Rep. David Price (D-NC) has taken a courageous step in pressing the CIA on its post-9/11 rendition, detention and interrogation (RDI) program. The program has long been veiled in secrecy despite the Senate’s investigation of torture at CIA black sites. Rep. Price’s letter is aimed at an aspect that the Senate did not examine — renditions to foreign proxies — and on the role of Smithfield, NC-based aviation firm Aero Contractors in the RDI program.
The Senate “torture report,” partially declassified in 2014, focused on tortures performed on 119 prisoners in CIA-operated black sites in Thailand, Afghanistan, eastern Europe, and Cuba. Rep. Price’s letter is addressed to CIA Director Gina Haspel, who for a time oversaw the first CIA black site in Thailand. His letter raises questions about as-yet unexamined renditions to foreign proxy nations such as Egypt and Morocco, where torture was conducted by officials of the host nations working in coordination with the CIA.
Proxy interrogations played an important role in RDI, e.g., in the cases of Binyam Mohamed and Abou ElKassim Britel. Evidence here, here and here indicates a close relationship between the CIA and Moroccan prisons at Temara and Ain Aouda where prisoners were severely tortured.
“North Carolinians deserve answers to long-standing questions,” said Prof. Deborah Weissman, advisor to the NC Commission of Inquiry on Torture (NCCIT) and professor of law at UNC-Chapel Hill. “Why and exactly how did the CIA use Aero Contractors and our public airports in their kidnap-for-torture system? What has happened to the 15 prisoners we know were rendered to be tortured in Morocco or other proxy nations for the CIA by Aero Contractors?”
“As recently as Ronald Reagan’s presidency, leaders of both American parties agreed torture was beyond the pale,” said Michael Struett, professor of political science at NCSU’s School of Public and International Affairs and board member of the NCCIT. “Unfortunately, that norm has been badly degraded by the Bush administration’s failed ‘war on terror’ and the Obama and Trump administrations’ failure to hold torturers to account.”
The RDI program could only be carried out – and then largely buried – because leaders of both parties turned a blind eye. This refusal to admit the wrongs persists among North Carolina’s elected leaders, both Republican and Democrat. Governor Cooper and Attorney General Stein have steadfastly refused to acknowledge that the CIA’s use of our tax-supported public airports, which continues to this day, is an ongoing threat to human rights and a stain on our conscience. Republican leaders of the General Assembly refused to give a 2019 bill, “Ending NC’s Involvement in Torture,” a hearing.
“North Carolinians are better than this,” said Catherine Read, executive director of the NCCIT, which conducted the citizen-led inquiry to which Rep. Price’s letter refers. “By insisting on truth instead of a cover-up, Rep. Price exemplifies what is best about our state – integrity, decency, and a commitment to doing what is right even when it may not be easy.” Ms. Read noted that in 2019, Rep. Price read into the Congressional Record the executive summary of the NCCIT’s report “Torture Flights.”
While U.S. courts have afforded them no opportunity for justice, Mr. Mohamed, Mr. Britel, and two other RDI victims will have a “day in court” later this year before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.