At UN, Inner City Press Asks of Obama Administration Position on CIA and Torture Treaty, Mendez Banned from Bahrain, Western Sahara Death

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 21 -- When UN torture experts Juan Mendez and Claudio Grossman held a press conference after addressing the General Assembly's Third Committee on October 21, Inner City Press asked about the Obama administration mulling arguing that the torture treaty does not apply to the CIA or overseas military jails, as well as about Bahrain and Western Sahara. Video here.

Mendez, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture, confirmed that he has still not gotten to visit Bahrain, after having two invitations canceled at the last minute. He said he recently asked Bahrain's foreign minister to name another date, but it has still not happened.

Other countries that have canceled invitations, Mendez went on to say, include Guatemala and Thailand (which, along with Costa Rica, lost in the UN Human Rights Council elections earlier on October 21).

The US imposed conditions on a visit to Guantanamo Bay which Mendez could not accept. Mendez did not answer the Obama administration / extra-territoriality question, leaving it for Grossman, the chair of the UN Committee Against Torture. Video here. He gave a long answer, repeatedly saying his answer was NOT about the United States. Talk about deference.

On Western Sahara, Inner City Press asked Mendez about the death in Moroccan detention of Hassan El Wahi in Dakhla. Mendez confirmed he has been asked to look into it, and said that he is but can't speak about it at this juncture. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Inner City Press Asks Expert Juan Mendez of US Prisons, Bahrain Banning, Chelsea Manning

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 -- When the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez came to the UN on Tuesday, Inner City Press asked him about delays on his request to visit prisons in the United States, and how these compared to the banning of his visit by Bahrain, a US ally.

  Mendez said to visit prison, or Guantanamo Bay, he needs to be able to visit all parts and speak with inmates, but that the US refuses. 

  In fact, he said, his request on prisons -- the Federal ADX in Colorado and state prisons in California, New York and Pennsylvania -- has been pending at the US State Department since May 18, 2013, with no response.

  He said there is pervasive use of solitary confinement, characterized as "prison management" rather than discipline. This way, he said, the US courts don't require due process.

  There are some who think that the US Federal court system is enough of a protector of rights, or in any event, more protective than, say, the UN. 

  But in this case, Mendez is pointing at a loophole allowed the US courts, as long as the authorities use the magic words, "Prison management." (A review of FISA courts would likewise be useful -- we ask about that soon.)

On Bahrain, Mendez said the situation is not static, and not necessarily getting better - call that diplomacy.

  There were questions that were not able to be asked, for example about flogging and amputations in Saudi Arabia. But time did not permit. This is another reason that the UN automatically giving the first question to the UN Correspondents Association's Executive Committee is a bad idea: the questions are predictable and skew and politicize the press conferences.

As so often happens, particularly in 2012 and now in 2013 under Pamela Falk of CBS, UNCA used the first question to ask about Syria. (They hosted Saudi sponsored Syria rebel Ahmad al Jarba for a faux UN briefing in July.) The second question was on Cuba and Iran. 

  Only after was Inner City Press, after counter-thanking for the new Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info, able to ask about the United States, the elephant in the room. (Upstairs, the UN has threatened to suspend or withdrawInner City Press' accreditation for merely hanging a FUNCA sign on the door to its shared office, when UNCA has five signs.)

   Even during this follow-up on US jails, a long-time UNCA-ite tried to cut off Inner City Press' question, then insisted on referring to Bradley rather than Chelsea Manning.

  Mendez to his credit said, "now Chelsea Manning," and referred to solitary confinement conditions. His fellow panelist Claudio Grossman spoke of the need for norms, for statistics, for the right to appeal. Malcolm Evans of the SPT said his sub-committee's work is confidential; that cut off most questions.

  It was noteworthy that the UN's chosen press corps representative was more one-sided and politicized than the UN officials or expert themselves, particularly Mendez. We will continue to follow and report on this work, particularly but not only on US prisons and Bahrain. Watch this site.

  

At UN, Bahrain Banning of Human Rights Expert Mendez Slammed, Ban Defended, Falk's UNCA Circus

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 25 -- Amid renewed protest and crackdown in Bahrain, at the UN in New York on Friday Inner City Press asked the Chairperson of the UN Committee Against Torture Claudio Grossman about torture expert Juan Mendez being banned from Bahrain. Video here, from Minute 11:09.

  Grossman called it "regrettable;" his fellow panelist and chair of the Human Rights Committee Nigel Rodley went further, saying he could not think of a single good reason Mendez could be barred.

  Both were in New York for the 25th meeting of human rights treaty bodies, so Inner City Press asked them about complaints that the bodies are too slow in processing reports and individual complaints.

  Rodley agreed, saying it is painful to issue a decision on an individual's communication three or four years after it is filed, particularly if the complaint was about slow justice in the complainant's country. Yes, UN, practice what you preach: a slow decision on justice being too slow is typical of today's UN.

  Another panelist mentioned that the world spent $18 trillion to save banks since 2008, and that $50 million would save human rights (or the "human rights system," he corrected himself). Bail out, any one?

  Inner City Press asked about Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's role with the bodies -- he claimed to have played a role in the case of detention in North Korea -- and about Navi Pillay only being given a half a second term as a form of discipline or censorship. Video here from Minute 34:34.

  Grossman waved off the latter question, and on the first praised Ban Ki-moon for "receiving" the treaty body chairs last November. Can you say, craven?

Footnotes: As Grossman, Radley and the other panels came into the briefing room, Pamela Falk of CBS News whispered to their handler, to be sure to get the first question. But when she got it, it was a softball: what about getting more signatures on the treaties (which she didn't name), especially the US? Video here, from Minute 1:47.

  Why did Falk come and at the end pass out her business card, demanding that of the panelists? To promote herself, sure - but as president of the UN Correspondents' Association. 

 UNCA's Executive Committee has gone from trying to get the Press thrown out of the UN in 2012 to anonymous social media to that effect in 2013, while acquiescing to a reduction in media workspace in front of, and access to, the Security Council. (The Free UN Coalition for Access, for which Inner City Press offered counter-thanks, is fighting the reduction.)

  Falk comes to ask made-up question, on which she files no stories. She posted a photograph of the press conference -- with an inaccurate caption, naming people who were not on the podium. She concluded by asking of the treaty bodies had moved to send Syria to the International Criminal Court -- not their role. Video here from Minute 30:10.

  But when the UN Security Council met with Kenya about their ICC case, Falk was nowhere to be seen; nor was Louis Charbonneau her First Vice President or factotum of Reuters, which appears to not have filed a story about the Security Council session with Kenya. This is their "journalism."

As UN Gambari Plans Hand Over to Bashir in Sudan, Torture Complaint Mulled at UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 19 -- Could the UN, or the chief of its peacekeeping mission in Darfur Ibrahim Gambari, be on the verge of violating the UN Convention Against Torture?

Inner City Press asked the chairman of the UN Committee Against Torture Claudio Grossman this question on October 19, referring to the leaked documents showing Gambari's plan to turn over five supporters of Fur rebel Abdel Wahid Nur to the government of Omar al Bashir, accused of genocide, war crimes and, yes, torture. Video here, from Minute 23:25.

Grossman answered that “as to the UN system... no one should be sent to places where he or she will be tortured.” Video here from Minute 30. He cited this prohibition to Article 3 of the Convention.

Inner City Press asked, but if a complaint is filed about Gambari's and the UN's pending turn over of five people to Bashir, how would Grossman's Committee Against Torture process it? Video here, from Minute 30:20.

Grossman said that while in one sense the Committee's work is limited to member states, there is creative lawyering. Not only other venues such as Working Groups and the Special Rapporteur on Torture, but also “journalism can play a role,” he said.

So one wonders why the SLA, or someone on behalf of the Kalma Five, doesn't start raising the question as an anti-torture issue, using Gambari's draft -- which contains no assurances on this -- as the basis for the complaints? Watch this site.