Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for circulating the petition  on the US Senate Report on torture by the CIA. The Senate report only  confirms  what was

widely known  and focused on throughout out the world , including by the Kuala Lumpur  Tribunal . Torture  through renditions and illegal detention  was outsourced to several governments and covert agencies operating across Continents and people in every country have a responsibility to expose and disclose the participation of their own government and agencies in the covert  operations of the USA , UK , French , Israeli among other agencies.

I endorse and have signed the Petition  jointly drafted by Denis Halliday and Hans Von Sponek  addressed to the UN , ICC and US government. These tortures are  are still  ongoing  throughout regions where the USA has overt or covert control  and the  involvement of  the policing agencies  and Homeland Security  within the USA is  also surfacing ; including the situation inside the US Prison System of privatised prisons , where  African Americans and  other minorities  have been at the receiving end for decades, and now  citizens of the United States who have been participating in peaceful demonstrations against the nature of political and economic policies pauperising the citizens of the USA  are also victims.

The US Senate report on torture by the CIA is only the tip of iceberg . Torture was stepped up and an extension of the " War of Terror" declared on citizens in many parts of the world with several governments complicit and a part of the conspiracy , to camouflage the acts of omission and commission in the financial and political system  and as a smokescreen for re-colonisation of smaller countries .

Torture  and detention without trial , continues to be outsourced not only to allied and friendly governments throughout the world  as an extension of the policy of  financial oligarchies  astride  the world ,who have converted Republics and Parliamentary System into their private fiefdoms ; torture has also been outsourced  to mercenary and covert terrorist  and fascistic  organisations established by the  agencies of the United States, UK , Israel  and other governments  , who are operating in different regions of the world whether in Iraq , Syria ,  Libya , Ukraine , Egypt, South Asia (  including Afpak ),  Palestine among other regions, in which the Intelligence Agencies of other countries in the region  are also complicit .

The torture of  Palestinians , Iraqis and  the people of Afghanistan a continuity for a decade and a half till date , with support from the covert agencies of the USA and Israel which is ongoing and with impunity while the UN looks on . Similar is the fate of many countries of Africa run over for their minerals and mines by governments which project themselves and democracies or Republics . Libya among other countries had been reduced to a vast concentration camp after being run over by NATO forces.

As we are all aware the US is not a signatory to the ICC  statute ,while insisting that others become signatories, to haul up governments who oppose their policies . The United States has also  signed an impunity agreement with many governments .

The real responsibility to overturn this unjust political  system and prosecute those responsible lies with the citizens of the United States. Till date the UN and its agencies  have watched while the people of different countries were tortured , collectively killed and their countries occupied by the US led alliance of the willing which included NAT. The only countries subjected to so called humanitarian intervention were those targeted for resource theft and seizure of resources or regions strategic for pipelines.

Intellectuals , business and political leaders in all our countries  who have held out the US , UK , Israel among other governments responsible for torture, as shining examples of democracy , free trade and economic prosperity , have much to answer for.

The Petition is timely even as the USA and other governments in Europe and elsewhere   are in readiness for illegal detentions and sites to be used as concentration camps, in the eventuality of mass protest against  political, economic and social  policies pauperizing  their citizens even as a financial collapse and recession spreads to many parts of the world with citizens demanding answers as to why they have been pauperized .

Niloufer Bhagwat, is Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at University of Mumbai. Vice President of the Indian Lawyers Association — Mumbai. She served as a Judge with the Tokyo International Tribunal for War Crimes in Afghanistan.