Exert from the article: Although the number of women in torture chambers is likely to be much lower than the number of men, we know that there were female suspects in U.S. custody. These women had similar profiles to the men who were on the receiving end of inhumane degradation. Human rights groups monitored the New York trial of one U.S.-educated woman, Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national, who was believed to be held in secret custody, possibly in one of the infamous black sites. In March 2004, she was placed on the U.S. attorney general’s most wanted list for suspected terrorist activity in Afghanistan, but she was formally charged for attacking an interrogating soldier. She was missing for years. It is hard to believe that she would have been held in secret if the CIA didn’t intend to use “information gathering techniques” on her. Although direct U.S. involvement in the torture of women is difficult to prove (it may be very well hidden), American ties to countries that do routinely torture women are much easier to trace. In a recently published report, the Open Society Institute draws on credible evidence to outline the secret detention and extraordinary rendition programs adopted after 2001, finding that “torture was a hallmark of both” programs. Among the 54 countries that supported the United States in the capture, detention, interrogation, and torture of suspects were Libya, Jordan, and Sri Lanka. These countries are known for (and have been criticized by the United States for) torturing women in detention. For example, in 2004, the CIA and British intelligence rendered a 12-year-old girl, Khadija al Saadi, to Gaddafi’s spy chief in Libya because of her father’s political beliefs. On the plane to Libya, she says, “All we could hear was our mother crying, saying that we were being taken back to Libya to be executed by Colonel Gaddafi. When we landed, I was told to go and say goodbye to my father, who was bound up and had a needle in his arm. I fainted, because I was sure we were going to be killed.” Another Gaddafi opponent details the role of the United States in his own torture and testifies that his wife was detained in several centers during their transit back to Libya. His wife finds the experiences too difficult to talk about. Read more below :
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 20:40:44 +0000
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