U.N. torture panel scrutinizes U.S. actions

GENEVA – The United States came under heavy scrutiny Wednesday from U.N. experts investigating whether it had violated the terms of a global treaty that prohibits torture.

The panel quizzed Obama administration officials not just on the treatment of suspected terrorists held at CIA so-called “black sites” during the administration of President George W. Bush, but also the practices of U.S. police officers and prison guards. Among the topics were prolonged solitary confinement in prisons and the sexual abuse of inmates.

Mary E. McLeod, the acting legal adviser to the U.S. State Department, acknowledged that in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, “We did not always live up to our own values, including those reflected in the convention,” a reference to the 1984 U.N. Convention against Torture, which the United States and 155 other nations have signed.

The session was part of the periodic review of U.S. compliance with the anti-torture convention. The U.S. was last reviewed in May 2006.

U.S. officials are expected to respond today to questions from the 10-member panel on whether the United States has a “specific plan and timetable” for closing the detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and whether the United States intends to release 28 videos of the forced feeding of Guantanamo prisoners who were on a hunger strike. A federal court in Washington has ordered the administration to make the videos public.

The panel also sought an explanation for why the United States has refused to allow the U.N.’s special rapporteur on torture to meet privately with detainees at Guantanamo.

Alessio Bruni, an Italian who is one of two investigators for the panel, also pressed for comment on whether the U.S. had made any effort to condemn the alleged kidnappings by the CIA of an estimated 100 people on European Union territory who were then sent to other countries for questioning.

U.S. officials also faced questions on police practices and prison conditions from the other investigator, Jens Modvig of Denmark. Modvig pressed the 27-member U.S. delegation on what the U.S. government has done to review police practices, particularly those in Ferguson, Missouri, which was wracked by weeks of unrest after a police officer shot and killed an African-American teenager in disputed circumstances.

Modvig also questioned the delegation on the distribution of military equipment to local police forces and on what independent oversight exists to prevent the excessive use of force by police.