U.S. to legal tribunal:"Without question our record has improved"(torture)

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NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/08/world/08cnd-torture.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

U.S. Tells Tribunal It Adheres to Treaties on Torture

By TOM WRIGHT, International Herald Tribune
Published: May 8, 2006

GENEVA ? Facing a second day of hearings before an international legal tribunal, United States representatives today denied giving light punishments to service members and intelligence officers who carried out acts of torture in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The delegation argued that the United States was acting to ensure that it adheres to its treaty obligations to prevent torture of prisoners despite the what it described as isolated problems at prisons like Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

"We recognize much of the world does hold the United States to a high standard," said John B. Bellinger 3d, a State Department legal adviser, who led the delegation. "Without question our record has improved."

The delegation, made up of 25 high-level officials, responded respectfully to charges that the United States failed to prosecute misbehaving service officers and intelligence officials and that it transferred prisoners to countries with poor human rights records.

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Charles Stimpson, a deputy assistant secretary for detainee affairs at the Defense Department, said United States courts had court-martialed 103 American servicemen and intelligence officers, leading to 19 convictions with jail terms of a year or more. That was in contrast to figures quoted by the panel last week, citing human rights groups, of 54 court-martials, with 10 jail terms of a year or more.

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But human rights groups said the numbers were still low given the involvement of more than 600 servicemen in alleged torture, and they accused the United States of failing to admit the scale of the problem.

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