Amnesty International Airtorture Action Guide

ACTION GUIDE

Table of Contents Introduction......................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Action Opportunities.......................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Frequently Asked Questions on Extraordinary Rendition............................................................................................................ 7 Petitions to Representatives and Senators.................................................................................................................................... 8 Air Torture Flyer................................................................................................................................................................................. 10 Regional Office Contact Information............................................................................................................................................. 11 Additional Resources ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Case Studies of Individuals Who Have Been Rendered............................................................................................................ 13



Introduction Air Torture is Amnesty International’s campaign against the U.S. government’s covert extraordinary rendition flight program. In the post-9/11 context, rendition has come to mean the extralegal forced transfer of an individual into the custody of a country with a known record of using torture and other inhuman treatment. There is also what some call “reverse renditions,” when a country transfers custody of a detainee to the U.S. without any judicial oversight. Victims of “reverse renditions” have found themselves in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, or secret U.S. detention facilities. Transferring a person to another country where there is a chance they will face torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is unlawful under international law and treaties that have been ratified by the United States. However, Amnesty International believes that since 9/11 the number of individuals who have been rendered by the U.S. could number in the hundreds. The Air Torture campaign is a creative way to raise public awareness about the issue of rendition, educate them on this serious human rights abuse, and get individuals to take action to end the practice of “extraordinary rendition” (and “ground Air Torture”) once and for all. Legislation has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate which, if passed, would create additional barriers that prevent the U.S. government from engaging in the practice of rendition. The two bills are: ‘ The Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act (H.R. 952) sponsored by Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts in the House of Representatives. ‘ The Convention against Torture Implementation Act (S. 654) sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont in the Senate. Both bills would require annual reporting of countries that engage in torture and prohibit the U.S. government from transferring or rendering of a detainee to a country that has a history of torture. In the following pages, you will learn about the different action opportunities in which you can engage to raise awareness about rendition through the Air Torture campaign, answer questions you might have about the use of rendition, who to contact if you have additional questions, and where to find resources online to further educate you on rendition. We hope that through the use of the Air Torture campaign you will have great success in educating and activating your community against the use of rendition. Together we will stop this abhorrent practice once and for all.



Action Opportunities Air Torture Information Booth Air Torture is meant to be a spoof airline. It is a way to grab the public’s attention and then educate them on the very serious issue of extraordinary rendition. Mindful of this, you are encouraged to setup an “Air Torture Information Booth” in your community or on your campus. During the summer and fall, be sure to look for tabling opportunities such as music or food festivals, public gathering spaces, malls, fairs, and parades. Consider incorporating the following components: Add a visual stunt! Dress up as Air Torture flight attendants and pilots to further capture the imagination of people passing by. Have flight attendants and pilots walk through the crowd to distribute Air Torture literature, talk to participants and collect signatures. Tip: flight attendants and pilots can use the slogans below to stay in character and talk about Air Torture.

Actions and Information Sheets: ‘ Request special “Air Torture Boarding Passes” be sent to you by your regional office (see contact information). Get the action postcard portion of the boarding pass signed and mail it to the appropriate Representative or Senator. ‘ Print out copies of the special “Air Torture Fact Sheet” found on page 10 in this guide and distribute them. ‘ Print out copies of the special extraordinary renditions petitions located later in this guide and ask people who pass by to sign them to help “ground Air Torture.” ‘ Distribute copies of the testimony from individuals who have traveled on Air Torture. Consider reading this testimony out loud in a public place. The testimony can be found on pages 13 and 14 of this guide or at: http://denouncetorture.amnestyusa.org/airtortureresources. Use the language of Air Torture. The following Air Torture slogans can be used to talk to people while you are tabling or stunting. You can also use these slogans on posters or display materials you create for your Air Torture information table. ‘ Air Torture Passenger Amenities: hoods, shackling, and forced drugging ‘ Air Torture: Flying you to places you never want to go ‘ Visit Torture Chambers Around the World on Air Torture ‘ Help Ground Air Torture ‘ Air Torture: Direct Service to Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian Torture Chambers

Actions by airports Consider having demonstrations and passing out flyers in front of your nearest public airport. Be sure to get all of the appropriate permits before holding a demonstration. Do not hold an airport action if you are unsure about your permitted status. If you have questions about obtaining a permit for a demonstration, contact your Amnesty International USA regional office (see contact information on page 9). During an action by an airport, consider having signs with the slogans suggested under the Air Torture Information Booth action idea.



If you are holding a demonstration by an airport where people will be driving by and not stopping, be sure to have several prominent signs that say “www.AirTorture.com” so that passersby can visit the website and take action! If you are holding a demonstration by an airport where you can hand out literature, we suggest you hand out the same materials mentioned above under the Air Torture Information Booth action idea. Additional slogans and items to include on demonstration posters by airports: ‘ Torture Free Skies ‘ Keep our Skies Torture Free ‘ www.AirTorture.com ‘ Ground Air Torture Today ‘ Keep Airplanes Torture Free

Guerrilla Campaign Consider engaging in an Air Torture guerrilla campaign in your community before doing any public actions around it (this could even be your only Air Torture action, though we hope you will do others!). Guerrilla campaigning has two characteristics. First it works to build a buzz in a community about a topic by conspicuously supplying very little information about the issue it aims to promote – grabbing people’s attention is central. It is therefore left up to the individual to find out more. Second guerrilla campaigning is done with no traditional branding or trademarks. In this case, that means whatever you decide to do should not contain the name of your student or local group or Amnesty International more generally. This is to keep the public guessing about who is behind the campaign, and to get them to find out more on their own! How do I launch a guerrilla campaign about Air Torture? We have a couple of suggestions. First consider posting Air Torture posters throughout your community or on your campus. When people see a sign that says “Air Torture” with a website and the slogan of the airline, questions will be raised and people will want to find out more. Second, place Air Torture postcards around your community or on your campus. Consider leaving them at coffee shops, placing them inside magazines in public places, leaving them at places of worship, etc. Whenever possible, get permission to leave the postcards. You can request copies of the Air Torture posters or postcards to be sent to you through your Amnesty International USA regional office (see contact information in the back of this guide). If you email a request, be sure to include the amount of posters and postcards you want and where they should be sent. You can also download the posters and postcards at http://airtorture.amnestyusa.org. We suggest you do aggressive guerrilla campaigning for a couple of weeks before doing any other public actions around Air Torture. That will allow sufficient time for a buzz to build in your community…ideally people will be asking “What is Air Torture and who is behind it?”! Add the stunt suggested in the Air Torture Information Booth action, build the mystery!



Frequently Asked Questions on Extraordinary Rendition What is “extraordinary rendition”? “Extraordinary rendition” means the forcible transfer of a person from one country to another without any judicial or administrative oversight. Since September 11th, 2001, the use of extraordinary rendition for covertly transporting persons to countries for detention and interrogation where there is a danger of facing torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment has increased significantly.

How do we know the U.S. government practices “extraordinary rendition”? Importantly, extraordinary rendition is not a practice that the U.S. government denies engaging in. Administration officials such as the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have defended the practice. Additionally, a number of welldocumented cases of rendition have come to light. In some of these cases, the victims have eventually been released without ever being charged with a crime. These cases include instances of mistaken identity and guilt by association (i.e., the victim of rendition had a similar name to that of a suspected terrorist, or the victim had casual contact with a suspected terrorist). An Amnesty International report issued in early April 2006, documented the flight patterns of aircraft thought to be linked to the U.S. government’s renditions program. Based on the information collected, the organization believes that hundreds of individuals may have been victims of extraordinary rendition since September 11th, 2001.

Doesn’t the U.S. government receive assurances from the governments to which detainees are transferred that they will not be tortured? President Bush and others have claimed that they receive assurances from governments to which detainees are rendered that they will be treated humanely. Yet Attorney General Gonzales and other officials have acknowledged that they cannot monitor the treatment of these detainees. Governments that, according to the State Department’s own reports, routinely inflict torture or other inhuman treatment on detainees are unlikely to refrain from doing so in a particular case solely because they gave such assurances to the U.S. government. Moreover, it is difficult to conceive of any reason for secretly rendering a prisoner to a government known to systematically practice torture, other than the facilitation of torture or inhuman treatment ostensibly for intelligence-gathering purposes. If it is necessary to seek such assurances, then the risk of torture is too high.

Isn’t “extraordinary rendition” unlawful? Yes. This practice is already prohibited by numerous provisions of international law, including the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which have been ratified by the U.S. It is also morally indefensible and breeds antipathy towards the U.S. throughout the world. Rendition is designed to evade public and judicial scrutiny, to hide the identity of the perpetrators and the fate of victims.



Representative U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative I am concerned by the practice of “extraordinary renditions” in which the United States is forcibly transferring individuals for detention and interrogation to countries with a substantial record of using torture. U.S. legal obligations under federal law and international treaties prohibit the transfer of any person to any country where they are likely to face torture. Nonetheless, the U.S. Government is reported to have sent or been complicit in sending individuals to countries like Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, counties that the State Department has criticized for practicing torture. I am aware that President Bush has defended the practice of “extraordinary renditions” by stating that the U.S. receives “assurances” that detainees will not be subjected to torture or inhumane treatment. Yet, I am concerned that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and U.S. government officials have conceded to the fact that they cannot monitor or ultimately control the actions of other countries with histories of practicing torture, placing the human rights of detainees at serious risk. Congressman Edward Markey (MA) has sponsored the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act (H.R. 952) in the House of Representatives. It would require annual reporting of countries that engage in torture and prohibit the transfer or return of a detainee to a country that has a history of torture. I urge you to cosponsor and pass H.R. 952, or similar legislation. This is an important step in affirming U.S. commitments under both international and federal law to prevent torture, and helps restore U.S. credibility. Name



Address



Signature

Please send duplicate copies of signed petitions to: Denounce Torture Initiative, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE 5th Fl, Washington DC, 20003

Senator United States Senate Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator I am concerned by the practice of “extraordinary renditions” in which the United States is forcibly transferring individuals for detention and interrogation to countries with a substantial record of using torture. U.S. legal obligations under federal law and international treaties prohibit the transfer of any person to any country where they are likely to face torture. Nonetheless, the U.S. government is reported to have sent or been complicit in sending individuals to countries like Egypt, Jordan and Syria, counties that the State Department has criticized for practicing torture. I am aware that President Bush has defended the practice of “extraordinary renditions” by stating that the U.S. receives “assurances” that detainees will not be subjected to torture or inhumane treatment. Yet, I am concerned that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and U.S. government officials have conceded to the fact that they cannot monitor or ultimately control the actions of other countries with histories of practicing torture, placing the human rights of detainees at serious risk. Senator Patrick Leahy (VT) has sponsored the “Convention Against Torture Implementation Act” (S. 654) in the Senate. It would require annual reporting of countries that engage in torture and prohibit the transfer or return of a detainee to a country that has a history of torture. I urge you to cosponsor and pass S. 654, or similar legislation. This is an important step in affirming U.S. commitments under both international and federal law to prevent torture, and helps restore U.S. credibility. Name



Address



Signature

Please send duplicate copies of signed petitions to: Denounce Torture Initiative, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. SE 5th Fl, Washington DC, 20003

Specializing in covert rendition flights to select torture chambers worldwide Air Torture is Amnesty International’s campaign against the U.S. government’s covert rendition flight program. In the post-9/11 context, extraordinary rendition has come to mean the extralegal transfer of an individual into the custody of a country with a known record of using torture or inhuman treatment.

The Facts About Air Torture: ‘ Individuals who have been rendered tell of being transported in jet aircraft hooded, drugged, and shackled (often to the floor) for hours with their captors never telling them where they are going or who is holding them. ‘ Since September 11th, 2001, the U.S. government has generally carried out rendition for the purposes of interrogation and detention. ‘ The U.S. government has rendered people to places such as Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, countries that by the U.S. government’s own admission have proven records of torture. ‘ The U.S. government is thought to have secretly rendered hundreds of individuals since September 11th, 2001. ‘ The CIA has operated front companies as part of the renditions program, apparently in an effort to circumvent established international aviation agreements that require government aircraft to get authorization when stopping in other countries of flying over their airspace. Ready to help stop extraordinary rendition and ground Air Torture? Visit www.airtorture.com to learn more.

Amnesty International USA Regional Office Contact Information The staff people listed below serve as primary point people for Denounce Torture initiative in their specified regions. If you have questions, you can contact them for answers. If you are calling within the region, you can call toll free at 866.A.REGION.

Western Regional Offices (San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA) States include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Phone: 415.291.9233 (San Francisco) Phone: 310.815.0450 (Los Angeles) Staff contact: Sandra Perez, Field Organizer (San Francisco-based), [email protected]

Midwest Regional Office (Chicago, IL) States include: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin Phone: 312.427.2060 Staff contact: Adriana Portillo Bartow, Deputy Regional Director, [email protected]

Southern Regional Office (Atlanta, GA) States include: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas Phone: 404.876.5661 Staff contact: Jared Feuer, Regional Director, [email protected]

Northeast Regional Office (Boston, MA) States include: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and Rhode Island Phone: 617.623.0202 Staff contact: Florinda Russo, Deputy Regional Director, [email protected]

Mid-Atlantic Regional Office (Washington, DC) States include: Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, and the city of Washington DC Phone: 202.544.0200 Staff contact: Lia Lindsey, Field Organizer, [email protected]

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Additional Resources Amnesty International reports that address extraordinary rendition: Amnesty International’s Briefing to the United Nations Committee Against Torture Issued: May 3rd, 2006 http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/usa/document.do?id=ENGAMR510612006 Below the Radar: Secret Flights to Torture and Disappearance Issued: April 5th, 2006 http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/usa/document.do?id=ENGAMR510512006

Documentaries: Amnesty International is collaborating with WITNESS to produce a special 30 minute documentary on extraordinary rendition. The video will be out in early July, 2006. You can request copies of the documentary from the Denounce Torture initiative by emailing [email protected] or contacting your state’s point person from the Regional Office contact list included on page 11 in this action guide.

Background Information on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment: United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment (specifically, see Article III about the ban on rendering a person to a country where there are substantial grounds they will face torture). http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm Torture and the Law: what international law has to say about the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. http://www.kintera.org/site/pp.asp?c=fnKNKUOyHqE&b=1196455 Amnesty International USA Government Relations Issue Brief on Extraordinary Rendition. http://www.amnestyusa.org/ uspolicy/document.do?id=e6a40455594af12685256fc5007801c5

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Rendition Case Studies Below are two case studies of individuals who were rendered. You can view more case studies on the Denounce Torture page of the Amnesty International USA website at http://denouncetorture.amnestyusa.org.

Muhammad Haydar Zammar Overview: Ever since he “disappeared” at the hands of U.S. government agents in the fall of 2001, Muhammad Haydar Zammar’s family has been waiting for someone to tell them whether he is dead or alive. Now in his mid-40s, Muhammad Zammar was detained in Morocco, where he was interrogated for 2 weeks before being secretly transferred to Syria. Although Muhammad Zammar was born in Syria, he has not lived there since he was 4 years old. He holds German and Syrian citizenship, and was living in Hamburg, Germany at the time of his abduction. It appears that Muhammad Zammar was suspected of being linked to al-Qaeda, although he has never been charged with a crime. Senior Moroccan government officials told the Washington Post that U.S. agents participated in Muhammad Zammar’s interrogation in Morocco and his subsequent transfer to Syria. During his detention in Syria, U.S. agents have reportedly fed questions to his Syrian interrogators. It is believed that a Gulfstream jet used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), tail number N379P, based in Smithfield, North Carolina, was used to transport Muhammad Zammar to Syria. Amnesty International is extremely concerned about the fate of Muhammad Zammar. He was reportedly incarcerated from late 2001 to October 2004 in a Syrian military intelligence facility known as Far’ Falastin, where torture and illtreatment are routine. He may then have been moved to Sednaya Prison on the outskirts of Damascus. Muhammad Zammar’s family was given no information about his fate until the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) gave them a 43-word letter from him, dated June 9, 2005. The letter suggests he may have been sent back to Far’ Falastin. His current whereabouts are unknown. A Moroccan who was released from Far’ Falastin in 2003 said that Muhammad Zammar was being tortured there. In 2004, Amnesty International learned from other former prisoners that Muhammad Zammar had been held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell throughout his incarceration at Far’ Falastin. His condition was described as “skeletal.” He has reportedly been given meager amounts of rotten and unsanitary food and has been allowed only ten minutes each month of exposure to fresh air and sunlight. No one, not even representatives of the German government or the ICRC, has been allowed to visit him. Background: Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has engaged in the practice of “extraordinary rendition,” as a tool in the “war on terror.” Extraordinary rendition entails the secret, forcible transfer of terror suspects from one country to another, outside of any legal process, where there are substantial grounds for believing those persons would be in danger of facing torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Victims of “extraordinary rendition” are held indefinitely without being told why, usually without the knowledge of their families and little to no contact with the outside world. This practice is a clear violation of numerous provisions of international law, including the Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which have been ratified by the U.S.

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The U.S. government claims that it seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured. However, it is absurd to assume governments that routinely inflict torture or inhuman treatment on detainees will refrain from doing so in a particular case solely because they gave such assurances to the U.S. government. If the risk of abusive treatment in custody is so great that the U.S. must seek assurances that the receiving authorities will not behave as they normally do, then the risk of torture is unacceptably high.

Salah ‘Ali Qaru Case overview: Yemeni national, Salah ‘Ali Qaru, was living in Jakarta, Indonesia, with his Indonesian wife Aisha when he was arrested on August 19, 2003, while out shopping. He was held in the main immigration center in Jakarta for four days before being sent to Jordan. On arrival at Amman airport, he was taken to the detention facilities of the Jordanian intelligence service, where he says he was tortured continuously for four days. He reports being routinely beaten by Jordanian officials, including with sticks, spat upon, verbally abused and threatened with sexual abuse and electric shocks. As far as his family was concerned, upon his arrest he “disappeared”. In fact, he was held in at least four secret US-run facilities, likely in three different countries. From Jordan he was transferred into US custody, and for the next year and a half, Salah ‘Ali Qaru was detained incommunicado without charge or trial in three unknown locations, probably in Afghanistan and Eastern Europe. He was held and interrogated by guards he says came from the US. Salah ‘Ali Qaru was never told why he was detained. According to Salah ‘Ali Qaru, he was held in solitary confinement for the duration of his detention with no access to family, lawyers, diplomatic representatives or visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross or contact with other detainees. On May 5th, 2005, without explanation, Salah ‘Ali Qaru was released from secret detention and flown for about 7 hours to Yemen, where he was detained in the central prison of Aden, even though he was never charged or tried with any terrorism related offense, and the Yemeni authorities admit they had no reason to hold him. Yemeni officials told Amnesty International delegates that he was held at the request of US authorities. Salah ‘Ali Qaru was released at around midnight on March 27/28, 2006 from the central prison in Aden. He was given instructions to report to the government every month and not to leave Aden without permission. Salah ‘Ali Qaru does not know if he will have the money or permission to return to his destitute wife in Indonesia. He believes that he will remain stigmatized as a security risk and will never again be able to lead a normal life. He continues to suffer the dire mental and physical health consequences of torture and ill-treatment, including the prolonged periods in isolation and secret detention. Background: The United States government is operating an archipelago of clandestine detention centers around the world. Known as “black sites” these detention centers are thought to be run primarily by the Central Intelligence Agency and used for interrogation. “Black sites” are apparently an attempt by the United States government to create a law free zone. It is unknown how many people are being held in “black sites”. Those detained in “black sites” do not have access to the outside world, including the ability to be visited by the International Committee for the Red Cross. Amnesty International believes that the use of “black sites” involves multiple human rights violations. The organization views those held within this secret detention system to be effectively disappeared.

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A preferred method of transporting detainees being held within the “black site” system appears to be rendition. Rendition entails the secret, forcible transfer of terror suspects from one place to another, outside of any legal process. Like the use of secret detention centers, the use of rendition violates multiple human rights. The United States government does not deny the use of “black sites;” rather, it maintains that these detention centers hold “high value detainees.” The case of Salah Ali Qaru and two other Yemeni men apparently held in “black sites” belies this claim, as none of the men were ever charged with any terrorism-related crime. Yet as a result of their experiences, the men’s lives have been shattered.

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