UN expert urges release of CIA probes

The US and British governments should release findings on CIA interrogation practices during George W. Bush's presidency, a U.N. human rights expert said. In a report to the UN Human Rights Council Wednesday, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson said US authorities must "publish without delay, and to the fullest extent possible, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report into the CIA's secret detention and interrogation program." The request for publication of the findings is based on having accountability for human rights violations while engaged in counter-terrorism activities, Emmerson said in a release. "Those individuals found to have participated in secretly detaining persons and in any unlawful acts perpetrated during such detention, including their superiors if they have ordered, encouraged or consented to secret detentions, should be prosecuted without delay and, where found guilty, given sentences commensurate with the gravity of the acts perpetrated," he said. Emmerson also called on the British government to publish an interim report of an inquiry looking into allegations that the British intelligence services were complicit in the torture of detainees and rendition flights. Emmerson also called on Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Romania and Thailand to open or re-open "effective independent judicial or quasi-judicial inquiries into credible allegations that secret CIA 'black sites' were established on their territories." He also urged the governments to identify public officials who may have authorized or collaborated in the setting up or operating the facilities and "hold the relevant officials publicly accountable for their actions."