The U.S. government should not relax its current policies on assassinating foreign enemies and recruiting CIA sources with records of serious human rights abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to U.S. President George Bush today.
If the United States were to be engaged in an armed conflict in Afghanistan or elsewhere, international humanitarian law does not prevent military forces from targeting opposing troops, including their commanders, Human Rights Watch said.
However, Human Rights Watch said that in countries where law enforcement cooperation is possible, the United States should remain committed to a criminal justice approach --investigation, arrest, trial and punishment, with all the guarantees of a fair trial that are central to any system of respect for human rights -- rather than executions or targeting noncombatants. Just as the "war" on drugs or the mafia does not obviate basic criminal justice guarantees, so the war on the organization responsible for the September 11 attacks should not bypass the human-rights protection against assassination.
Human Rights Watch urged that the CIA should continue to discourage relationships with abusive informants whenever it is possible that the informant will understand the relationship to suggest tacit approval of abusive conduct -- an issue of particular concern if abusive governments are enlisted in efforts to curb terrorism. The CIA guidelines clearly had nothing to do with the intelligence failure before the September 11 attacks, the letter added.
"In any time of national crisis, there is a temptation to embrace any proposal that appears to 'do something' about the real dangers people face," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But changing these policies would threaten the very values that came under attack that day. Those are the basic democratic values we should now be redoubling our efforts to defend."
Central Intelligence Agency guidelines adopted in 1995 do not prohibit the Agency from recruiting sources or informants who are involved in human rights abuse, Human Rights Watch noted. They simply require headquarters approval before field agents can proceed with such recruitment.
