Saudis and Americans Are Making the Best Torturers in Yemen

Rasa - In Yemen, the object of US-backed, Saudi-led terrorism is terrorism; the object of oppression is oppression; the object of torture is torture; and the object of murder is murder.

News ID: 430600

Date: 26 June 2017 - 23:43

RNA - That’s why the war criminals always mystify, torture, mislead, and surprise the world community as much as possible. They make the best torturers because they understand defeat, desperation and fear, and they can use it:

Saudi Arabia and its partners in crime have secret detention centers in Yemen specifically designed to torture Yemeni prisoners on the pretext of fighting terror. To this end, hundreds of men have so far disappeared into a secret network of prisons in southern Yemen where abuse is routine and torture extreme - including the "grill," in which the victim is tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire.

Not surprisingly, senior Pentagon officials acknowledge that US forces have been involved in interrogations of detainees as well. Silly enough, they deny any participation in or knowledge of human rights abuses and torture program. This is while interrogating detainees who have been abused and tortured violates International Law, which prohibits complicity in torture.

Official reports have documented at least 18 clandestine lockups across southern Yemen run by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – all created and trained by the United States, drawing on accounts from former detainees, families of prisoners, civil rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials. All are either hidden or off limits to Yemen's government and the United Nations, of course. This is because the secret prisons are inside military bases, ports, and even an airport – while some detainees have been flown to an Emirati base across the Red Sea in Eritrea, according to Yemen Interior Minister Hussein Arab and others.

Several US defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the topic, have told the media that American forces do participate in interrogations and abuse of detainees at locations in Yemen, provide questions for others to ask, and receive transcripts of interrogations from Emirati allies. They say US senior military leaders are aware of allegations of torture at the prisons in Yemen, looked into them, but were satisfied that there had not been any abuse when US forces were present!

This is wishful thinking. What you are hearing from Yemen comes from history – specifically from the Bush administration era. It comes from the record of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay Prison torture programs, persecuting terror suspects, and torturing prisoners and all that sort of stuff. And it comes from the other side, too, from those who aided and abetted the CIA’s secret rendition program and flights – mainly the UAE, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It comes not only from the War Party in Washington but also from its regional associates. Every single ally that has a problem with the resistance front has ended up by persecuting other people, torturing them, and killing them because they don't accept their occupation and regional designs.

Wherever you look in modern history, you find that. It’s still going on: Human Rights Watch says the abuses in Yemen "show that the US hasn't learned the lesson that cooperating with forces that are torturing detainees and ripping families apart is not an effective way to fight extremist groups."

Amnesty International has also called for a UN-led investigation "into Saudi Arabia’s, the UAE's and other parties' role in setting up this horrific network of torture" and into reports the US interrogated detainees or received information possibly obtained from torture. "It would be a stretch to believe the US did not know or could not have known that there was a real risk of torture."

It is painfully clear that Saudi Arabia, the United States and their partners in crime have never tried to turn the page on the Bush era. They promised to end the torture of terror suspects, arguing that these inhuman acts had undermined their credibility. But still they worked with the Trump White House to continue the Bush administration’s use of torture in Yemen. They even helped the CIA resurrect special military courts at the Guantanamo Bay – the place the White House had promised to shut down.

By not prosecuting the torturers and those who ordered the torture, the United States and the mere extras have become accessory to the war crimes Saudi Arabia is committing in Yemen’s secret prisons. Under International Law, whoever, knowing that an offense has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.

At any rate, this is a hard, simple truth, where the United Nations is expected to intervene. The world community should avoid politics and expose the truth about detainee torture and abuse, which is still part of an endemic system of abuse, not only at secret CIA prisons the world over, but in Yemen which is still under US-backed, Saudi-led occupation and terror.

With the Saudis and their American allies still crossing the line on torture and International Law, and even acknowledging it, the UN should hold the Trump administration to account for relieving, comforting and assisting Saudi Arabia and all those who torture and countenance torture in Yemen. The regime changers have lost their way at some point. The torturers have all stained themselves with crimes against humanity and cannot be allowed to escape international justice and accountability.

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