The United States of America under Obama's administration has criticized the inhumane activities happening in other nations. However, a CIA torture report has placed the country on the spotlight as hypocrites while Egypt rekindled their past regarding CIA torture activities.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has presented the anticipated torture report on the Senate floor Tuesday, which aroused Egypt's rights groups and suggested America's hypocrisy.
Chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein of the Democratic Party delivered the key findings of the report, which stated the CIA's "coercive and brutal yet largely ineffective techniques" on their captives, Mic Network reported. She mentioned the aftermath of the 9/11 bombing to present possible cause of the abuses.
"We came together as a nation with one singular mission: Bring those who committed these acts to justice," the senator noted.
However, Feinstein continued, saying that America's definition of justice has become distorted. Justice is supposedly achieved by placing those who are believed to possess relevant information in torment. This definition has contradicted on the nation's former promises.
"In 1990, the United States Senate ratified the Convention Against Torture," Feinstein said. "The convention makes clear that this ban against torture is absolute. It says, and I quote, 'No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, including what I just read [about 9/11], whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability, or any other public emergency may be invoked as a justification for torture,' end quote."
Senator John McCain also stated that the report has "not only failed their purpose - to secure actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the U.S. and our allies - but actually damaged our security interests, as well as our reputation as a force for good in the world."
Meanwhile, the rights advocate in Egypt recalled the participation of their country in "outsourcing" U.S. torture, TIME reported. Even at present, Egypt's security forces are still using brutal procedures on detainees. The executive director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms Mohamed Lotfy expressed his dismay in the lapses of Egypt's security measures.
"Today we see more cases of enforced disappearances involving the Military Intelligence and the National Security," Lofty said. "These are practices that existed in Egypt before and were used in the extraordinary rendition program. This mistake shouldn't be repeated."
Egypt has accepted a U.S. request before, which allowed the country to take part in the "rendition" program. Upon their collaboration, Egypt gained access to the suspected members of Al Qaeda, according to a report released by Open Society Foundations in 2013.
The rendition expanded massively after the 9/11 attacks. In 2005, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif admitted that there have "60 to 70" people who had been taken to Egypt, out of an estimated total of 100 to 150.
On the other hand, the Obama administration is facing accusations of hypocrisy after the torture report was made known. There have been several cases when America has pointed out the mistakes of other countries when it comes to human rights.
For instance, senior Obama adviser Susan Rice expressed her criticism against China and Russia on how the citizens are being treated. She mentioned how Chinese people are restricted on their freedoms of expression, assembly and association. She also added Russia's engagement in "systematic efforts to curtail the actions of Russian civil society."
The administration also declared in February that the chemical weapons attack in Syria, which killed almost 1,400 people, was "the worst human rights violation of 2013," according to Mic Network.
The judgement America has placed against others are now critically noted. China has recently responded to the CIA torture report urging America to "'clean up its own human rights issues," International Business Times reported.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
