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Tom Ridge was appointed after the 9/11 attacks on the US

Tom Ridge told the BBC that the report’s attacks on extended detention and torture were justified.  But he also said the US had been dealing with a new kind of threat.  The report the International Commission of Jurists said anti-terror measures worldwide had seriously undermined international human rights law.

After a three-year global study, the ICJ said many states had used the public’s fear of terrorism to introduce measures including detention without trial, illegal disappearance and torture.

It said the framework of international law that existed before the 9/11 attacks was robust and effective, but had been actively undermined by the US and the UK.

Mr Ridge, who was appointed to the new post of homeland security secretary after the 11 September, 2001 attacks on the US, said the ICJ was on “solid ground” in its commentary “with regard to torture and sustained detention without due process”.

In an interview with the BBC’s World Today programme he said that regardless of what terrorism suspects had done, the US still needed “to afford them some sense of due process.”

“It has taken a while for us to get to that point but we are certainly there now,” he said.   He added that there was now a consensus in the US and beyond that water-boarding – a harsh interrogation technique that simulates drowning – was torture, saying there had been no allegations of its use since 2003.

‘Dealing with it’

However, Mr Ridge also defended US policy, saying counter-terrorism work was now about detaining people before they were able to commit terrorist acts.  “The criminal justice system is about prosecution and counter-terrorism is about prevention,” he said.

When you are taking upon [yourself] the responsibility to prevent acts I think you do need to engage in slightly different tactics in order to ensure that it happens Tom Ridge, former US homeland security secretary

“When you are taking upon [yourself] the responsibility to prevent acts I think you do need to engage in slightly different tactics in order to ensure that it happens.”  Mr Ridge said the US and other countries had had to deal with a new kind of enemy – “individuals who sought to kill innocent civilians, accepted a belief system that the end justified the means.”

Many suspects had “embraced an ideology, a belief system, that said it’s perfectly all right in order to advance a cause to kill innocents along the way”, he said.

“They had no loyalty to a country so they’re not the traditional prisoner of war, they don’t wear the uniform of a country so we can’t treat them as we have done in previous wars.”

Mr Ridge added: “How we dealt with them in terms of returning them to their potential country of origin was a difficult issue that not only the United States but other countries have had to deal with.

“So, we’re in the process of dealing with it.”

Obama pick for agency director says foreign detainee transfers to continue

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will not prosecute CIA officers who participated in harsh interrogations that critics say crossed the line into torture, CIA Director-nominee Leon Panetta said Friday. Asked by The Associated Press if that was official policy, Panetta said, “That is the case.”

It was the clearest statement yet on what Panetta and other Democratic officials had only strongly suggested: CIA officers who acted on legal orders from the Bush administration would not be held responsible for those policies. On Thursday, he told senators that the Obama administration had no intention of seeking prosecutions for that reason.

Panetta, in an interview with the AP after a second day of confirmation hearings with the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that he arrived at that conclusion even before he began meeting with CIA officials.

“It was my opinion we just can’t operate if people feel even if they are following the legal opinions of the Justice Department” they could be in danger of prosecution, he said.

Panetta demurred on saying whether the Obama administration would take legal action against those who authorized or wrote the legal opinions that, for a time, set an extremely high legal bar for an action to constitute torture. “I’ll leave that for others,” Panetta said.

Easy confirmation expected

Panetta, a former chief of staff in the Clinton administration and an ex-congressman from California, is expected to be confirmed by a wide margin next week.

Panetta told the committee that the Obama administration will continue to hand foreign detainees over to other countries for questioning, but only if it is confident the prisoners will not be tortured in the process.

That has long been U.S. policy, but some former prisoners subjected to the process — known as “extraordinary rendition” — during the Bush administration’s anti-terror war contend they were tortured. Proving that in court has proven difficult, as evidence they are trying to use has been protected by the president’s state secret privilege.

“I will seek the same kind of assurances that they will not be treated inhumanely,” Panetta said during his second day before the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I intend to use the State Department to be sure those assurances are implemented and stood by, by those countries.” Some critics worry that any gray area in delineating policy on renditions could allow for abuses.

A detainee could be handed over to another country for reasons other than harsh or coercive questioning. Some prisoners may not have intelligence of value to the United States in its effort to break up global terrorist groups, but they might yield intelligence valuable to another government’s more localized security problems.

How such renditions work and what happens after prisoners are handed over are secrets, and it is unclear that the Obama administration would have any more tools to assure humane treatment than its predecessor.

The options are limited: refuse to transfer prisoners to governments that have a history of torture or human rights abuses; require prisoners be allowed regular visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross; or demand that U.S. officials have access to the prisoners after the transfer. Each option carries with it the potential of harming or complicating relationships with foreign intelligence agencies.

‘I think they made mistakes’

Panetta formally retracted a statement he made Thursday that the Bush administration transferred prisoners for the purpose of torture. “I am not aware of the validity of those claims,” he said.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., chastised Panetta for careless words. “You cannot be making statements or making judgments based on rumors and news stories,” he said.

Because he has not yet been confirmed, Panetta has not been briefed on the details of the secret program. Panetta said he believed the Bush administration was trying to protect the country from terrorists with its use of secret prisons, renditions and harsh interrogations.

“I think they made some wrong decisions, I think they made mistakes,” he said. “I think sometimes they believe the ends justifies the means, and that’s where people sometimes go wrong.” Panetta said he thinks that in the fear of another Sept. 11-style attack, Bush administration officials thought, “We can’t be bothered with legalisms.”

Panetta said, however, that he believes the greatest weapon the United States has against terrorists is its moral authority and commitment to the rule of law. “The sense that we were willing to set that aside did damage our security,” he said.

Panetta said the Obama administration will no longer move detainees to secret CIA prisons for interrogation, because the so-called “black sites” have been ordered closed. But it will move prisoners to other countries for prosecution, he said.

CIA chief-designee will continue to hand detainees over to other countries

WASHINGTON – The United States will continue to hand foreign detainees over to other countries for questioning, but only with assurances they will not be tortured, Leon Panetta told a Senate committee considering his confirmation as CIA director.

That has long been U.S. policy, but some former prisoners subjected to the process — known as extraordinary rendition — during the Bush administration’s anti-terror war say they were tortured.

“I will seek the same kind of assurances that they will not be treated inhumanely,” Panetta said Friday in his second day before the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I intend to use the State Department to be sure those assurances are implemented and stood by, by those countries.”

Panetta formally retracted a statement he made Thursday that the Bush administration transferred prisoners for the purpose of torture. “I am not aware of the validity of those claims,” he said. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., chastised Panetta for careless words. “You cannot be making statements or making judgments based on rumors and news stories,” he said.

Because he has not yet been confirmed, Panetta has not been briefed on the details of the secret program. Panetta said he believed the Bush administration was trying to protect the country from terrorists with its use of secret prisons, renditions and harsh interrogations.

“I think they made some wrong decisions, I think they made mistakes,” he said. “I think sometimes they believe the ends justifies the means, and that’s where people sometimes go wrong.” He said he thinks that in the fear of another 9/11-style attack, Bush administration officials thought, “We can’t be bothered with legalisms.”

Panetta said, however, he believes the greatest weapon the United States has against terrorists is its moral authority and commitment to the rule of law. “The sense that we were willing to set that aside did damage our security,” Panetta said.

Panetta said the Obama administration will no longer move detainees to secret CIA prisons for interrogation, because the so-called “black sites” have been ordered closed. But it will move prisoners to other countries for prosecution, he said.

Panetta told senators it’s time for the agency to move ahead, rather than dwell on the harsh treatment of foreign detainees in the previous administration.

Panetta will oversee the end of “enhanced” interrogation and the closure of secret CIA jails. But he says the Obama administration will not prosecute those who participated, because they were acting on the legal authority of the Justice Department.

President Obama has nominated Leon Panetta, a former democratic congressman with no intelligence experience, to be director of the CIA. But will it actually bring changes to the agency’s harsh interrogation techniques?

In choosing Panetta, Obama has passed over current and former CIA officials with impressive credentials. The other candidates had worked in Intelligence when Bush’s government was interrogating terror suspects and even before 9/11.

Panetta, a former congressman and White House chief of staff to then-President Bill Clinton, is no stranger to Washington.

Even though critics say he lacks experience in security matters, Leon Panetta might bring a new attitude to the CIA. A strong supporter of Obama’s ideas, he opposes torture and is very critical over the former administration’s tactics.

In his first few days in office, President Obama has ordered the controversial Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility in Cuba and secret CIA prisons to be closed.

He is also going to continue carrying out the practise of renditions – extracting a person from one country and transferring to another in order to try them for supposed crimes.

Renditions were made notorious by the Bush administration because of their use of torture when trying alleged terrorists. That caused a lot of criticism and anger around the world and in the US itself.

The former president, however, had his own explanation to the issue: “This government does not torture people,” said Bush.

“We stick to US law and our international obligations. There are highly trained professionals questioning these extremists and terrorists. In other words, we got professionals who are trained in this kind of work to get information that will protect the American people. And by the way, we have gotten information from these high-value detainees that have helped protect you.”

No wonder that now, when President Obama uses the same rhetoric commenting on the same topic, some people get nervous.

“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture, and I’m going to make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world,” Obama said.

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