 a U.S. company was negotiating to sell 10,000 electro-shock weapons to the Turkish police, despite its long-standing and documented record of practicing electro-shock torture."
Amnesty International
"United States of America — Rights for All"
October 1998
“Abu Ghraib was only the tip of the iceberg, It’s now clear that abuse of detainees has happened all over—from Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay to a lot of third-country dungeons where the United States has sent prisoners. And probably quite a few other places we don’t even know about.”
Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch
Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment 1932-1972
U.S. Public Health Service withheld treatments for syphilis from 399-412 black men and gave false treatments while watching the disease progress to death. By the end of the experiment, 28 of the men had died directly of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis
President Clinton's apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, May 16, 1997
“Bad Blood”, James Jones
Washington Star on July 25, 1972
COI Created 1941
In preparation for World War II, President Roosevelt created the Office of Coordinator of Information (COI). General William "Wild Bill" Donovan headed the new intelligence service.
OSS Created 1942
Roosevelt restructured COI into something more suitable for covert action, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Donovan recruited so many of the nation's rich and powerful that eventually people joke that "OSS" stands for "Oh, so social!" or "Oh, such snobs!"
Japanese-German-Italian Interment Camps 1942-1948
In response to WW2, the US arrested and detained thousands of American families of German, Japanese and Italian origin and held them for the remainder of the war in interment camps.
History professor’s page: http://www.teacheroz.com/Japanese_Internment.htm
March 18, 1942 Executive Order 9102 "War Relocation Authority"
Human radiation experiments 1945-1970s
They were a series of tests and projects that exposed uninformed or misinformed civilians and military personal to large, potentially lethal doses of radiation, even though US scientists knew the effects of radiation prior to 1944.Some tests included falsely diagnosing subjects with a terminal illness and then injecting them with near lethal doses of plutonium. Others fed radioactive soup to pregnant women. The experiments effected at least 9,000 human subjects including children and newborns. Some of the other tests were less discriminate. For example one test involved at least 13 deliberate releases of radiated materials into the atmosphere in populated areas. Note that all most all tests were performed in the USA on US citizens.
The Plutonium Files : America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War, Eileen Welsome
The Human Radiation Experiments Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (Presidential commission)
US Department of Energy http://www.eh.doe.gov/ohre/
Greece 1945,1967
In 1945, the CIA helped create Greek internal security agency, the KYP, which used torture commonly.
In 1967,a CIA-backed military coup overthrew the government two days before the elections. The favorite to win was George Papandreous, the liberal candidate. During the next six years, the "reign of the colonels", backed by the CIA ,ushered in the wide(er)spread use of torture and murder against political opponents.
Amnesty International later reported that "American policy on the torture question as expressed in official statements and official testimony has been to deny it where possible and minimize it where denial was not possible. This policy flowed naturally from general support for the {Greek} military regime."
US National Archives, Record Group 59
Japanese Unit 731 1946-1948
Unit 731 is a group of Japanese doctors and scientists that performed biological and chemical weapons experiments on Chinese and Russian POWs during WW2. AfterWW2 the US traded immunity for access to their data. Unit 731 claimed an estimated 9,000 victims.
"Abuse-Terrors of the 731 corps," a Japanese Television Documentary
“Unit 731 Testimony” , Hal Gold
“Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45 and the American Cover-Up”, Sheldon Harris
Answers .com entry: http://www.answers.com/unit%20731
Azine - Asian American Movement Ezine: http://www.aamovement.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=79&
SOA 1946-present
“The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation," is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the "biggest base for destabilization in Latin America." The SOA, frequently dubbed the "School of Assassins," has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.
Over its 56 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.” Taken from SOAW web sight.
SOA WATCH web page http://www.soaw.org
CIA Created 1947
President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, creating the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Council. The CIA is accountable to the president through the NSC, there is no democratic or congressional oversight. Its charter allows the CIA to "perform such other functions and duties… as the National Security Council may from time to time direct." This loophole opened the door to covert action and dirty tricks.
Project Paperclip 1947-1973
(a.k.a. operation paperclip)
After WW2, the US government deliberately thwarted attempts to bring to justice Nazi scientists who were guilty of war crimes. The government imported them to continue their research in the US. Former Nazi scientists (like Werner von Braun) contributed greatly to the development of rockets, atomic & chemical weapons, psychology, economics, jet planes, and torture techniques. At least 1,600 scientists and their dependents were recruited and brought to the United States by Paperclip and its successor projects through the early 1970s. Many ex-Nazis used humans in their experiments in the states, many of the subjects suffered adverse health effects. Project Paperclip has links to both MK-ULTRA and human radiation experiments.
Nazi spies were also included in the exodus. The most important of these is Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler's master spy who had built up an intelligence network in the Soviet Union. With full U.S. blessing, he creates the "Gehlen Organization," a band of refugee Nazi spies who reactivate their networks in Russia. These include SS intelligence officers Alfred Six and Emil Augsburg (who massacred Jews in the Holocaust), Klaus Barbie (the "Butcher of Lyon"), Otto von Bolschwing (the Holocaust mastermind who worked with Eichmann) and SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny (a personal friend of Hitler''s). The Gehlen Organization supplies the U.S. with its only intelligence on the Soviet Union for the next ten years. However, much of the "intelligence" the former Nazis provide is bogus. Gehlen inflates Soviet military capabilities at a time when Russia is still rebuilding its devastated society, in order to inflate his own importance to the Americans. Their actions were largely responsible for the Cold War.
“Secret Agenda”, Linda Hunt(1991)
“The Paperclip Conspiracy”, Tom Bowers(1989)
US National Archives and Records Agency(NARA) website:
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/records_and_research/names_terms_timelines/list_of_terms_code.html
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments staff memorandum: http://www.heart7.net/paperclip.html
CIA Expands to Covert Operations 1948
The CIA recreated a covert action wing, innocuously called the Office of Policy Coordination, led by Wall Street lawyer Frank Wisner. According to its secret charter, its responsibilities included "propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation procedures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world."
Iran 1950s
After the CIA engineered coup, the CIA helped create the notorious Iranian security service, SAVAK, which employed torture routinely. According to a former CIA analyst on Iran, Jesse J. Leaf, SAVAK was instructed in torture techniques by the Agency. After the 1979 revolution, the Iranians found a CIA film made for SAVAK on how to torture women.
“Countercoup the Struggle for Iran”, Kermit Roosevelt, pg 9
“Killing Hope” William Blum
Germany 1950s
In the 1950s, in Munich, the CIA tortured suspected infiltrators of Soviet emigre organizations in Western Europe, which the Agency was using in anti-Soviet operations.
“The Man Who Kept Secrets:Richard Helms and the CIA” ,Thomas Powers pg 155-157
“Rouge State”,William Blum
MK-ULTRA 1953-1972?
MK-ULTRA was a secret CIA-run Chemical and Biological Warfare program created at the height of the Cold War. Its purpose was the development of chemical techniques of brainwashing, espionage and mind control. MK-ULTRA used LSD on unsuspecting subjects such as prisoners, mental patients and prostitutes. In1964 it was renamed MK-SEARCH, In 1972 it destroyed many of its documents.
The project head, Gottlieb, was known to torture victims by locking them in sensory deprivation chambers while dosed on LSD, or to make recordings of psychiatric patients' therapy sessions, and then play a tape loop of the patient's most self-degrading statement over and over through headphones after the patient had been restrained in a straitjacket and dosed with LSD.
Answers .com entry: http://www.answers.com/topic/project-mkultra
“The Search For The Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control, The Secret History of the Behavioral Sciences” W. W. Norton(1991, ISBN 0-393-30794-8)
Declassified MK-Ultra Project Documents: http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000.htm
The National Security Archive: http://www.nemasys.com/rahome/library/programming/mkultra.shtml
U.S. Congress,” The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence” (Church Committee report), report no. 94-755, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1976), 394
Guatemala 1954-present
CIA overthrew the democratically elected Jacob Arbenz in a military coup. Arbenz threatened to nationalize the Rockefeller-owned United Fruit Company, in which CIA Director Allen Dulles also owns stock. Arbenz was replaced with a series of right-wing dictators whose policies killed over 100,000 Guatemalans in the next 40 years. Torture became a very common practice.
The CIA trained and armed the local security forces, the G2. Their methods included electrical torture, removal of limbs and burning flesh. One facility was also equipped with it's own cremitorium.
Their most infamous 'incident' was the abduction of nun called Sister Diana Ortiz in 1989. Sister Ortiz was burnt with cigarettes, repeatedly raped, and lowered into a pit of corpses. She was also given a knife was forced to kill another female prisoner when the torturer placed his hand on top of hers. When it came to light she was American, the torture was stopped to avoid a political incident.
Cointelpro 1956-1971
(an acronym COunter INTELligence PROgram) A program of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at attacking dissident political organizations within the United States. Its methods involved infiltration, intimidation ,propaganda, framing, lawsuit harassment, murder and torture. The program was declared dead after an FBI field office was burglarized by a group of radicals calling themselves the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI. Several dossiers of files were taken and the information passed to the press.
“Church Committee Report”, U.S. Congress
“Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities of the United States Senate”, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, 1976
Haiti 1959
The U.S. military helped "Papa Doc" Duvalier become dictator of Haiti. He created his own private police force, the "Tonton Macoutes," who terrorized the population with machetes. They killed over 100,000 during the Duvalier family reign.
Later, the CIA tried to strengthen the military by creating the National Intelligence Service (SIN), which suppressed popular revolt through torture and assassination
Dominican Republic 1963
The CIA overthrew the democratically elected Juan Bosch in a military coup. The CIA installed a repressive, right-wing junta.
A pentagon study: “Force Without War: US Armed Forces as a Political Instrument” Blechman, Kaplan and Slater
“Killing Hope” William Blum
Brazil 1964
A CIA-backed military coup overthrows the democratically elected government of Joao Goulart. The junta that replaces it became one of the most bloodthirsty in history. General Castelo Branco created Latin America's first death squads, or bands of secret police who hunt down "communists" for torture, interrogation and murder. Often these "communists" are no more than Branco's political opponents. Later it is revealed that the CIA trains the death squads.
“Killing Hope” William Blum
KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation manual 1964
“US complied a torture manual for use against top Soviets, the CIA printed secret handbook on interrogation remained a standard reference for two decades. The text, "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation,"-KUBARK being a cryptonym, KU a random diptych and BARK the agency's code word for itself at that time-was produced under the aegis of James J. Angleton, the CIA's chief counterspy from 1954 to 1974. The 128-page text was unearthed by a Freedom of Information request filed by The Baltimore Sun.”
Taken from
Excerpts of the torture manual : http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/cia-tort.htm
The New York Times - 02/09/97
Indonesia 1965
The CIA overthrew the democratically elected Sukarno with a military coup. His successor, General Suharto,
tortured and or massacred between 500,000 to 1 million civilians accused of being "communist." The CIA supplied the names of countless communist suspects. Robert Martens ,a US diplomat to that region, said ”It really was a big help to the army. They Probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that’s not all bad. There is a time when you have to strike hard at a decisive moment.”
San Francisco Chronicle, 9 November 1979, pg 61
Time, 17 December 1965
“Killing Hope” William Blum
Operation Phoenix 1966-1973
Operation Phoenix, was an assassination program setup by the CIA in Vietnam. The idea was to cripple the NLF by killing influential people like mayors, teachers, doctors, tax collectors-anyone who aided the functioning of the NLF's parallel government in the South. Many of the "suspects” were tortured and some were tossed from helicopters during interrogation. William Colby, the CIA official in charge of Phoenix (he later became director of the CIA), insisted this was all part of "military necessity"- though he admitted to Congress that he really had no idea how many of the 20,000 killed were Viet Cong and how many were "loyal" Vietnamese. Phoenix was a joint operation between the US and the South Vietnamese, who used it as a means of extortion, a protection racket and a way to settle vendettas. The South Vietnamese estimated the Operation Phoenix death toll at closer to 40,000.
“The Need to Know: Covert Action and American Democracy”, Allan E. Goodman
and Bruce Berkowitz
Church Committee Report, U.S. Congress (1976) B 1 27.
“The Phoenix Program”, Valentine, D. (1990)
Bolivia 1967
“In 1967, anti-Castro Cubans, working with the CIA to find Che Guevara, set up houses of interrogation where Bolivians suspected of aiding Che's guerrilla army were brought for questioning and sometimes tortured. When the Bolivian interior minister learned of the torture, he was furious and demanded that the CIA put a stop to it.”
From “Rouge State”William Blum
“Death of a Revolutionary” Richard Harris
Uruguay 1969
Under the auspices of US Office of Public Safety, Dan Mitrione and a team from the CIA arrive and teach classes on torture to the Uruguay security forces. Whereas right-wing forces previously used torture only as a last resort, Mitrione convinced them to use it as a routine, widespread practice. "The precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired effect," is his motto. The torture techniques he taught to the death squads rival the Nazis'. He eventually became so feared that revolutionaries kidnaped and murdered him a year later.
“Hidden Terrors” A.J. Langguth
New York Times, August 15, 1970
Cambodia 1970
The CIA overthrew Prince Sahounek, who was highly popular among Cambodians for keeping them out of the Vietnam War. He was replaced by CIA puppet Lon Nol, who immediately threw Cambodian troops into battle. This unpopular move strengthened once minor opposition parties like the Khmer Rouge(Pol Pot), which achieved power in 1975 and massacres millions of its own people.
Later in 1979 when Vietnam invaded and disposed Pol Pot, the US provided covert and overt military and financial aid to the Khmer Rouge. The United States also defended the Khmer Rouge’s right to the Cambodian seat at the UN until 1993.
“Rouge State” William Blum, Chapter 10
“The Long Secret Alliance: Uncle Sam and Pol Pot” Covert Action Quarterly #62, Fall 1997
“When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution” Elizabeth Becker
Bolivia 1971
After half a decade of CIA-inspired political turmoil, a CIA-backed military coup overthrew the leftist President Juan Torres. In the next two years, dictator Hugo Banzer had over 2,000 political opponents arrested without trial, then tortured, raped and executed.
“Rebellion In the Veins: Political Struggle In Bolivia 1952-1982", James Dunkerly
“ The Legacy of Populism In Bolivia” ,Christopher Mitchell
“Military Intervention in Bolivia”, William H Brill
General Augusto Pinochet 1973-1990
The CIA overthrew and assassinated Salvador Allende, Latin America's first democratically elected socialist leader.
General Pinochet came to power in that military coup d'etat on September 11, 1973.
Once in power, Pinochet ruled with an iron hand. Dissidents were "disappeared", tortured or murdered for speaking out against Pinochet's policies. Chile's post-Pinochet civilian government concluded that 3,191 people were either killed or disappeared under his regime, though unofficial estimates put the total at several times that number.
CIA recently released 16,000 newly declassified documents outlining their involvement in overthrowing Salvador Allende's elected government.
National Catholic Reporter article (June 2nd, 2000), by John L. Allen, reveals that Vatican officials had called for Pinochet's release while he was under English arrest. They oppose, according to Allen, "Liberation Theology."
Financial Times report (November 16th, 2000)
National Security Archive (get the CIA documents here)
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20001113/
NCR article http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/060200/060200a.htm
Congress Investigates CIA Wrong-Doing 1975
“Public outrage compelled Congress to hold hearings on CIA crimes. Senator Frank Church headed the Senate investigation ("The Church Committee"), and Representative Otis Pike headed the House investigation. The investigations lead to a number of reforms intended to increase the CIA's accountability to Congress, including the creation of a standing Senate committee on intelligence. However, the reforms proved ineffective, as the Iran/Contra scandal would show.”
Taken from “A Timeline of CIA Atrocities” Steve Kangas
Nicaragua 1976-1990
Anastasios Samoza II, the CIA-backed dictator, fell. The Marxist Sandinistas took over government, and they were initially popular because of their commitment to land and anti-poverty reform. Samoza had a murderous and hated personal army called the National Guard. Remnants of the Guard became the Contras, who fought a CIA-backed guerilla war against the Sandinista government throughout the 1980s.The Contras often used torture.
“Killing Hope”William Blum
El Salvador 1980
The Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, pleaded with President Carter "Christian to Christian" to stop aiding the military government slaughtering his people. Carter refused. Shortly afterwards, right-wing leader Roberto D''Aubuisson had Romero shot through the heart while saying Mass. The country soon dissolved into civil war, with the peasants in the hills fighting against the military government. The CIA and U.S. Armed Forces supplied the government with overwhelming military and intelligence superiority. CIA-trained death squads roamed the countryside, committing atrocities like that of El Mazote in 1982, where they massacre between 700 and 1000 men, women and children. By 1992, some 63,000 Salvadorans will be killed. Torture was a common practice of the government and the paramilitary.
Honduras 1983
The CIA gives Honduran military officers the Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual –– 1983, which teaches how to torture people. Honduras'' notorious "Battalion 316" then uses these techniques, with the CIA's full knowledge, on thousands of leftist dissidents. At least 184 are murdered.
Panama 1983-1988
According to statements made by former CIA Director Admiral Stansfield Turner in 1988, Panama’s dictator, Noriega, was on the CIA payroll since the early 1970s and he retained U.S. support until February 5, 1988 when the DEA had him indicted on federal drug charges relating to his activities before 1984. He attended the School Of the Americas in Panama. He aided the pro-American forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua by acting as a conduit for American money, and according to some accounts, weapons. He supported death squads that routinely used torture.
Washington Post, October 1, 1988.
Chicago Police, Jon Burge 1983-1990s
A recent report revealed that the Chicago Police Department had engaged In ''systematic" torture of subjects between the years of 1973 - 1986. Methods were said to include electric shocks to the genitals and other areas, suffocation with plastic bags (when the victim came round they were suffocated again), and being hung on hooks by handcuffs and beaten. Some victims were never charged, and all of them were Black or Latino.
Amnesty International’s Report: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511681999?open&of=ENG-USA
"The repeated practice of torture by Chicago police came to light in the late 1980s and early 1990s.on February 14 at the South Side Area 2 station, a prisoner suffered multiple injuries: he claimed that officers supervised by Commander Jon Burge tortured and brutalized him during an interrogation that lasted for seventeen hours. He claimed electric shocks were administered to his head and genitals and that police cranked a "black box" to produce electric currents after clips were attached to parts of his body; Wilson was also allegedly stretched over a hot radiator and burned."
"Report by the police investigatory agency, the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), found that physical abuse "did occur and that it was systematic....[T]he type of abuse described was not limited to the usual beating, but went into such esoteric areas as psychological techniques and planned torture."
"No criminal prosecutions were pursued against the officers involved in the torture incidents. The U.S. Attorney's office reportedly learned of the Area 2 torture cases after the five-year statute of limitations for civil rights cases had passed; when it was suggested that conspiracy charges could still be brought against those involved who continued to cover up their involvement, there was still no action toward pursuing the cases. Meanwhile, prisoners remain on death row following confessions forced by Burge and others on the police force through torture techniques"
from Human Rights Watch
Reagan Pulled Out of World Court 1984
In 1984, the CIA mined Nicaragua's harbors in a covert operation. Many nations to the U.S. condemned the action, and Nicaragua sued the U.S. in the World Court (International Court of Justice in the Hague). In response Reagan refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the World court over Americans, setting the stage for similar actions today by Bush with the International Criminal Court.
The Gulf War 1991
The U.S. liberated Kuwait from Iraq. But Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein, was a creature of the CIA. With U.S. encouragement, Hussein invaded Iran in 1980. During this costly eight-year war, the CIA built up Hussein's forces with sophisticated arms, intelligence, training and financial backing. This cemented Hussein's power at home, allowing him to crush the many internal rebellions that erupted from time to time, sometimes with poison gas.
Recently declassified documents include the briefing materials and diplomatic reporting on two Rumsfeld trips to Baghdad, reports on Iraqi chemical weapons use concurrent with the Reagan administration's decision to support Iraq, and decision directives signed by President Reagan that reveal the specific U.S. priorities for the region: preserving access to oil, expanding U.S. ability to project military power in the region, and protecting local allies from internal and external threats.
National Security Archive http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/press.htm
US ratifies UN Convention Against Torture 1994
The convention was written in 1985.
Extraordinary Rendition 1995-present
Extraordinary rendition is a secret procedure used by the United States government whereby foreign suspects are sent to another country for interrogation. As described in various reports in the media, individuals to whom it is applied are arrested, blindfolded, shackled, and sedated, and transported by private jet or other means to the destination. The US agency involved may provide the relevant foreign intelligence service with a list of questions it wants answered. It is acknowledged and even expected that these suspects may be tortured despite official assurances to the contrary. Although Egypt has been the most common destination, suspected terrorists have been renditioned to other countries, such as Jordan and Syria.
While extraordinary rendition was originally developed by the CIA, the Justice Department and the Defense Department now also do renditions. Initially, the procedure was applied primarily to individuals for whom there were outstanding arrest warrants. After the 9/11 attacks, however, the program was greatly expanded and came to encompass individuals for whom there were but vague suspicions. Critics charge that the program has "spun out of control", and used against large numbers of individuals, well over one hundred. In some cases, suspects to whom the procedure has been applied have later appeared to be innocent.
Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/17/1530242
Afghanistan 2002-2005
“Nine detainees are now known to have died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, including four cases already determined by Army investigators to be murder or manslaughter. Former detainees have made scores of other claims of torture and other mistreatment. In a March 2004 report, Human Rights Watch documented cases of U.S. personnel arbitrarily detaining Afghan civilians, using excessive force during arrests of non-combatants, and mistreating detainees. Detainees held at military bases in 2002 and 2003 described to Human Rights Watch being beaten severely by both guards and interrogators, deprived of sleep for extended periods, and intentionally exposed to extreme cold, as well as other inhumane and degrading treatment. In December 2004, Human Rights Watch raised additional concerns about detainee deaths, including one alleged to have occurred as late as September 2004. In March 2005, The Washington Post uncovered another death in CIA custody, noting that the case was under investigation but that the CIA officer implicated had been promoted.”
From Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/27/usint10545.htm
Unconfirmed stories have surfaced of masses detainees being transported in trucks with ventilation. Upon arrival it was not uncommon to find many of the prisoners dead. Other reports of desert executions have surfaced. A very gruesome, short documentary exists by film maker Jamie Doran, and can be downloaded on the Internet, but I advise strongly against it due to its inhumane content.
Guantanamo Bay - Camp X Ray
“There is growing evidence that detainees at Guantanamo have suffered torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Reports by FBI agents who witnessed detainee abuse, including chained detainees forced to sit in their own excrement, have recently emerged, adding to the statements of former detainees describing the use of painful stress positions, use of military dogs to threaten detainees, threats of torture and death, and prolonged exposure to extremes of heat, cold and noise. Ex-detainees also said they had been subjected to weeks and even months in solitary confinement, at times either suffocatingly hot or cold from excessive air conditioning, as punishment for failure to cooperate. Videotapes of riot squads subduing suspects reportedly show the guards punching some detainees, tying one to a gurney for questioning and forcing a dozen to strip from the waist down. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has told the U.S. government in confidential reports that its treatment of detainees has involved psychological and physical coercion that is “tantamount to torture.””
The Red Cross, under the geneva conventions can visit prisoner camps at any time, however much like Abu Ghraib they were often denied access early on.
Note: Camp X-Ray’s constructor, Halliburton, is currently under investigation for fraudulently overcharging in the camps construction.
From Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/27/usint10545.htm
US Withdraws From Treaty Of Rome 2002
George W. Bush in 2002 withdrew America from the Treaty of Rome of 1998 that created the
International Criminal Court. The actual act of withdrawal was done buy UN ambassador nominee, John Bolton, who later commented that it was the”happiest moment of my government service”.
Wall Street Journal,2002
Justice Department Redefines Torture 2002
In June 2004, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times obtained copies of legal analyses prepared for the CIA and the Justice Department in 2002 which developed a legal basis for the use of torture by US interrogators if acting under the directive of the President of the United States. The legal definition of torture by the Justice Department narrowed to actions which "must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death", and argued that actions that inflict moderate or fleeting pain do not necessarily constitute torture.
John Walker Lindh 2002
A young Californian captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and touted by John Ashcroft as an "American Taliban,” Claimed he signed the document of his confession only after being tortured for days by US soldiers.
The Nation Feb 14 2005 "Chertoff and Torture" http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050214&s=lindorff
Maher Arar 2002-2003
Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, was detained at Kennedy International Airport on 26 September, 2002, by US Immigration and Naturalization Service officials while changing planes after returning to Montreal from vacation with his family in Tunisia, where his wife was born. After being held without access to legal representation, he was taken to Syria, where he was interrogated and tortured by Syrian intelligence. Arar was eventually released a year later after it was determined he had no ties to terrorist groups.
CBC News time line http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/arar/
Time Canada in depth http://www.timecanada.com/CNOY/story.adp?year=2004
Rumsfeld Approves Stress Positions 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later approved in 2003 the use of 24 classified interrogation techniques for use on detainees at Guantanamo Bay which after use on one prisoner were withdrawn. It is the position of the United States government that the legal memoranda constitute only permissible legal research and do not signify the intent of the United States to use torture which it opposes. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has complained about this prominent newspaper coverage and its implications.
Washington Post June 20 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56753-2004Jun20.html
Abu Ghraib 2003
“The crimes at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of abuses against Muslim detainees around the world” HRW
“April - May 2003 The International Red Cross and several human rights groups complain that American troops have been mistreating Iraqi prisoners.
Jan. 13, 2004 A military policeman presents army investigators with a computer disk containing graphic photographs depicting the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
April 30, 2004 The U.S. military charges six soldiers after pictures are published of the soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners. The soldiers took the pictures depicting various humiliations of naked prisoners, sometimes at the hands of women.
May 7, 2004 U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies for six hours before the congressional committee looking at abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Rumsfeld apologizes and says he's responsible. Says he first learned of the allegations in January. He adds there are more pictures and videos –– and some are far more graphic than those already made public.
May 19, 2004 The first U.S. soldier to be court-martialled for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is sentenced to one year in jail. Spc. Jeremy Sivits pleaded guilty to mistreating detainees, dereliction of duty for failing to protect them from abuse and forcing a prisoner "to be positioned in a pile on the floor to be assaulted by other soldiers." The 24-year-old military police officer also receives a bad conduct discharge.
June 22, 2004 Washington releases memos on prisoner interrogation techniques approved for use in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The government says the documents show U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected the use of aggressive methods, including torture.
Aug. 20, 2004 Prof. Steven Miles of the University of Minnesota publishes an article in Lancet saying military doctors were complicit in the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. The U.S. Department of Defence calls the report distorted and inaccurate.
Aug. 25, 2004 A Pentagon investigation concludes that the prison abuses at Abu Ghraib were the result of individual misconduct, a lack of discipline and a failure of leadership.
Dec. 21, 2004 The American Civil Liberties Union releases internal FBI memos containing reports that U.S. soldiers chained Iraqi detainees for long periods, strangled them, burned them with lit cigarettes, and left them to defecate on themselves. The documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, also include details of detainee abuse in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Feb. 18, 2005 The American Civil Liberties Union releases U.S. army documents showing that photos of American soldiers posing with hooded and bound prisoners in Afghanistan were destroyed after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.”
From CBC News http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/iraq/abughraib_timeline.html
Human Rights Watch report “the Road to Abu Ghraib” 37pgs,
Negroponte Appointed as Director of National Intelligence 2005
He was a close friend and ally to Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. Later he became ambassador to Honduras as the Reagan administration fought a covert war against the Marxist Sandinistas in neighbouring Nicaragua. He armed the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, and ignored or supported murder and torture by the Honduran military regime.
Alberto Gonzales appointment as Attorney General 2005
He played an important role in shaping legal opinions about the treatment of prisoners captured in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has been central in the administration's debate over interrogation techniques for prisoners held in the war on terrorism. He was criticized by human-rights groups after writing a memo to the president in which he said the war against terrorism was a "new kind of war" that renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders "quaint" some of its provisions. He penned the policy that attempted to side step the Geneva conventions in regard to prisoners in Camp-X Ray.
In January 2005, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales claimed in a written response during his confirmation hearings that the prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading (CID) treatment does not apply to U.S. personnel in the treatment of non-citizens abroad, indicating that no law would prohibit the CIA from engaging in CID treatment when it interrogates non-Americans outside the United States.
Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/27/usint10545.htm
Michael Chertoff Appointed to Head US Homeland Security Department 2005
"Chertoff has been implicated in advising the CIA on the legality of various means of torturing detainees held in U.S. prison camps in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. According to The New York Times, one current federal official and two former senior officials say Chertoff told the CIA that certain forms of torture were entirely permissible under the currently existing U.S. anti-torture statute. Chertoff told the CIA that it could use forms of mistreatment if they were in accordance with an August 2002 memorandum from Jay S. Bybee of the Office of Legal Counsel to Presidential Counsel Alberto Gonzales.
Bybee’s memo said that harsh interrogation techniques qualified as torture only if they were enough to cause organ failure or imminent death. This is the same memo that has plagued Gonzales.
Legal experts say that the memo, along with Chertoff'’s recommendations, violates specific international conventions and the anti-torture statute passed by Congress in 1994, Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 113(c), Sec. 2340(a) and 2340(b) which provides for 20 years in prison or even death for torture."
From"CHERTOFF OKs TORTURE" http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/chertoff_oks.html
The Nation Feb 14 2005 "Chertoff and Torture" http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050214&s=lindorff
The Salvador Option for Iraq 2005
The pentagon is currently debating using the ‘Salvador option’ for Iraq. A plan, that if implemented, would put special forces led death squads in Iraq.
Newsweek, Jan 9, 2005
GENERAL TRENDS
US Harbors War Criminals & Tortures
Florida, California and a handful of other states are home to hundreds of accused war criminals and torturers from all over Latin America, according to Amnesty International. Other suspected human rights abusers have made their way to the United States from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Somalia, Eastern Europe and Afghanistan, sometimes settling in the same communities as their victims. (Torture treatment centers and refugee groups claim there are roughly 500,000 torture survivors nationwide.)
CIA Founds Secret Police that Use Torture
Greece late 1940, CIA setup KYP.
Iran 1950s, CIA and Mossad setup SAVAK which was instructed on the use of torture by the CIA.
Germany 1950s, in Munich CIA tortured suspected infiltrators of Soviet emigre organizations in West Europe
Bolivia 1967, CIA aided Anti-Castro Cubans set up houses of interrogation that used torture.
Uruguay late 1960, US advisors instituted torture as a routine measure and refined their skills
Brazil 1970s, US (Dan Mitrione) advisors trained Brazilian security forces in torture.
Guatemala1960-1980s the G-2 was trained and equipped by the USA.
El Salvador 1980s US Green Berets and special ops trained Death Squads.
Honduras 1980s The CIA gave support to the infamous Battalion 316.
General Resources
TORTURE IN THE UNITED STATES http://www.woatusa.org/CAT/catreport/intro.html
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Human dignity denied Torture and accountability in the ‘war on terror'
Amnesty International http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511452004
A CIA Time line http://silentspring.diaryland.com/cia2.html
Amnesty International
"Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower" William Blum
"Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII" William Blum
National Security Archive: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/
“A Timeline of CIA Atrocities”, Steve Kangas: http://home.att.net/~Resurgence/CIAtimeline.html
This document was intended to give a general but somewhat thorough look at the topic. Updates and revisions pending. For purposes of determining what qualifies as torture I used the international guidelines such as the Geneva Conventions Against Torture. Some of the headings\topics are only of relevance since they impact the future of the US and Torture.
-Mike Corlew, 8th Day Center Staff
"The U.S.A. has supplied arms, security equipment and training to governments and armed groups that have committed torture, political killings and other human rights abuses in countries around the world."
Amnesty International
""United States of America —— Rights for All""
October 1998
"[F]rom September 1991 to December 1993 the U.S. Commerce Department had issued over 350 export licenses worth more than $27 million for: thumb-cuffs, saps (bludgeons), thumb-screws, leg-irons, shackles and handcuffs, specially designed implements of torture, straight jackets, plastic handcuffs, police helmets and shields “
Amnesty International
"United States of America —— Rights for All"
October 1998
"[T]he U.S. Commerce Department had licensed the export of thousands of stun guns to Indonesia in 1993, in the face of persistent reports of electro-shock torture by Indonesian government agents...
"Another State Department report on the use of U.S. military equipment was issued in July 1997. This admitted that Turkey's special units of paramilitary gendarmes and police — two of the forces most frequently accused of political killings, ‘disappearances' and torture — were using M-16 and AR-15S assault rifles, M-203 grenade launchers and helicopters obtained from the U.S.A.... In April 1998 a U.S. company was negotiating to sell 10,000 electro-shock weapons to the Turkish police, despite its long-standing and documented record of practicing electro-shock torture."
Amnesty International
"United States of America — Rights for All"
October 1998
“Abu Ghraib was only the tip of the iceberg, It’s now clear that abuse of detainees has happened all over—from Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay to a lot of third-country dungeons where the United States has sent prisoners. And probably quite a few other places we don’t even know about.”
Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch
Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment 1932-1972
U.S. Public Health Service withheld treatments for syphilis from 399-412 black men and gave false treatments while watching the disease progress to death. By the end of the experiment, 28 of the men had died directly of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis
President Clinton's apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, May 16, 1997
“Bad Blood”, James Jones
Washington Star on July 25, 1972
COI Created 1941
In preparation for World War II, President Roosevelt created the Office of Coordinator of Information (COI). General William "Wild Bill" Donovan headed the new intelligence service.
OSS Created 1942
Roosevelt restructured COI into something more suitable for covert action, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Donovan recruited so many of the nation's rich and powerful that eventually people joke that "OSS" stands for "Oh, so social!" or "Oh, such snobs!"
Japanese-German-Italian Interment Camps 1942-1948
In response to WW2, the US arrested and detained thousands of American families of German, Japanese and Italian origin and held them for the remainder of the war in interment camps.
History professor’s page: http://www.teacheroz.com/Japanese_Internment.htm
March 18, 1942 Executive Order 9102 "War Relocation Authority"
Human radiation experiments 1945-1970s
They were a series of tests and projects that exposed uninformed or misinformed civilians and military personal to large, potentially lethal doses of radiation, even though US scientists knew the effects of radiation prior to 1944.Some tests included falsely diagnosing subjects with a terminal illness and then injecting them with near lethal doses of plutonium. Others fed radioactive soup to pregnant women. The experiments effected at least 9,000 human subjects including children and newborns. Some of the other tests were less discriminate. For example one test involved at least 13 deliberate releases of radiated materials into the atmosphere in populated areas. Note that all most all tests were performed in the USA on US citizens.
The Plutonium Files : America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War, Eileen Welsome
The Human Radiation Experiments Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (Presidential commission)
US Department of Energy http://www.eh.doe.gov/ohre/
Greece 1945,1967
In 1945, the CIA helped create Greek internal security agency, the KYP, which used torture commonly.
In 1967,a CIA-backed military coup overthrew the government two days before the elections. The favorite to win was George Papandreous, the liberal candidate. During the next six years, the "reign of the colonels", backed by the CIA ,ushered in the wide(er)spread use of torture and murder against political opponents.
Amnesty International later reported that "American policy on the torture question as expressed in official statements and official testimony has been to deny it where possible and minimize it where denial was not possible. This policy flowed naturally from general support for the {Greek} military regime."
US National Archives, Record Group 59
Japanese Unit 731 1946-1948
Unit 731 is a group of Japanese doctors and scientists that performed biological and chemical weapons experiments on Chinese and Russian POWs during WW2. AfterWW2 the US traded immunity for access to their data. Unit 731 claimed an estimated 9,000 victims.
"Abuse-Terrors of the 731 corps," a Japanese Television Documentary
“Unit 731 Testimony” , Hal Gold
“Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45 and the American Cover-Up”, Sheldon Harris
Answers .com entry: http://www.answers.com/unit%20731
Azine - Asian American Movement Ezine: http://www.aamovement.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=79&
SOA 1946-present
“The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation," is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the "biggest base for destabilization in Latin America." The SOA, frequently dubbed the "School of Assassins," has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.
Over its 56 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.” Taken from SOAW web sight.
SOA WATCH web page http://www.soaw.org
CIA Created 1947
President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, creating the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Council. The CIA is accountable to the president through the NSC, there is no democratic or congressional oversight. Its charter allows the CIA to "perform such other functions and duties… as the National Security Council may from time to time direct." This loophole opened the door to covert action and dirty tricks.
Project Paperclip 1947-1973
(a.k.a. operation paperclip)
After WW2, the US government deliberately thwarted attempts to bring to justice Nazi scientists who were guilty of war crimes. The government imported them to continue their research in the US. Former Nazi scientists (like Werner von Braun) contributed greatly to the development of rockets, atomic & chemical weapons, psychology, economics, jet planes, and torture techniques. At least 1,600 scientists and their dependents were recruited and brought to the United States by Paperclip and its successor projects through the early 1970s. Many ex-Nazis used humans in their experiments in the states, many of the subjects suffered adverse health effects. Project Paperclip has links to both MK-ULTRA and human radiation experiments.
Nazi spies were also included in the exodus. The most important of these is Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler's master spy who had built up an intelligence network in the Soviet Union. With full U.S. blessing, he creates the "Gehlen Organization," a band of refugee Nazi spies who reactivate their networks in Russia. These include SS intelligence officers Alfred Six and Emil Augsburg (who massacred Jews in the Holocaust), Klaus Barbie (the "Butcher of Lyon"), Otto von Bolschwing (the Holocaust mastermind who worked with Eichmann) and SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny (a personal friend of Hitler''s). The Gehlen Organization supplies the U.S. with its only intelligence on the Soviet Union for the next ten years. However, much of the "intelligence" the former Nazis provide is bogus. Gehlen inflates Soviet military capabilities at a time when Russia is still rebuilding its devastated society, in order to inflate his own importance to the Americans. Their actions were largely responsible for the Cold War.
“Secret Agenda”, Linda Hunt(1991)
“The Paperclip Conspiracy”, Tom Bowers(1989)
US National Archives and Records Agency(NARA) website:
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/records_and_research/names_terms_timelines/list_of_terms_code.html
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments staff memorandum: http://www.heart7.net/paperclip.html
CIA Expands to Covert Operations 1948
The CIA recreated a covert action wing, innocuously called the Office of Policy Coordination, led by Wall Street lawyer Frank Wisner. According to its secret charter, its responsibilities included "propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation procedures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-communist elements in threatened countries of the free world."
Iran 1950s
After the CIA engineered coup, the CIA helped create the notorious Iranian security service, SAVAK, which employed torture routinely. According to a former CIA analyst on Iran, Jesse J. Leaf, SAVAK was instructed in torture techniques by the Agency. After the 1979 revolution, the Iranians found a CIA film made for SAVAK on how to torture women.
“Countercoup the Struggle for Iran”, Kermit Roosevelt, pg 9
“Killing Hope” William Blum
Germany 1950s
In the 1950s, in Munich, the CIA tortured suspected infiltrators of Soviet emigre organizations in Western Europe, which the Agency was using in anti-Soviet operations.
“The Man Who Kept Secrets:Richard Helms and the CIA” ,Thomas Powers pg 155-157
“Rouge State”,William Blum
MK-ULTRA 1953-1972?
MK-ULTRA was a secret CIA-run Chemical and Biological Warfare program created at the height of the Cold War. Its purpose was the development of chemical techniques of brainwashing, espionage and mind control. MK-ULTRA used LSD on unsuspecting subjects such as prisoners, mental patients and prostitutes. In1964 it was renamed MK-SEARCH, In 1972 it destroyed many of its documents.
The project head, Gottlieb, was known to torture victims by locking them in sensory deprivation chambers while dosed on LSD, or to make recordings of psychiatric patients' therapy sessions, and then play a tape loop of the patient's most self-degrading statement over and over through headphones after the patient had been restrained in a straitjacket and dosed with LSD.
Answers .com entry: http://www.answers.com/topic/project-mkultra
“The Search For The Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control, The Secret History of the Behavioral Sciences” W. W. Norton(1991, ISBN 0-393-30794-8)
Declassified MK-Ultra Project Documents: http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000.htm
The National Security Archive: http://www.nemasys.com/rahome/library/programming/mkultra.shtml
U.S. Congress,” The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence” (Church Committee report), report no. 94-755, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1976), 394
Guatemala 1954-present
CIA overthrew the democratically elected Jacob Arbenz in a military coup. Arbenz threatened to nationalize the Rockefeller-owned United Fruit Company, in which CIA Director Allen Dulles also owns stock. Arbenz was replaced with a series of right-wing dictators whose policies killed over 100,000 Guatemalans in the next 40 years. Torture became a very common practice.
The CIA trained and armed the local security forces, the G2. Their methods included electrical torture, removal of limbs and burning flesh. One facility was also equipped with it's own cremitorium.
Their most infamous 'incident' was the abduction of nun called Sister Diana Ortiz in 1989. Sister Ortiz was burnt with cigarettes, repeatedly raped, and lowered into a pit of corpses. She was also given a knife was forced to kill another female prisoner when the torturer placed his hand on top of hers. When it came to light she was American, the torture was stopped to avoid a political incident.
Cointelpro 1956-1971
(an acronym COunter INTELligence PROgram) A program of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at attacking dissident political organizations within the United States. Its methods involved infiltration, intimidation ,propaganda, framing, lawsuit harassment, murder and torture. The program was declared dead after an FBI field office was burglarized by a group of radicals calling themselves the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI. Several dossiers of files were taken and the information passed to the press.
“Church Committee Report”, U.S. Congress
“Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities of the United States Senate”, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, 1976
Haiti 1959
The U.S. military helped "Papa Doc" Duvalier become dictator of Haiti. He created his own private police force, the "Tonton Macoutes," who terrorized the population with machetes. They killed over 100,000 during the Duvalier family reign.
Later, the CIA tried to strengthen the military by creating the National Intelligence Service (SIN), which suppressed popular revolt through torture and assassination
Dominican Republic 1963
The CIA overthrew the democratically elected Juan Bosch in a military coup. The CIA installed a repressive, right-wing junta.
A pentagon study: “Force Without War: US Armed Forces as a Political Instrument” Blechman, Kaplan and Slater
“Killing Hope” William Blum
Brazil 1964
A CIA-backed military coup overthrows the democratically elected government of Joao Goulart. The junta that replaces it became one of the most bloodthirsty in history. General Castelo Branco created Latin America's first death squads, or bands of secret police who hunt down "communists" for torture, interrogation and murder. Often these "communists" are no more than Branco's political opponents. Later it is revealed that the CIA trains the death squads.
“Killing Hope” William Blum
KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation manual 1964
“US complied a torture manual for use against top Soviets, the CIA printed secret handbook on interrogation remained a standard reference for two decades. The text, "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation,"-KUBARK being a cryptonym, KU a random diptych and BARK the agency's code word for itself at that time-was produced under the aegis of James J. Angleton, the CIA's chief counterspy from 1954 to 1974. The 128-page text was unearthed by a Freedom of Information request filed by The Baltimore Sun.”
Taken from
Excerpts of the torture manual : http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/cia-tort.htm
The New York Times - 02/09/97
Indonesia 1965
The CIA overthrew the democratically elected Sukarno with a military coup. His successor, General Suharto,
tortured and or massacred between 500,000 to 1 million civilians accused of being "communist." The CIA supplied the names of countless communist suspects. Robert Martens ,a US diplomat to that region, said ”It really was a big help to the army. They Probably killed a lot of people, and I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that’s not all bad. There is a time when you have to strike hard at a decisive moment.”
San Francisco Chronicle, 9 November 1979, pg 61
Time, 17 December 1965
“Killing Hope” William Blum
Operation Phoenix 1966-1973
Operation Phoenix, was an assassination program setup by the CIA in Vietnam. The idea was to cripple the NLF by killing influential people like mayors, teachers, doctors, tax collectors-anyone who aided the functioning of the NLF's parallel government in the South. Many of the "suspects” were tortured and some were tossed from helicopters during interrogation. William Colby, the CIA official in charge of Phoenix (he later became director of the CIA), insisted this was all part of "military necessity"- though he admitted to Congress that he really had no idea how many of the 20,000 killed were Viet Cong and how many were "loyal" Vietnamese. Phoenix was a joint operation between the US and the South Vietnamese, who used it as a means of extortion, a protection racket and a way to settle vendettas. The South Vietnamese estimated the Operation Phoenix death toll at closer to 40,000.
“The Need to Know: Covert Action and American Democracy”, Allan E. Goodman
and Bruce Berkowitz
Church Committee Report, U.S. Congress (1976) B 1 27.
“The Phoenix Program”, Valentine, D. (1990)
Bolivia 1967
“In 1967, anti-Castro Cubans, working with the CIA to find Che Guevara, set up houses of interrogation where Bolivians suspected of aiding Che's guerrilla army were brought for questioning and sometimes tortured. When the Bolivian interior minister learned of the torture, he was furious and demanded that the CIA put a stop to it.”
From “Rouge State”William Blum
“Death of a Revolutionary” Richard Harris
Uruguay 1969
Under the auspices of US Office of Public Safety, Dan Mitrione and a team from the CIA arrive and teach classes on torture to the Uruguay security forces. Whereas right-wing forces previously used torture only as a last resort, Mitrione convinced them to use it as a routine, widespread practice. "The precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired effect," is his motto. The torture techniques he taught to the death squads rival the Nazis'. He eventually became so feared that revolutionaries kidnaped and murdered him a year later.
“Hidden Terrors” A.J. Langguth
New York Times, August 15, 1970
Cambodia 1970
The CIA overthrew Prince Sahounek, who was highly popular among Cambodians for keeping them out of the Vietnam War. He was replaced by CIA puppet Lon Nol, who immediately threw Cambodian troops into battle. This unpopular move strengthened once minor opposition parties like the Khmer Rouge(Pol Pot), which achieved power in 1975 and massacres millions of its own people.
Later in 1979 when Vietnam invaded and disposed Pol Pot, the US provided covert and overt military and financial aid to the Khmer Rouge. The United States also defended the Khmer Rouge’s right to the Cambodian seat at the UN until 1993.
“Rouge State” William Blum, Chapter 10
“The Long Secret Alliance: Uncle Sam and Pol Pot” Covert Action Quarterly #62, Fall 1997
“When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution” Elizabeth Becker
Bolivia 1971
After half a decade of CIA-inspired political turmoil, a CIA-backed military coup overthrew the leftist President Juan Torres. In the next two years, dictator Hugo Banzer had over 2,000 political opponents arrested without trial, then tortured, raped and executed.
“Rebellion In the Veins: Political Struggle In Bolivia 1952-1982", James Dunkerly
“ The Legacy of Populism In Bolivia” ,Christopher Mitchell
“Military Intervention in Bolivia”, William H Brill
General Augusto Pinochet 1973-1990
The CIA overthrew and assassinated Salvador Allende, Latin America's first democratically elected socialist leader.
General Pinochet came to power in that military coup d'etat on September 11, 1973.
Once in power, Pinochet ruled with an iron hand. Dissidents were "disappeared", tortured or murdered for speaking out against Pinochet's policies. Chile's post-Pinochet civilian government concluded that 3,191 people were either killed or disappeared under his regime, though unofficial estimates put the total at several times that number.
CIA recently released 16,000 newly declassified documents outlining their involvement in overthrowing Salvador Allende's elected government.
National Catholic Reporter article (June 2nd, 2000), by John L. Allen, reveals that Vatican officials had called for Pinochet's release while he was under English arrest. They oppose, according to Allen, "Liberation Theology."
Financial Times report (November 16th, 2000)
National Security Archive (get the CIA documents here)
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20001113/
NCR article http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/060200/060200a.htm
Congress Investigates CIA Wrong-Doing 1975
“Public outrage compelled Congress to hold hearings on CIA crimes. Senator Frank Church headed the Senate investigation ("The Church Committee"), and Representative Otis Pike headed the House investigation. The investigations lead to a number of reforms intended to increase the CIA's accountability to Congress, including the creation of a standing Senate committee on intelligence. However, the reforms proved ineffective, as the Iran/Contra scandal would show.”
Taken from “A Timeline of CIA Atrocities” Steve Kangas
Nicaragua 1976-1990
Anastasios Samoza II, the CIA-backed dictator, fell. The Marxist Sandinistas took over government, and they were initially popular because of their commitment to land and anti-poverty reform. Samoza had a murderous and hated personal army called the National Guard. Remnants of the Guard became the Contras, who fought a CIA-backed guerilla war against the Sandinista government throughout the 1980s.The Contras often used torture.
“Killing Hope”William Blum
El Salvador 1980
The Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, pleaded with President Carter "Christian to Christian" to stop aiding the military government slaughtering his people. Carter refused. Shortly afterwards, right-wing leader Roberto D''Aubuisson had Romero shot through the heart while saying Mass. The country soon dissolved into civil war, with the peasants in the hills fighting against the military government. The CIA and U.S. Armed Forces supplied the government with overwhelming military and intelligence superiority. CIA-trained death squads roamed the countryside, committing atrocities like that of El Mazote in 1982, where they massacre between 700 and 1000 men, women and children. By 1992, some 63,000 Salvadorans will be killed. Torture was a common practice of the government and the paramilitary.
Honduras 1983
The CIA gives Honduran military officers the Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual –– 1983, which teaches how to torture people. Honduras'' notorious "Battalion 316" then uses these techniques, with the CIA's full knowledge, on thousands of leftist dissidents. At least 184 are murdered.
Panama 1983-1988
According to statements made by former CIA Director Admiral Stansfield Turner in 1988, Panama’s dictator, Noriega, was on the CIA payroll since the early 1970s and he retained U.S. support until February 5, 1988 when the DEA had him indicted on federal drug charges relating to his activities before 1984. He attended the School Of the Americas in Panama. He aided the pro-American forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua by acting as a conduit for American money, and according to some accounts, weapons. He supported death squads that routinely used torture.
Washington Post, October 1, 1988.
Chicago Police, Jon Burge 1983-1990s
A recent report revealed that the Chicago Police Department had engaged In ''systematic" torture of subjects between the years of 1973 - 1986. Methods were said to include electric shocks to the genitals and other areas, suffocation with plastic bags (when the victim came round they were suffocated again), and being hung on hooks by handcuffs and beaten. Some victims were never charged, and all of them were Black or Latino.
Amnesty International’s Report: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511681999?open&of=ENG-USA
"The repeated practice of torture by Chicago police came to light in the late 1980s and early 1990s.on February 14 at the South Side Area 2 station, a prisoner suffered multiple injuries: he claimed that officers supervised by Commander Jon Burge tortured and brutalized him during an interrogation that lasted for seventeen hours. He claimed electric shocks were administered to his head and genitals and that police cranked a "black box" to produce electric currents after clips were attached to parts of his body; Wilson was also allegedly stretched over a hot radiator and burned."
"Report by the police investigatory agency, the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), found that physical abuse "did occur and that it was systematic....[T]he type of abuse described was not limited to the usual beating, but went into such esoteric areas as psychological techniques and planned torture."
"No criminal prosecutions were pursued against the officers involved in the torture incidents. The U.S. Attorney's office reportedly learned of the Area 2 torture cases after the five-year statute of limitations for civil rights cases had passed; when it was suggested that conspiracy charges could still be brought against those involved who continued to cover up their involvement, there was still no action toward pursuing the cases. Meanwhile, prisoners remain on death row following confessions forced by Burge and others on the police force through torture techniques"
from Human Rights Watch
Reagan Pulled Out of World Court 1984
In 1984, the CIA mined Nicaragua's harbors in a covert operation. Many nations to the U.S. condemned the action, and Nicaragua sued the U.S. in the World Court (International Court of Justice in the Hague). In response Reagan refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the World court over Americans, setting the stage for similar actions today by Bush with the International Criminal Court.
The Gulf War 1991
The U.S. liberated Kuwait from Iraq. But Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein, was a creature of the CIA. With U.S. encouragement, Hussein invaded Iran in 1980. During this costly eight-year war, the CIA built up Hussein's forces with sophisticated arms, intelligence, training and financial backing. This cemented Hussein's power at home, allowing him to crush the many internal rebellions that erupted from time to time, sometimes with poison gas.
Recently declassified documents include the briefing materials and diplomatic reporting on two Rumsfeld trips to Baghdad, reports on Iraqi chemical weapons use concurrent with the Reagan administration's decision to support Iraq, and decision directives signed by President Reagan that reveal the specific U.S. priorities for the region: preserving access to oil, expanding U.S. ability to project military power in the region, and protecting local allies from internal and external threats.
National Security Archive http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/press.htm
US ratifies UN Convention Against Torture 1994
The convention was written in 1985.
Extraordinary Rendition 1995-present
Extraordinary rendition is a secret procedure used by the United States government whereby foreign suspects are sent to another country for interrogation. As described in various reports in the media, individuals to whom it is applied are arrested, blindfolded, shackled, and sedated, and transported by private jet or other means to the destination. The US agency involved may provide the relevant foreign intelligence service with a list of questions it wants answered. It is acknowledged and even expected that these suspects may be tortured despite official assurances to the contrary. Although Egypt has been the most common destination, suspected terrorists have been renditioned to other countries, such as Jordan and Syria.
While extraordinary rendition was originally developed by the CIA, the Justice Department and the Defense Department now also do renditions. Initially, the procedure was applied primarily to individuals for whom there were outstanding arrest warrants. After the 9/11 attacks, however, the program was greatly expanded and came to encompass individuals for whom there were but vague suspicions. Critics charge that the program has "spun out of control", and used against large numbers of individuals, well over one hundred. In some cases, suspects to whom the procedure has been applied have later appeared to be innocent.
Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/17/1530242
Afghanistan 2002-2005
“Nine detainees are now known to have died in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, including four cases already determined by Army investigators to be murder or manslaughter. Former detainees have made scores of other claims of torture and other mistreatment. In a March 2004 report, Human Rights Watch documented cases of U.S. personnel arbitrarily detaining Afghan civilians, using excessive force during arrests of non-combatants, and mistreating detainees. Detainees held at military bases in 2002 and 2003 described to Human Rights Watch being beaten severely by both guards and interrogators, deprived of sleep for extended periods, and intentionally exposed to extreme cold, as well as other inhumane and degrading treatment. In December 2004, Human Rights Watch raised additional concerns about detainee deaths, including one alleged to have occurred as late as September 2004. In March 2005, The Washington Post uncovered another death in CIA custody, noting that the case was under investigation but that the CIA officer implicated had been promoted.”
From Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/27/usint10545.htm
Unconfirmed stories have surfaced of masses detainees being transported in trucks with ventilation. Upon arrival it was not uncommon to find many of the prisoners dead. Other reports of desert executions have surfaced. A very gruesome, short documentary exists by film maker Jamie Doran, and can be downloaded on the Internet, but I advise strongly against it due to its inhumane content.
Guantanamo Bay - Camp X Ray
“There is growing evidence that detainees at Guantanamo have suffered torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Reports by FBI agents who witnessed detainee abuse, including chained detainees forced to sit in their own excrement, have recently emerged, adding to the statements of former detainees describing the use of painful stress positions, use of military dogs to threaten detainees, threats of torture and death, and prolonged exposure to extremes of heat, cold and noise. Ex-detainees also said they had been subjected to weeks and even months in solitary confinement, at times either suffocatingly hot or cold from excessive air conditioning, as punishment for failure to cooperate. Videotapes of riot squads subduing suspects reportedly show the guards punching some detainees, tying one to a gurney for questioning and forcing a dozen to strip from the waist down. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has told the U.S. government in confidential reports that its treatment of detainees has involved psychological and physical coercion that is “tantamount to torture.””
The Red Cross, under the geneva conventions can visit prisoner camps at any time, however much like Abu Ghraib they were often denied access early on.
Note: Camp X-Ray’s constructor, Halliburton, is currently under investigation for fraudulently overcharging in the camps construction.
From Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/27/usint10545.htm
US Withdraws From Treaty Of Rome 2002
George W. Bush in 2002 withdrew America from the Treaty of Rome of 1998 that created the
International Criminal Court. The actual act of withdrawal was done buy UN ambassador nominee, John Bolton, who later commented that it was the”happiest moment of my government service”.
Wall Street Journal,2002
Justice Department Redefines Torture 2002
In June 2004, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times obtained copies of legal analyses prepared for the CIA and the Justice Department in 2002 which developed a legal basis for the use of torture by US interrogators if acting under the directive of the President of the United States. The legal definition of torture by the Justice Department narrowed to actions which "must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death", and argued that actions that inflict moderate or fleeting pain do not necessarily constitute torture.
John Walker Lindh 2002
A young Californian captured in Afghanistan in December 2001 and touted by John Ashcroft as an "American Taliban,” Claimed he signed the document of his confession only after being tortured for days by US soldiers.
The Nation Feb 14 2005 "Chertoff and Torture" http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050214&s=lindorff
Maher Arar 2002-2003
Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, was detained at Kennedy International Airport on 26 September, 2002, by US Immigration and Naturalization Service officials while changing planes after returning to Montreal from vacation with his family in Tunisia, where his wife was born. After being held without access to legal representation, he was taken to Syria, where he was interrogated and tortured by Syrian intelligence. Arar was eventually released a year later after it was determined he had no ties to terrorist groups.
CBC News time line http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/arar/
Time Canada in depth http://www.timecanada.com/CNOY/story.adp?year=2004
Rumsfeld Approves Stress Positions 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later approved in 2003 the use of 24 classified interrogation techniques for use on detainees at Guantanamo Bay which after use on one prisoner were withdrawn. It is the position of the United States government that the legal memoranda constitute only permissible legal research and do not signify the intent of the United States to use torture which it opposes. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has complained about this prominent newspaper coverage and its implications.
Washington Post June 20 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56753-2004Jun20.html
Abu Ghraib 2003
“The crimes at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of abuses against Muslim detainees around the world” HRW
“April - May 2003 The International Red Cross and several human rights groups complain that American troops have been mistreating Iraqi prisoners.
Jan. 13, 2004 A military policeman presents army investigators with a computer disk containing graphic photographs depicting the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
April 30, 2004 The U.S. military charges six soldiers after pictures are published of the soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners. The soldiers took the pictures depicting various humiliations of naked prisoners, sometimes at the hands of women.
May 7, 2004 U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies for six hours before the congressional committee looking at abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Rumsfeld apologizes and says he's responsible. Says he first learned of the allegations in January. He adds there are more pictures and videos –– and some are far more graphic than those already made public.
May 19, 2004 The first U.S. soldier to be court-martialled for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is sentenced to one year in jail. Spc. Jeremy Sivits pleaded guilty to mistreating detainees, dereliction of duty for failing to protect them from abuse and forcing a prisoner "to be positioned in a pile on the floor to be assaulted by other soldiers." The 24-year-old military police officer also receives a bad conduct discharge.
June 22, 2004 Washington releases memos on prisoner interrogation techniques approved for use in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The government says the documents show U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected the use of aggressive methods, including torture.
Aug. 20, 2004 Prof. Steven Miles of the University of Minnesota publishes an article in Lancet saying military doctors were complicit in the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. The U.S. Department of Defence calls the report distorted and inaccurate.
Aug. 25, 2004 A Pentagon investigation concludes that the prison abuses at Abu Ghraib were the result of individual misconduct, a lack of discipline and a failure of leadership.
Dec. 21, 2004 The American Civil Liberties Union releases internal FBI memos containing reports that U.S. soldiers chained Iraqi detainees for long periods, strangled them, burned them with lit cigarettes, and left them to defecate on themselves. The documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, also include details of detainee abuse in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Feb. 18, 2005 The American Civil Liberties Union releases U.S. army documents showing that photos of American soldiers posing with hooded and bound prisoners in Afghanistan were destroyed after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.”
From CBC News http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/iraq/abughraib_timeline.html
Human Rights Watch report “the Road to Abu Ghraib” 37pgs,
Negroponte Appointed as Director of National Intelligence 2005
He was a close friend and ally to Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon. Later he became ambassador to Honduras as the Reagan administration fought a covert war against the Marxist Sandinistas in neighbouring Nicaragua. He armed the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, and ignored or supported murder and torture by the Honduran military regime.
Alberto Gonzales appointment as Attorney General 2005
He played an important role in shaping legal opinions about the treatment of prisoners captured in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has been central in the administration's debate over interrogation techniques for prisoners held in the war on terrorism. He was criticized by human-rights groups after writing a memo to the president in which he said the war against terrorism was a "new kind of war" that renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders "quaint" some of its provisions. He penned the policy that attempted to side step the Geneva conventions in regard to prisoners in Camp-X Ray.
In January 2005, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales claimed in a written response during his confirmation hearings that the prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading (CID) treatment does not apply to U.S. personnel in the treatment of non-citizens abroad, indicating that no law would prohibit the CIA from engaging in CID treatment when it interrogates non-Americans outside the United States.
Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/27/usint10545.htm
Michael Chertoff Appointed to Head US Homeland Security Department 2005
"Chertoff has been implicated in advising the CIA on the legality of various means of torturing detainees held in U.S. prison camps in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. According to The New York Times, one current federal official and two former senior officials say Chertoff told the CIA that certain forms of torture were entirely permissible under the currently existing U.S. anti-torture statute. Chertoff told the CIA that it could use forms of mistreatment if they were in accordance with an August 2002 memorandum from Jay S. Bybee of the Office of Legal Counsel to Presidential Counsel Alberto Gonzales.
Bybee’s memo said that harsh interrogation techniques qualified as torture only if they were enough to cause organ failure or imminent death. This is the same memo that has plagued Gonzales.
Legal experts say that the memo, along with Chertoff'’s recommendations, violates specific international conventions and the anti-torture statute passed by Congress in 1994, Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 113(c), Sec. 2340(a) and 2340(b) which provides for 20 years in prison or even death for torture."
From"CHERTOFF OKs TORTURE" http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/chertoff_oks.html
The Nation Feb 14 2005 "Chertoff and Torture" http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050214&s=lindorff
The Salvador Option for Iraq 2005
The pentagon is currently debating using the ‘Salvador option’ for Iraq. A plan, that if implemented, would put special forces led death squads in Iraq.
Newsweek, Jan 9, 2005
GENERAL TRENDS
US Harbors War Criminals & Tortures
Florida, California and a handful of other states are home to hundreds of accused war criminals and torturers from all over Latin America, according to Amnesty International. Other suspected human rights abusers have made their way to the United States from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Somalia, Eastern Europe and Afghanistan, sometimes settling in the same communities as their victims. (Torture treatment centers and refugee groups claim there are roughly 500,000 torture survivors nationwide.)
CIA Founds Secret Police that Use Torture
Greece late 1940, CIA setup KYP.
Iran 1950s, CIA and Mossad setup SAVAK which was instructed on the use of torture by the CIA.
Germany 1950s, in Munich CIA tortured suspected infiltrators of Soviet emigre organizations in West Europe
Bolivia 1967, CIA aided Anti-Castro Cubans set up houses of interrogation that used torture.
Uruguay late 1960, US advisors instituted torture as a routine measure and refined their skills
Brazil 1970s, US (Dan Mitrione) advisors trained Brazilian security forces in torture.
Guatemala1960-1980s the G-2 was trained and equipped by the USA.
El Salvador 1980s US Green Berets and special ops trained Death Squads.
Honduras 1980s The CIA gave support to the infamous Battalion 316.
General Resources
TORTURE IN THE UNITED STATES http://www.woatusa.org/CAT/catreport/intro.html
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Human dignity denied Torture and accountability in the ‘war on terror'
Amnesty International http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511452004
A CIA Time line http://silentspring.diaryland.com/cia2.html
Amnesty International
"Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower" William Blum
"Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since WWII" William Blum
National Security Archive: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/
“A Timeline of CIA Atrocities”, Steve Kangas: http://home.att.net/~Resurgence/CIAtimeline.html
