US Directly Involved in UAE’s Torture Program against Yemenis

History has proven that the United States has deliberately become entrenched in this illegal conflict by design. America is already involved through its decades-old alliance with Saudi Arabia and through current support for the campaign in Yemen with both weapons and tactical back-up. The US has garnered some responsibility for the outcome of the terrible events there and it is incumbent on the United Nations to prevent the further breakdown of order in an already unstable region by acting quickly to curb the unnecessary bloodshed through advocation of the peace plan and the immediate end to sales of weapons to the Saudis.

Nor is that all. The House of Representatives has just voted to force a public accounting of the current US role in torture prisons across Southern Yemen. That this should be done by the United Nations – and not the US – through an independent international group of investigators is beyond dispute. What’s certain is that no US accounting or investigation will ever lead to holding someone to account at the Pentagon or the White House for the widespread torture program in Yemen.

As reported by Western media outlets, there is a network of 18 clandestine prisons across South Yemen that are run by the United Arab Emirates – Washington’s primary ally in Yemen war – or by proxy forces controlled by the UAE. Their investigation suggests that nearly 2,000 Yemenis are in these prisons where severe torture techniques are the norm, including a “grill” in which “the victim is tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire”.

A UN panel of experts in January largely affirmed the findings as well, and found that the UAE forces in Yemen were responsible for acts of torture that include beatings, electrocution, denial of medical treatment, and sexual violence.

The exact role that the US personnel from the Defense Department or the CIA play in these interrogations is not clear, but anonymous US defense officials say “that American forces do participate in interrogations of detainees at locations in Yemen, provide questions for others to ask, and receive transcripts of interrogations from Emirati allies”. They further say, “US senior military leaders are aware of allegations of torture at the prisons in Yemen, look into them, but are satisfied that there had not been any abuse when US forces were present.”

Under International Law, it is unacceptable for the US personnel to be involved in the Saudi-led war on Yemen, much less in UAE’s torture program or rely on an allied country to use torture on behalf of the US. This is not what the American officials say they are there for. This is something the UN needs to put an end to. The UN should require an independent report about the findings of what role the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the US have in these torture prisons, and hold them to account. The UN will also pass a resolution to condemn these regimes.

For more than three years, the US has been supporting the war on Yemen led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Washington’s enthusiasm over the UAE’s so-called counterterrorism role has led US officials to turn a blind eye to much of its activity in South Yemen. The UAE is a colonizing force in the country and has supported extremist militias responsible for violence against Yemeni activists and civilians.

That said, just because the Trump administration is reluctant to discuss the US role in the torture prisons doesn’t make it an innocent party to this illegal program. If previous investigations and reviews in Iraq and Afghanistan by the UN and human rights organizations are any indication, the US government has always permitted American personnel to use interrogation techniques as per the US Army field manual on human intelligence collection, including many of the torture techniques the CIA used after 9/11.

Despite the fact that a law passed in 2015 requires the US to notify the International Committee of the Red Cross about any detainee under the “effective control” of the US, the Trump White House has never bothered to do just that. And if it’s unclear and there is no sufficient transparency about what level of control US personnel have in the UAE prisons in Yemen, there is a simple explanation for it. The US is directly involved in UAE’s torture program, and hence complicit in UAE’s crimes against humanity in Yemen.

There is plenty of evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity as well, and under the circumstances, the International Criminal Court should be dispatched to hold the belligerents accountable for their international crimes. To ensure these cases are fully investigated by the International Criminal Court, the UN should also use other tools at its disposal to help in collecting and preserving evidence of crimes committed by the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE inside Yemen. This way, the international civil society can confirm the sovereignty of Yemen, advance justice, and ensure that such widespread crimes are prosecuted, albeit with the help of an international team – and not one cherry-picked by the US House of Representatives to pursue selective justice