Interview with Raj Purohit, Senior Fellow, International Law and Justice

Raj Purohit, Senior Fellow at Citizens for Global Solutions, is a specialist in International Law and Justice. Prior to joining our staff in 2005, he was Legislative Director for Human Rights First, where he represented them in a range of coalitions, including the Washington Working Group on the International Criminal Court, and was a media spokesperson. He also has served as Legislative Director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and as Director of Legal Services at the Center on Conscience and War.

Raj received his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Sussex University (1995) and his Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Legal Studies from American University, Washington College of Law (1997), where he also teaches.

Why do you think we need an Independent Bipartisan Commission on Torture and U.S. Interrogation Policy?

Despite two sustained efforts by civil society, retired military leaders and a few bipartisan legislators, the U.S. government has failed to seriously grapple with the ramifications of torture and interrogation. In its second effort, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and failed to address the problem. In fact, this bill further erodes global trust in the U.S. by giving the president sweeping discretion in the arena of interrogation technique assessment. Unfortunately, it seems too much to ask that Congress, unassisted, engage the White House and effectively tackle an issue that has stymied it twice in recent years.

At this juncture, it seems that the wisest course of action is for the new Congress to create an Independent Bipartisan Commission on Torture and U.S. Interrogation Policy; it is past time that the U.S. comprehensively address the scandals of Abu Ghraib and beyond.

What would the Commission look like?

What would it do?

The mandate for the Commission would be, by necessity, broad. Since the issue of torture and interrogation penetrated the public conscience in early 2004, when the Abu Ghraib Iraqi prison scandal became global front page news, the story has grown in complexity. We now know that the U.S. military initially started investigating crimes committed by its personnel at Abu Ghraib in 2003. In Iraq, horror stories about the use of torture by U.S. military were prevalent over a year before the first Abu Ghraib pictures were publicly seen.

In addition to the appropriate, and necessary, focus on U.S. prisons in Iraq, the Commission would also be charged with investigating torture in Afghanistan, the CIA secret prison network, the U.S. facilities at Guantanamo, the use of rendition as a counter-terror tactic by the U.S., opportunistic use of torture by other governments and the use of torture in the U.S.

What do you think will be the impact of recent developments on rendition practices across the European Union and what will this mean more broadly for U.S. interrogation policy?

I think that the CIA must be worried about using the EU as either a stop-over or final destination for its future renditions because prosecutors are onto them. Frankly, U.S. policymakers should be worried as we are seeing hard-nosed prosecutors in Germany and Italy start the process of bringing to trial CIA agents involved in the kidnappings.

Do you think we can change U.S. policy and end the use of torture?

I believe that we can. More and more groups and individuals are starting to speak out on

the issue of torture. These groups include youth, veterans, members of the faith community and human rights activists. One way to help is to sign our petition at the website urging Congress to set up a Commission. You can also ask your local council or state legislature to pass a resolution supporting the formation of a Commission. Get together with your community, use the tools we have on our main website and take action. The tide is moving in our direction and together we can create change.