MGG Pillai Commentary View

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Waffling about torture in secret prisons

WHEN LEADERS AND OFFICIALS waffle, they are caught. The US national security advicer, Mr Stephen Hadley, and his predecessor. Ms Condoleeza Rice, who is now Secretary of State, waffled when asked if the CIA sent people to be tortured. They have, as individuals have come out with horrifying statements of what happened to them once in CIA hands. The US does not torture, said Ms Rice, but there are hundreds who are in Guantanamo Bay prison, who have been systematically tortured, and their families know not whether they are alive. Most of them do not know why they are tortured or even in Guantanamo Bay. Almost all are Moslems, and this method is applied to those deemed on the opposite side of the ubiquitous war on terror. The CIA has had frequent flights into European military and civil air flds, carrying their 'rendition' targets - 400 has been said pass through one airfield the past year in the United Kingdom - into a storm. Questions are being asked in Europe, and all Ms Rice could give them is more waffle. She took comfort in the agreement with individual countries that they would keep quiet even if their citizens were taken on CIA flights and tortured in other countries. US officials have waffled their way through this by insisting on following international laws, but are reluctant to say what they are. If the ultimate country agrees to allow the CIA captives, the US washes its hands even if their captives are tortured.

Those who dismissed reports of CIA allowing its prisoners to be tortured elsewhere in secret prisons now accept it as fact. The waffling on CNN the other day when a direct question was asked of Mr Hadley made them convinced. But the US has been known to torture. It was done discreetly in the past, the reporters do not report it for fear of their access to the US government and military restricted. It was done routinely in Vietnam. It tortures people they invade. Abu Ghraib prison is one example. Waffling their way out of that mess, the US officers judged the US commandant of that prison, and a few low ranking US military guilty. To make sure it did not happen again, the chief of Guantanamo Bay prison who oversaw the torture there was sent to take charge of Abu Ghraib. But this was worse than putting the fax in a hen coop. The torture goes on in secret. It does not make the newspapers, so it is all right! But every man tortured without reason has gone to the other side. No amount of puffery and whaffling will change that. Afghans tortured in Guantanamo Bay and now speak proudly of having learnt English will turn enemies of the United States. The US actions will get more recruits to the insurgents than they could have been recruited.

The CIA sending those it arrests to secret prisons is an election issue in the United States. It has become one purely because the US has broken all rules of government by making foreign politicians responsible for acts that were not illegal in office. Now it puts the US answerable. The war in Iraq brought this out. A wise general plans how to get out before planning an invasion. The reasons for the invasion of Iraq and the unseating of Saddam Hussein were false. The US did not want Iraq under Saddam Hussein to be an exemplar in the Middle East. Iraq was invaded because the world was told it was an ally of al-Qaeda. It is now, and admitted by the US that the invasion made sure of that. It had no policy except it wanted to control Iraq's oil, second largest reserve known. The insurgents, former rulers, having decided they will never rule Iraq again, will not allow any one else. It is a dangerous position for the US to be in, now matter how many CIA plants it brings into the government. It has turned a secular government into a racial and religious one and divided the country into minorities. The Kurds want a government of their own, their price for joining the anti-Saddam band wagon. The secularists, from the three racial minorities in Iraq, do not matter. The invasion has ensured Iraq will be religious and racial in the end. Mr Ayad Allawi, a secular Shia former prime minister, was beaten with shoes, a particular insult, when he visited Najaf shrine. He hopes to play an important role after the elections next week. The US thinks he can. The CIA thinks he can. But can he?

The South Asian earthquake hit Pakistan badly. But the news reports failed to mention that most of those who suffered were near the Himalayas and supported the Muslim rebels. The area is left to its own devises at the best of times. The earthquake could have weaned them over. But the government did not. It blamed the weather, the difficulty in getting aid across, blamed those who gave the aid. It ignored the people affected by lthe earthquake after some time. The rebels waited for the government effort to fail, and stepped in. Will the people thank the government for given them bread and blankets up to a point, or the rebels who came to their aid when they needed it most? The Pakistan government failed. That will be used as a yard stick to support the rebels, who after all are the people of the region. Pakistan is divided as never before. General Pervez Musharraf needs the United States to help rule his divided country. The killing of an al-Qaeda operative will not change the situation. How he died is not important. The people the Government could not help where the earthquake struck will join the war on terror on the side of the Muslims. The Government chap I saw frequently that I saw in the area frequently was the chap who accompanied me. That was in 1973. But I met Gulbudeen Hikmatiyar, the Afghan rebel leader but then a university student. The Pathans, both Hindus and Muslims, live by a simple code, and will be an intractable enemy if that is broken. It does not matter if the code breaker is a government or individual. The US does not understand this. Its supporters in Pakistan and Afghanistan believe they do not have to if they have the United States on their side.

The US insists that it must be supported in this war on terror. It gets countries on its side through threats and support. But the people are not with it. It believes if it is right today, it will be right tomorrow. But that is not how it works. The US has the means now, but it believes in tactical superiority of its machines. It will win a while, but it will be the insurgents who will win, not just in Iraq. Many of these insurgents were illtreated by the CIA, and see no reason why they should side with the US. The government of Malaysia is with the US in this war on terror, but most of its Muslims are not. The media is, but the people have a different view. A campaign against Islam will not work. In Singapore, it is assumed that the terror groups, who are Islamic, by the way, will strike. In Malaysia, there is official warning about Islamic extremism. It is the fashion nowadays for any terrorist activity to be Islamic. It is part of the overall war on terror, and an independent mind is not allowed. But have the US told this to the Muslims who gravitate towards Muslim who fight for their religion? Islam is what the West tells you it is. But that is different from Islam as it really is. President George W. Bush has said the war on terror is a continuation of the crusades. He probably did not mean it, but given that it has already made Muslim life difficult, there is no reason why he should not be.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com