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Few of the people the U.S. has arbitrarily imprisoned have been guilty of any crime or been given a fair trial. Many have been tortured to death, murdered or taken to prisons in other countries. The Bush Administration has made America into a rogue state with no respect for it's own Constitution or international law. The following Human Rights Report shows how the Bushites are introducing a new barbarism into the American social fabric.

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Groundbreaking Report on Deaths in Custody

by Jillian Gladstone, February 22, 2006

The deaths of detainees in U.S. custody have been shrouded in secrecy for years. To shine a light on the U.S. government’s handling of the nearly 100 detainee deaths since 2002, Human Rights First has been independently researching these cases.

Just last week we released an eye-opening report, titled Command’s Responsibility; Detainee Deaths in U.S. Custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, which was featured by the BBC and covered widely in the press, including The New York Times, The Associated Press, Reuters, and The Financial Times. What we found: deeply flawed investigations, command failure, and an alarming lack of accountability. Click here to read the report.

Our analysis showed that despite the high number of homicides (as many as 45), including between eight and 12 people tortured to death, only 12 detainee deaths to date have resulted in any kind of punishment for any U.S. official.  Indeed, often the more serious the case – particularly those involving people tortured to death – the less severe the punishment; the highest sentence in a torture-related death is five months in prison.  Among the causes, the report explains, is that too often “[c]ommanders have failed both to provide troops clear guidance, and to take crimes seriously by insisting on vigorous investigations. And command responsibility itself – the law that requires commanders to be held liable for the unlawful acts of their subordinates about which they knew or should have known – has been all but forgotten.”

Please join us in urging the U.S. government to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for commanders who fail to take steps to provide clear guidance, or who allow torture or abuse to occur on their watch. 

Click here to ask the President to address the problem immediately.