This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 11, April 22-28, 2007
Ka
Satur appears to have been subjected to a form of High Value Rendition (HVR)
such as the CIA has been conducting all around the world since the mid-nineties.
American agents use privately-contracted Gulfstream V turbojets to do their
dirty work whereas Ocampo only got a small Cessna.
By Peter M. Sales* The official abduction of
Congressman Satur Ocampo on March 19 this year and the attempt to take him to
Leyte should not be swept aside too quickly. Such would be another insult to
the fragile Philippine democracy. What happened on that Monday morning must be
clearly understood as a frontal attack on civil liberties in this country or
else Filipinos will be left with rights they cannot actually exercise. Only
those with epaulettes on their shoulders will be allowed to speak! Largely overlooked already
is the fact that while the chieftains of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)
were heaping scorn and abuse on Prof. Philip Alston, the United Nations
Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings who visited the country in February,
another of the world body’s most respected experts – Martin Scheinin, the UN
Rapporteur on Human Rights – delivered a stinging critique of the new Philippine
terror legislation. He warned that Filipinos are at risk from the excesses of
their own government – just like Congressman Ocampo! The lack of adequate
safeguards is alarming, Scheinin warned, and “many provisions of the Human
Security Act are not in accordance with international human rights standards.”
During a torrent of
international criticism, the Security group (Cluster E) in the Arroyo cabinet
apparently decided to transport Ka Satur to Leyte in central Philippines, where
the warrant for his arrest had been issued, a decision more influenced by the
popularity of Bayan Muna than by any substance in the 20-year-old allegations
leveled against the congressman. Commentators were quick to
note the bizarre nature of the whole episode, but some interesting aspects were
overlooked. Not least, Ka Satur appears to have been subjected to a form of High
Value Rendition (HVR) such as the CIA has been conducting all around the world
since the mid-nineties. American agents use privately-contracted Gulfstream V
turbojets to do their dirty work whereas Ocampo only got a small Cessna. But
the technique was similar to that of the CIA and he would have been much more
vulnerable to harm from his official abductors if they had managed to spirit him
away to the Visayas. A “joyride” Ocampo himself described
his abduction as “a joyride” and pointed out that the PNP “just looked stupid.”
Maybe, but something much more sinister can be seen in the antics of the
authorities. A primary goal of so-called rendition is to confuse the prisoner.
Ocampo’s 3 a.m. wake-up call would do that to anyone. Transfer to Leyte would
also have compromised the congressman’s ability to protect his rights. Having
filed a case at the Supreme Court, he needed to remain in Manila. Once his
captors had brought him to Leyte, they would have done everything to ensure that
the court he faced there was converted into something like the notorious
military commissions of the United States. How implicated in this
aspect of U.S. dirty tricks is the Philippines likely to be? The U.S. CIA was
certainly involved in one of the earliest cases of rendition, which occurred in
April 1995 when Abdul Hakim Murad was transferred from Manila to the United
States. It was only the second ever rendition; he was subsequently sentenced to
life imprisonment for his involvement in the Bojinka plot and got no public
sympathy. Many other victims of CIA kidnaps, however, have been completely
innocent of any crime. Interestingly, HVR is banned by the new Philippine
terrorism legislation, but with provision for sweeping exceptions. Known as the Spider’s Web,
this global network transfers prisoners hither and thither around the world
partly to disorient them, partly to separate them from family, partly to
transport them to the dungeons of countries where torture is acceptable. After
September 11, 2001, a “critical deviation” occurred in U.S. rendition policy to
imprison detainees at notorious “black sites … outside the reach of any justice
system”. Ocampo is too well known to fear such a fate, but his mini-rendition
would have been devastating for the campaign to clear his name. The AFP created
a hostile environment in Leyte and clearly planned to exile him there until at
least the end of the election campaign, another example of military manipulation
of the May poll. Rendition can take other
forms, of course. A fascinating example occurred in May 2003 when American
operatives took bomb-maker and provocateur Michael Meiring from his bed at the
Davao Doctors Hospital after he blew off his legs in a downtown hotel. They
eventually flew him from Mindanao back to the United States. This was rendition
of an agent in trouble, something which the Spider’s Web can do whenever
required. More recently, U.S. Marine L/Corporal Daniel Smith was rescued from a
Makati gaol and transferred to the U.S. Embassy after being convicted of raping
a Filipina. He remains in American custody, revealing how flexible and
convenient HVR can be when Washington is dealing with a lackey state. The Ocampo incident should
provoke public skepticism and outrage. Does the Philippines perhaps have a more
direct role in the HVR program? A number of detainees subsequently sent to
Guantanamo Bay, when recalling their torture flights, believed themselves to be
in the Philippines. Why? U.S. military advisers now have oversight of all AFP
operations in Mindanao, after all, and many Moros are alleged to be secretly
detained there. The notorious Intelligence-Operations (Intel-Ops) Fusion
program places Americans in effective control of the southern warzone and the
CIA clearly maintains a strong presence, probably liaising with Camp Justice on
the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The Philippines seems to be
pioneering a terrible project. Leading scholar Prof. Al McCoy explains in his
new book, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation from the Cold War to the
War on Terror (Henry Holt, 2006), that the abuse by American personnel
against prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and elsewhere was developed decades
ago in the safe-houses and prisons of Ferdinand Marcos. McCoy also notes: “The
use of the CIA techniques produced six violent coup attempts against the
Philippine state”. The treatment of Ka Satur emphasizes that the behavior of
the Philippine government continues to be arbitrary and repressive; abduction
and harassment remain common techniques among the United States and its allies. Any reluctance to accept
that spying, intelligence gathering, and political repression are features of
the so-called Second Front in the Philippines must surely be dispelled by the
rendition-like treatment of Congressman Ocampo. Whatever else, Washington has
created a situation in which people can be moved around and intimidated with
impunity. The AFP is simply following the American lead in what could be called
rendition-by-proxy. An official culture has developed in which habeas corpus and
civil liberties are frequently ignored. The CIA is busily training the U.S.
military as well as the armies of friendly states in the techniques of HVR.
Ka Satur got rendition with
a twist. He knew where he was going and the kidnappers were compelled to bring
him back. But it is a warning: Democracy in the Philippines is not doing very
well; if people ignore the sinister undercurrents of the incident involving Ka
Satur on March 19, it will do even worse. Bulatlat _____________________ *Peter M. Sales is a
political scientist from Australia with a broad experience in terrorism and
counter-insurgency studies. © 2007 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
The Attempted
Rendition of Satur Ocampo
Contributed to Bulatlat