”Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11”
A. Basic Rights Of All Peoples Under U.S. Jurisdiction
The people who fought against the king of England and his armies in order to establish the United States of America quickly declared, in writing, that they had rights that must be respected by their new government. They were building on the Magna Charta of 1215 in England and the Petition of Right of the English Parliament in 1628.
The Bill of Rights begins with the First Amendment to the new Constitution and proclaims the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The First Amendment also proclaims freedom of religion, freedom of speech and of the press.
The people who fought against the Southern states in order to abolish slavery quickly voted, through their state legislatures, to adopt the Fourteenth Amendment, declaring the fundamental right to equal protection of the law to every person within the jurisdiction of the United States, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, which has come to include the right to equal protection of women.
The people who fought in World War II in order to defeat the fascist ideology and practices in Germany, Italy and Japan quickly joined peoples from other nations in writing into the United Nations Charter articles 2.3 and 2.4, which commit the United States and all signatory nations to “refrain ... from the threat or use of force” in the settlement of disputes. And they joined in writing articles 55 and 56 into the charter to commit the United States, and all other signatory nations, “to promote ... universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.” And the U.S. government in 1945 helped write the Nuremberg Principles to define war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity to govern all future actions of all nations.
By 1994, the U.S. government had joined most other nations in ratifying three treaties that further define these rights: the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
After 9/11, people in the service of the United States government and under contract with the government frequently took actions that U.S. residents considered to be denials or abridgments of their basic rights or the rights of their neighbors or of people they saw reported in the media.
-by Ann Fagan Ginger
- Right Not To Be Killed Or Disappeared
- Right Not To Be Tortured
- Right Peaceably To Assemble And Petition The Government
- Right To Equal Protection Regardless Of Race Or National Origin
- Right To Equal Protection For Women
- Right To Free Exercise Of Religion
- Right Of The Media To Report Facts, And Not Be Killed
- Right To Privacy From Surveillance
- Right Of Libraries Not To Report On Readers
- Right Of Universities To Accept Foreign Scholars And Students
- Right To Travel
2. Right Not To Be Tortured
Every human being has a right not to be tortured. The first U.S. citizens insisted on including this right in their new Constitution. The Eighth Amendment states: in the territories governed by the United States there shall be no "cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." The U.S. citizens who helped write the United Nations Charter in 1945 insisted on including human rights protections in Article 55c and 56.
In 1994, the U.S. Senate ratified the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and adopted the U.S. regulation Implementing that Convention. The U.S. has also agreed to the 3rd and 4th Geneva Conventions on Treatment of Prisoners of War and Civilian Persons, the Alien Tort Claims Act, and Torture Victims Protection Act.
Detention Center Guards Beat Ivory Coast Pilot: Tony Oulai
("Report: Presumption of Guilt: Human Rights Abuses of Post-September 11 Detainees," 2002, Human Rights Watch, accessed August 6, 2004; Mary McGrory, "Bungling on the 9-11 Prisoners," Washington Post, Feb. 10, 2002, accessed July 30, 2004.)
INS and FBI Agents Tortured Legal Immigrant from Egypt: Hady Hassan Omar
(Matthew Brzezinski, "Hady Hassan Omar's Detention," New York Times Magazine, October 27, 2002, accessed June 30, 2004.)
Guards Tortured Saudi-Arabian Student: Yazeed Al-Salmi
("San Diego Material Witness En Route Home," The San Diego Channel.com Oct. 10, 2001, accessed August 6, 2004; "Terror Probe Raises Concerns About Civil Rights," CNN, Oct. 22, 2001, accessed June 30, 2004; "San Diego: Prisoners of the Modern American Witch Hunt," Revolutionary Worker, #1136, Jan. 27, 2002, accessed June 30, 2004.)
Palestinian Immigrant Died in FBI Custody: Muhammed Rafiq Butt
(Somini Sengupta, "Ill-Fated Path to America, Jail and Death," New York Times, November 5, 2001, accessed June 30, 2004; Aamir Latif, "Pakistani Relative Says FBI Tortured Dead Detainee," Islam Online, Nov 1, 2001, accessed July 30, 2004.)
Deportees Sue Attorney General and FBI: Ibrahim Turkmen, et al.
(CCR Legal Team, "Turkmen v. Ashcroft Synopsis," Center for Constitutional Rights, accessed July 28, 2004; Amy Goodman, "Justice Department Report Details Abuse of 9/11 Detainees," Democracy Now!, Dec. 19, 2003, accessed July 28, 2004, 2004; CCR reports, "CCR Files Memorandum Supporting Legal Claims in Turkmen v. Ashcroft ," Center for Constitutional Rights, July 16, 2003, accessed August 6, 2004.)
U.S. Soldiers Rape U.S. Servicewomen and Often Are Not Punished
(Amy Goodman, "Enemy in Their Camp," Democracy Now!, July 12, 2004, accessed July 12, 2004; Miles Moffeit, "Activists Question Speed of Rape Reforms," DenverPost.com, July 12, 2004, accessed July 12, 2004.)
U.S. Military Tortured Prisoners at Guantanamo
(Associated Press, "Lawyer Says Guantanamo Detainees Tortured," Oct. 8, 2003, TruthOut, accessed July 1, 2004; AFP, "Former Guantanamo detainees write to Bush with torture claims," Channel News Asia, May 14, 2004, accessed August 5, 2004; Associated Press, "Former Guantanamo detainees alleges torture," CNews, March 13, 2004, accessed August 5, 2004; "Former Guantanamo Detainees Release 115-Page Report, CCR Submits Their Detailed Account of Abuse to Senate Armed Services Committee," Center for Constitutional Rights, August 8, 2004, accessed August 6, 2004; "Red Cross: U.S. May Have Committed War Crimes at Guantanamo Bay," Democracy Now!, August 5th, 2004, accessed August 6, 2004.)
U.S. Troops "Bagged" Prisoners
(Irene Khan, "Letter to Donald Rumsfeld," January 7, 2002, Amnesty International, accessed July 1, 2004; Molly Moore, "Villagers Released by American Troops Say They Were Beaten, Kept in 'Cage'," Washington Post Foreign Service, February 11, 2002, accessed July 1, 2004; Dana Priest and Barton Gellman, "U.S. Decries Abuse but Defends Interrogations; 'Stress and Duress' Tactics Used on Terrorism Suspects Held in Secret Overseas Facilities," The Washington Post, Dec 26, 2002, accessed July 1, 2004; Associated Press, "Iraqi Details Harsh Treatment as Prisoner," USA Today, June 30, 2003, accessed July 1, 2004; "Turkish Soldier: Handcuffs Cut My Wrists, Soldiers Slapped," Kurdistan Observer, July 11, 2003, accessed July 1, 2004; Louise Christian, "Guantanamo Bay: A Global Experiment In Inhumanity," The Guardian, January 10, 2004, accessed July 30, 2004; Terry Jones, "Spare Our Blushes and Put a Sack On It," The London Observer, January 6, 2002, accessed July 1, 2004.)
U.S. Troops Torture then Kill Afghan Prisoners
(Neil Mackay, "Did the US Massacre Taliban?" Sunday Herald, June 16, 2002, accessed June 23, 2004; David Rose, "US Afghan allies committed massacre: American experts find that Northern Alliance warlords slaughtered prisoners of war," The Observer, March 21, 2004, accessed August 5, 2004.)
U.S. Troops Used Napalm in Iraq
(James W. Crawley, "Officials Confirm Dropping Firebombs on Iraqi Troops," San Diego Union Tribune, August 5, 2003, accessed July 1, 2004; "U.S. Defends Using Napalm-like Firebombs," Sydney Morning Herald, Aug 8, 2003, accessed July 1, 2004.)
U.S. Troops Tortured Iraqis after Invasion
("US Must Ensure Humane Treatment And Access To Justice For Iraqi Detainees," Amnesty International, June 30, 2003, accessed July 1, 2004.)
U.S. Guards at Abu Ghraib Tortured Prisoners
(Seymour M. Hersh, "Torture at Abu Ghraib," The New Yorker, May 10, 2004, accessed July 30, 2004; Johanna McCreary, "The Scandal's Growing Stain", Time, May 17, 2004, page 26; Gary Younge, "Brutality: The Home Truths," The Guardian, May 11, 2004, accessed July 1, 2004.)
Abu Ghraib Prisoners Sued U.S. Corporations for Torture, Alleging U.S. Collaboration
(T. Christian Miller, "Army Gives Contract to Company in Jail Scandal," Los Angeles Times, August 5, 2004, accessed August 7, 2004; "CCR Files Lawsuit Against Private Contractors for Torture Conspiracy," Center For Constitutional Rights, accessed June 15, 2004; Complaint, Sami Abbas Al Rawi et al v. Titan et al, filed by local counsel William Aceves, June 9, 2004.)
State Prison Guards in U.S. Tortured Prisoners, Then Were Sent to Iraq
(Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 2004, [Oxford: The Alden Press, 2004], p. 137; "Facts about Prisons and Prisoners," The Sentencing Project, May 2004, accessed July 2, 2004; Don Thompson, "Prison Horror Stories Continue," Contra Costa Times, February 14, 2004, p. A11, accessed July 1, 2004; Sara Norman, in discussion with the editor of this book, Ann Fagan Ginger, July 26, 2004; Jane Henderson and Shari Silberstein, "Fundraising Letter," Equal Justice USA, Spring 2004, accessed June 24, 2004; Michael Ventura, "Who's Lance McCotter?," Austin Chronicle, May 28, 2004, accessed July 1, 2004.)
U.S. Government Refuses to Close School that Teaches Torture
("Recently Asked Questions," School of the Americas Watch, accessed June 25, 2004.)
Federal Jury Awards Damages for Murder in Chile: Winston Cabello
("Chile: Armando Fernandez Larios," Center for Justice and Accountability, 2003, accessed August 7, 2004; Associated Press, "Chilean Court Strips Pinochet of Immunity from Prosecution," Detroit News, May 29, 2004, 4004, accessed July 2, 2004.)
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