Dakwar, Jamil - short clip - HoldingtheUSAccountable
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(marker squeaking) | 0:00 | |
- | 2006 was the first time that the US government appeared | 0:03 |
before the Committee Against Torture | 0:06 | |
to talk about Guantanamo | 0:08 | |
and to talk about torture elsewhere. | 0:09 | |
And they lied. | 0:13 | |
They said, "We don't torture." | 0:15 | |
I mean, as far as they're concerned, they were not lying | 0:17 | |
because their definition or perception | 0:20 | |
of torture was different than the rest of the world. | 0:22 | |
But they said, "We don't torture." | 0:26 | |
They made other outrageous statements. | 0:28 | |
And there was a lot of concern | 0:32 | |
among international actors. | 0:36 | |
The same bodies that the United States government | 0:39 | |
supported for years and helped create | 0:41 | |
post-World War II were unanimous in their condemnation | 0:44 | |
of the United States' policy post 9/11. | 0:49 | |
And that says a lot. | 0:51 | |
There is a notion of exceptionalism. | 0:52 | |
U.S. exceptionalism is very strong | 0:54 | |
because it's also developed | 0:57 | |
its own powerful diplomatic, economic, | 0:58 | |
political, military position in the world | 1:03 | |
that it is hard to challenge this big superpower. | 1:08 | |
And the more, I think, the United States, | 1:17 | |
unfortunately, they would be probably more vulnerable | 1:25 | |
if they did not have that power. | 1:28 | |
The problem is that this power has not been translating | 1:30 | |
into always doing the right thing in the world. | 1:32 | |
Certainly after 9/11 we saw how it was used | 1:37 | |
in order to do other, to promote policies | 1:41 | |
and to promote actions that did not really help | 1:45 | |
maintain security, peace, and security in the world. | 1:49 | |
By flouting Security Council resolutions, you know, | 1:54 | |
on invading Iraq, for example. | 1:57 | |
By violating Geneva Conventions, | 2:00 | |
by creating extraterritorial, | 2:03 | |
extrajudicial detention facilities, | 2:05 | |
secretive, secret detention facilities to torture people. | 2:08 | |
By creating massive surveillance program. | 2:12 | |
All of these things, you know, put together, | 2:16 | |
would, if they are, they're creating | 2:19 | |
a precedent to other governments. | 2:25 | |
They are setting infrastructure | 2:27 | |
that could easily be abused in the future. | 2:30 | |
And as we've seen, | 2:33 | |
easily can be developed into something | 2:37 | |
that would be worse and would fire back, | 2:38 | |
would backfire on | 2:43 | |
and cause more harm than good. | 2:46 | |
And so I think that really remains | 2:50 | |
to be the challenge of whether the international partners | 2:53 | |
of the United States, close allies, | 2:59 | |
would also see that their interest is not | 3:02 | |
with the United States' interests continuing these policies. | 3:06 | |
So far, it seems that they have been aligned | 3:09 | |
because they had more to gain from the United States' | 3:11 | |
cooperation or working with United States | 3:16 | |
on these national security challenges and crises. | 3:18 | |
They had more to gain by that than gaining | 3:25 | |
by holding United States accountable | 3:27 | |
for the abuses. | 3:29 | |
And it's a calculation that every country | 3:31 | |
in every part of the world is being made. | 3:33 | |
And I think it's our challenge as human rights advocates | 3:37 | |
to expose that. | 3:41 |
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