Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Where are the 'black sites' now? Morocco?

Reports suggest that those held by the CIA in Eastern European 'black sites' were moved to North Africa once the Washington Post reported on the existence of the detention facilities. There has been speculation that most of the detainees were moved to Morocco. This seems logical as Washington maintains good ties with Morocco, there is a U.S.-Morocco free trade agreement and the government has cooperated with the U.S. war on terrorism. More troubling are reports that the government of Morocco has been accused of torture. In a State Department report, there are several criticisms of the human rights record of the Moroccan government:
The law prohibits torture, and the Government denied the use of torture; however, some members of the security forces tortured or otherwise abused detainees. The penal code in force during the year stipulates sentences up to life imprisonment for public servants who use or oblige the use of violence against others in the exercise of their official duties. By law, pretrial investigating judges must, if asked to do so or if they themselves notice physical marks that so warrant, refer the detained person to an expert in forensic medicine. However, according to human rights groups, judges often ignored this requirement in practice, which called into question the Government's commitment to resolving the problem.

Human Rights Watch (HRW)provides a stronger condemnation of the Moroccan government:
Moroccan human rights activists, lawyers representing detainees, family members of detainees, and several journalists all told Human Rights Watch of detainees whom they said had been tortured in police custody following the May 16 bombings. Local and international human rights organizations have also raised concerns. Human Rights Watch did not have direct access to prisoners currently in prison. Their allegations were conveyed to us by their lawyers and family members who visited them after their transfer to pre-trial detention.
In November 2003, the U.N. Committee against Torture expressed its concern regarding "the increase, according to some information, in the number of arrests for political reasons", the increase in the number of detainees and prisoners in general, including political prisoners, and the increase in the number of allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, allegations implicating the National Surveillance Directorate (DST)

This occurs despite the country's ratification of the U.N. Convention Against Torture in 1986. Furthermore, HRW accuses the government of holding detainees in secret prisons (which the State Department mentions in its 2004 report):
In at least four of the cases presented in this report, the detainee indicated the place of interrogation as Temara, a compound just south of Rabat on the road to Casablanca [which has been characterized as] a secret, unacknowledged detention facility run by the DST, which has its national headquarters in Temara.
[...]
Moroccan authorities have denied the existence of a detention facility run by the DST. [...] Then-Human Rights Minister Mohamed Aujjar told Human Rights Watch on February 5, 2004, "There are no detentions outside the law. There is no DST detention center in Temara. In Temara, there is a brigade of the judicial police and there is a DST facility, but the DST facility is not for detaining people."

On top of allegations of secret detention facilities and torture by the Moroccan government, there is a technicality on which the Moroccan government can deny that there are CIA 'black sites' located on their territory and deny participation. If the CIA worked directly with the DST (as they allegedly did with security services in Eastern Europe), the government could be kept in the dark. In addition, they could locate the detention facilities within terroritory controlled by Morocco that is not part of the country. There has been a long-running dispute over whether the region to the south of Morocco, Western Sahara is part of Morocco. The territory's independence as the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic has been recognized by some countries and a U.N. mission was created in 1991 to hold a referendum on independence that still has not occurred. Currently, the country is controlled by Morocco. This provides a large area in which secret detention facilities could be operated by the CIA. This is speculation, but there has been some confirmation. For example, Wayne Madsen, a former member of the U.S. Navy and NSA, reports:
According to informed intelligence sources, the country that is hosting most of the U.S. terrorist suspects [...] is Morocco. Many of the prisoners are being held at remote prisons established by former King Hassan II to torture political prisoners. Many of these prisons are in located high in the Atlas Mountains and are so remote, they can only be easily reached by helicopter. [...]Western Sahara is illegally occupied by Morocco but the Bush administration supports the continued Moroccan occupation of the oil and mineral rich territory. In return, Morocco has supported the holding of "Al Qaeda" suspects, interrogations by its security services, and close liaison with Israeli intelligence and military personnel.

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