CSIS and "the Nuremberg Defense" - "Just following orders"
THE NUREMBERG ETHIC
- "One cannot evade ethical responsibilities by “just following the law,” “just following orders,” “just following regulations,”
Is this the reason CSIS's employees are not accountable for their actions? "Just following orders"?
After the findings of wrongdoing by Canadian cops and spooks (O'Connor and Iacobucci Reports, e.g.) Canadian officials were not hold accountable for their actions and their names and actions have been protected by a secrecy that gives these "faceless taxpayer money paid people", the power to, with impunity, destroy the lives and reputation of innocent people and still hide behind institutions that look like prepared to do whatever it takes to avoid accountability.
No Nuremberg Ethic in Canadian Institutions? Is the “Nuremberg Defense” acceptable and allowed by Canadian Intelligence Services Codes?
For individual conclusion – “Nuremberg Ethic” :
- "One cannot evade ethical responsibilities by “just following the law,” “just following orders,” “just following regulations,” etc
- “Ethical Responsibilities” go beyond torture to include:
- behaviors often termed “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment
- activities such as using soldiers or civilians as human subjects without their knowledge or informed consent
- using therapy relationship as pretense to obtain information from or about those held in prisons, jails, holdingcells, detention centers, or other institutions and other activities that might be undertaken in service of national security, intelligence, or defense agencies, or under the auspices of national, state, or local law enforcement, correctional, judicial, or other governmental authorities
- unfair discrimination and other concepts associated with civil rights or fair and just treatment.
PS:
The Nuremberg Defense: "just following orders”, was used by NAZI criminals who, among other things, tried to justify their actions hiding behind institutions.
Some facts about Canadian Security Intelligence Service, CIA, USA...and more:
1 - CSIS "very close relationship" w/CIA:Alliance Base,Secret Counterterrorist Intelligence Centers
The Washington Post, By Dana Priest, July 3, 2005, (HERE) :
In 2002, the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, funded a top secret center in Paris, code-named "Alliance Base".
It would give the necessary cover to countries that did not want to be perceived perceived as taking direction from the CIA.
The center's working language is French, as revealed in the article, which would play down the U.S. role and the CIA main role.
Countries who have sent officers to be part of the top secret "Alliance Base" include:Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and the United States.
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2- John Di Gangi, then the director of foreign intelligence at Canada's Foreign Affairs Department:(HERE) “The U.S. would like Canada's assistance in putting together a criminal case against Abdelrazik,” John Di Gangi, then the director of foreign intelligence at Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, writes in the note sent to top officials in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP and other security agencies, following a high-level diplomatic request from senior U.S. officials. “If Canadian police or security agencies shared what they had, it might prove to be enough for the U.S. to proceed as the threshold for prosecution there [in the U.S.] was lower than here [in Canada].”[ post June 21, 2009]
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From harassing people to "squeeze" them out of the country, participation in "interrogation" in a notorious torture prison to recent "omissions" to Federal Court judges (HERE), CSIS's list of "mistakes" goes on and on. But since there has been no accountability, the problem , looks like, is not what they have been doing but the fact that, in some cases, they were caught...
THE HILL TIMES - October 2, 2006 - CSIS didn't want Arar returned to Canada - HERE
And more at "Canadian role in Syria torture" - BBC News, October 24, 2008 - HERE
In 2007, as part of the investigation into government foreknowledge of the torture, it was revealed that Jack Hooper, former CSIS deputy director, had sent an earlier memo on October 10, 2002 that included the reference "I think the United States would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him".
He also contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2003 to tell them that it was not in Canada's interests to demand that the United States return Maher Arar, rather than deporting him to Syria.
3- CANADIAN SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE (CSIS) IN THE TORTURE PRISON OF GUANTANAMO:
OFFICIAL REPORTS:
In "preparation" for the Canadian Officials "visit", the Canadian citizen was put in the "frequent flyer program: for the three weeks before Mr. Gould's visit, Umar has not been permitted more than three hours in anyone location. At three hours intervals he is moved to another cell block, thus denying him uninterrupted'sleep and a continued change of neighbours. He will soon be placed in isolation for up to three weeks and then he will be interviewed again"
(All documents available are on line at The University of California Davis Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas - click HERE)
video HERE
Omar Kadhar when he was captured at the age of 14In ONE of CSIS "visits" to Guantanamo, on March 30, 2004, Jim Gould, CSIS officer, was one of the interrogators at Guantanamo:, and doesn't look like that he was there to get ""information which can prevent something like the Air India bombing, the Twin Towers".
"I want to talk to the honest Omar I was talking yesterday. I don't want to talk to this Omar"
Video at:
Newsweek Magazine, July 15, 2008:
http://video.newsweek.com/#?t=1868992093&l=18465772001
Or at CBC News - timeline and video HERE:
Documents also show that in "preparation" for the Canadian Officials "visit", the Canadian citizen was put in the "frequent flyer program: for the three weeks before Mr. Gould's visit, Umar has not been permitted more than three hours in anyone location. At three hours intervals he is moved to another cell block, thus denying him uninterrupted'sleep and a continued change of neighbours. He will soon be placed in isolation for up to three weeks and then he will be interviewed again"(extracetd from the report HERE)
Omar Khadr, was 15 years old when he was captured in July 2002 and was transferred to the US prison at Bagram airbase, where was subjected to chronic abuse. He was severely wounded by then. One of his interrogators at Bagram prison was Sgt. Joshua Claus, who was later charged of various crimes, including assault and “maltreatment of a detainee” in connection with the murder of the two men, and was sentenced to five months in jail in 2006.
