Amnesty Int'l Insists Those Responsible for CIA Torture Must Be Punished

Unless those responsible for CIA torture are held accountable, the door to future abuses will remain open, Amnesty International said.

MOSCOW, January 21 (Sputnik) — Unless those responsible for carrying out torture are brought to justice, human rights abuses by the United States will continue in the future, Amnesty International USA said Wednesday in statement.

"The release of the Senate torture report's summary makes it clear the US government used torture. Unless those responsible are held accountable, the door to future abuses will remain open," Steven Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in the press release issued in response to US President Barack Obama's annual State of the Union address.

Amnesty's US branch director stressed in the press release that Obama "must use the power of his office" to bring about accountability for the violations detailed in the CIA's torture report.

"For thirteen years, the detention center at Guantanamo has been a stain on the United States' human rights record," the statement continues, noting that "reactionary abuses" in the facility were brought on by the politics of fear.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama urged Congress to "finish the job" of closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, which has been widely criticized by human rights organizations for its inhumane conditions and use of torture.

The CIA torture report released last month detailed a wide range of practices used by the agency, including waterboarding, mock executions, prolonged sleep deprivation and threats of sexual abuse in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

On Tuesday, Amnesty responded to the US Senate report with its own investigation, implicating a number of European governments in secret detentions and torture undertaken by the United States in facilities on European soil.