The Torture of Canadian Detainees in Afghanistan - Research Paper Example

? THE TORTURE OF CANADIAN DETAINEES IN AFGHANISTAN and The Torture of Canadian Detainees in Afghanistan The Background The primary role of Human Intelligence intervention is to collect intelligence information through means of interpersonal contact. The critical components of human intelligence include interrogations and conversations with people who have access to the required information. Human intelligence can provide several kinds of information such as escaped friendly Prisoners Of War (POW), refuges and torture among the detainees1. Human Intelligence has the potential for handling the issue of torture of Canadian detainees in Afghanistan. Torture among the detainees is a painful act that is considered wrong because it violates human rights. Torture refers to the act of intentional inflicting of severe physical pain and injury to a person who is possibly restrained and unable to defend against the actions of torture. Torture for detained prisoners has been a subject of discussion over history; forms of torture vary from time to time depending on place and time. Reasons of torture include interrogation, punishment, deterrence and revenge. The act of torture may be intended to kill or not kill, but sometimes torture is fatal and precedes murder and serves as a cruel form of capital punishment. The subject of torture among the detainees is a sensitive issue considering the psychological and physical pain that the subjects of torture undergo. It is critical to focus on humanity and develop mechanisms for identifying torturous acts in order to develop effective mechanisms to counteract torture. The Canadian detainees in Afghanistan face fierce torture; the torturers could not be recognizing the fact that a psychologically tortured person is not an excellent source of information. The international law prohibits torture in the 21st century. Most countries have also illegalized acts of torture in their domestic settings. This is because torture is considered a violation of human rights. Article 5 of the United Nations Universal Declaration declares torture unacceptable and illegal in law2. Signatories of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions formally agree not to torture detainees of the armed conflicts. The UN Convention Against Torture prohibits torture; this law has been ratified by one hundred and forty seven countries. Torture, is therefore, a sensitive issue that requires further inquiry and limits its possible occurrences through human intelligence. The year 2002 marked the beginning of Canada’s military involvement in Afghanistan. Canada worked with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which consisted of forty-two countries tasked counterinsurgency to respond to the September 11 attacks. The Canadian Forces handed over its prisoners to the United States. The torture and prisoner abuse in the hands of the US armed forces in Iraq made Canada to hand over its prisoners to Afghanistan. The first allegations of a detainee torture occurred in February 2007 when Amir Attaran, Law professor in the University of Ottawa, produced documents evidencing torture3. The professor revealed that three prisoners in the Canadian military police were taken into the hospital by Afghan interrogator for treatment of similar injuries in the upper body and the head on the same day. The role of Human Intelligence is to collect information necessary to ascertain the possibility of torture among the detainees. Human Intelligence personnel will depend on spies, both local and international, to gather information that can help in comprehending the causes and effects of torture in jails. Data will be collected through interviews, observations and questionnaires among the current detainees, medical doctors and released detainees. This will help in establishing the intensity of torture in the jails. Organization and Mission Global Intelligence Agency (GIA) has the potential for doing investigations concerning the torture of the detainees. The creation of the Global Intelligence Agency dates back to the year 1956 when Presidents from fifty countries signed the International Security Act4. The vision of the Global Intelligent Agency is to be the excellent intelligence agency in identifying the acts of torture among the detainees and prisoners of war. The accomplishment of this vision has made the Global Intelligence Agency to engage in research, education, development as well as deployment of advanced technology for purposes of intelligence. Global Intelligence Agency operates as an independent source of information while working closely with other intelligence organizations to ensure that the intelligence community receive the best information5. The integrated functionality gives the Global Intelligence Agency an opportunity to gather accurate and reliable information that is critical in decision-making. The Global Intelligence Agency (GAA) collects intelligence information through human sources. The agency does not involve the police, subpoena and law enforcement personnel, or local security functions. The agency correlates and evaluates intelligence related to the national security and provides proper dissemination for such intelligence. Another function of the International Intelligence Agency is to provide direction for and coordinate the collection of national intelligence through human sources by elements of intelligence community6. The agency makes sure that the resources of the organization are effectively utilized to ensure maximum utilization of the scarce resources. Another critical concern of Global Intelligence Agency is to ensure that appropriate account is taken to avoid the risks to the participants of human intelligence. People who provide information may be exposed to risks by those they betray, which may be a security threat to them. Global Intelligence Agency ensures protection of the participants in Human Intelligence. The expected participants include the Human Intelligence personnel, military attaches, detainees, and foreign internal defense. Human Intelligence personnel comprises of intelligence specialists who perform the actual interrogations and interviews to collect information. The intelligence specialists will approach the selected participants and request them to give any information they have concerning the detainees’ subject to torture acts. Intelligent specialists will assume the role of planning, debriefing and interrogating the participants to extract pertinent information. Military attaches are experts attached to diplomatic missions. They are usually high-ranking military officers, who retain the commission while serving in an embassy. Military attaches are allowed to gather information from various prisons and hospitals where detainees are jailed and treated respectively. The host country needs to allow the Military attaches permission to access prisons and military camps to gather information of interest. Military attaches tours have evolved into a legalized form of intelligence gathering, which are accepted by both the Soviet Union and the United States. Detainees are the primary sources of torture information. A detainee is any person captured by an armed force, and is not classified as either prisoner of war or a criminal suspect. Detainees provide first-hand information since they have undergone the torture or have seen their colleagues undergo the same. The Human Intelligence personnel need to structure the environment for interviewing detainees for them to give accurate information. Foreign internal defenses are the armed forces working with the host country7. Foreign internal defense refers to several Western militaries that combat actual or threatened insurgency in a host nation. Foreign internal defense officers are good sources of information since they have access to data involving a detainee torture. Operations and Activities The Scenario The International Intelligence has received information that Afghan detainees are being tortured in prisons. The case of torture was witnessed in one of the hospitals in Afghanistan when four detainees were taken to hospital suffering head and chest injuries. The nurses investigated the patients and found out that they were inmates subjected to torture by their interrogators. This was not the first time; cases similar to these were treated in the same hospital and other health centers in the region. The detainees whispered that their fellow detainees were also subjected to the same mistreatments; only extreme cases were hospitalized. This case raised public concern and people called for immediate investigation to establish the exact actions and causes of torturing the detainees. Human Intelligence Activities Identification The identity of participants is crucial to the Global Intelligence Agency. The Human Intelligence makes extensive use of biometric data such as fingerprints, voiceprints, physical features, and iris scans collected on volunteers and persons of interest. The Global Intelligence Agency will identify these persons and keep confidential their identity details as much as possible. Identification will help the Human Intelligence personnel to know and understand the characters of the people they are will be extracting information. Interrogation Interrogation does not necessarily require cooperation among the participants when obtaining information. The subject of interrogation is normally under custody, although the legal circumstances may provide for departure of uncooperative subject. The Human Intelligence will interrogate the subjects to collect, record and crosscheck the statements to ensure that reports contain and identify information as heard. The interrogators will be trained in order to keep the initiative regardless of whether the interview is voluntary or involuntary. Debriefing The Global Intelligence Agency personnel will debrief the participants prior to beginning the process of collecting information. Debriefing will involve directing the human resources to satisfy the requirements of intelligence. These requirements include adhering to rules, laws and policies of the Global Intelligence Agency8. The agency will concentrate on debriefing personnel who will be willing to cooperate. Debriefing will be done to both tasked and non-tasked participants, and at all echelons and operational environments. The primary objective of debriefing will be to equip the human resources with knowledge and skills required for Human Intelligence. Dead drops The Human Intelligence personnel at Global Intelligence Agency will use the dead drops to hide confidential information and instructions9. The agency will place dead drops at locations that will enable the intelligence personnel to retrieve the hidden information without being spotted by the public. The possible types of dead drops that the intelligence personnel will use include a mark on a tree, lamppost or a piece of paper left at the cross-roads. Surveillance The International Intelligence Agency will engage in surveillance activities to identify possible actions of torture in the jails. The agency will send undercover personnel to the detainees’ jails to observe the behavior of detainees towards one another and the treatment of interrogators to the detainees. The undercover personnel will communicate to the agency any information that relates to torturing among the detainees. Surveillance is the best method of Human Intelligence because it leads to collection of accurate information. Issues Requiring External Co-ordination The issues that the International Intelligence agency will coordinate with external sources to identify the critical history of the detainees. External sources include the countries of origin of the detainees. Historical background of the detainees will be crucial in understanding whether they were involved in crimes and the factors leading to such behavior. Bibliography Bellal, Annyssa, Gilles Giacca, and Stuart Casey-Maslen. “International law and armed non-state actors in Afghanistan”. International Review of the Red Cross 93, no. 881 (2011): 47-79 Gionet, Marc. “Canada the failed protector: Transfer of canadian captured detainees to third parties in Afghanistan”. Journal of Conflict Studies 29, no.2 (2009): 12-19 Hendin, Stuart. “Murphy's Law - The Canadian Treatment of Detainees In Afghanistan: Are Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law Obligations Circumvented?” University of Queensland Law Journal 26, no. 1 (2007): 157-178 Orakhelashvili, Alexander. 2009. The united nations convention against torture. A Commentary on the Rome statute of the international criminal court. observers' notes, article by article. European Journal of International Law 20, no. 2 (2009): 457-462 Walker, Clive. “Intelligence and anti-terrorism legislation in the united kingdom”. Crime, Law and Social Change 44, no. 4-5 (2005): 387-422, Webster, Paul. “Canadian soldiers and doctors face torture allegations”. The Lancet 369, no. 9571 (2007): 1419-20 Read More