UN: Obama Ended Torture, But Bush Probe Still Needed

[marmar]

REUTERS, via Common Dreams:



UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. torture investigator said President Barack Obama has ended harsh interrogations that were commonplace during the Bush era but an independent probe is needed of U.S. practices since 2001.

"There is a major difference between the Bush and the Obama administration," Manfred Nowak told reporters on Tuesday. "To my knowledge, the torture practices under the Bush administration are not anymore continuing."

Nowak, an Austrian human rights lawyer who has been U.N. special rapporteur on torture for six years, called for an investigation of all allegations of U.S. torture and collusion with states that use torture since the fight against militants began in earnest after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Nowak was an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, above all for what he described as the "illegal" military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and secret transfers of suspected militants to third countries where prisoners were routinely tortured -- a practice known as "extraordinary rendition." ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/10/27-2