Video: Andy Worthington Discusses the US Torture Program with Lembit Opik on Press TV

European Court of Human Rights Orders... Radio: Andy Worthington Discusses Gua...

Video: Andy Worthington Discusses the US Torture Program with Lembit Opik on Press TV

[image error]I’m posting below an episode of “A Simple Question,” a show presented by former Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik on Press TV, which I took part in (interviewed at my home), along with the journalist Riaz Khan. The show, “American inconsistencies on human rights,” was initially broadcast a few months ago, and asked whether the United States’ use of torture has affected its reputation worldwide. I have just found it, in two parts on YouTube, so I’m now posting it here.

The five questions discussed in the show were:

1) Which countries do you consider guilty of using torture?

2) How do you feel about the use of torture in Guantánamo Bay, especially the use of force-feeding?

3) What impact does the use of torture have upon the reputation of America internationally?

4) Do you feel that the use of torture has had an impact on the level of the terrorist threat against Americans in the US and abroad?

5) What should America do about its use of torture?

The videos of the show are below:

I spoke about the importance of the UN Convention Against Torture, and, on Guantánamo, I spoke about the official use of torture at Guantánamo between 2002 and 2004, under instructions from then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the current problems with force-feeding mentally competent hunger strikers, which is condemned by doctors worldwide, and the underlying truth — often not contemplated by people thinking about Guantánamo — that indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is itself a form of torture.

I also spoke about how the torture program developed, mentioning, for example, the role played by John Yoo, the law professor who, while working in the Justice Department, at the Office for Professional Responsibility (the branch of the DoJ responsible for advising the executive branch of its legal obligations), wrote the notorious “torture memos” that purported to redefine torture so it could be used by the CIA.

I also spoke about the disappointment I feel that President Obama has blocked all efforts to call for accountability in the US courts, and the US submission to the UN Human Rights Council, which took place just before my interview, as well as Appendix M of the Army Field Manual, mentioned in those UN hearings, which still allows torture techniques to be used.

The interview took place before the publication of the devastating executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report into the CIA torture program, but that doesn’t affect the questions addressed in the show.

I hope you find it interesting. Much of it is given over to US students responding to the questions posed by the show, which you may or may not find worthwhile, as there are some shocking examples of ignorance on display, but I was happy with my own contributions.

Andy Worthington is a freelance investigative journalist, activist, author, photographer, film-maker and singer-songwriter. He is the co-founder of the “Close Guantánamo” campaign, the director of “We Stand With Shaker,” calling for the immediate release from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, and the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK) and of two other books: Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and The Battle of the Beanfield. He is also the co-director (with Polly Nash) of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” (available on DVD here — or here for the US).