report conclusion
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the US government embarked upon a large-scale, illegal and mostly secret program of torture, detention, and prolonged and often brutal incarceration. The State of North Carolina played a key role as home to airports, aircraft, logistics personnel, and pilots crucial to the operation.
The Commission recognizes the continuing harm visited by the United States on the 49 detainees who, with North Carolina’s assistance, were subjected to extraordinary rendition, kidnapping, unlawful detention, and torture. We recognize the aggravated harm that flows from the fact that our government has neither acknowledged injuring them nor offered any reparations. We further recognize that the injury was not only to these 49 individuals, but also to their families and communities. We deeply regret that local, state and federal agencies of the United States have ignored both the law and our moral obligation to take responsibility.
In this report, we traced 49 cases of torture in which the state was directly involved. Many of the individuals abducted and detained suffered horribly. Today, some live without access to proper medical treatment, many live without adequate rehabilitation, and all continue to suffer. Out of all the testimony we collected for this report, the accounts from torture victims of their persistent physical and emotional pain were the most disturbing. Victims continue to experience trauma and other severe psychological harm. That harm reverberates through their families and communities. To date, the U.S. has provided no reparations to detainees or their loved ones. It has not even recognized this horrific treatment.
Torture advocates argue that abuses were necessary to keep America safe. In our extensive inquiries, we found no evidence to support this claim. To the contrary, every expert whom we consulted agreed that the use of torture and secret detention not only violated international legal obligations but also degraded our national security and safety. Among other consequences, torture generates false and misleading information. Victims told their torturers what they thought they wanted to hear in order to stop the torture. America’s use of torture was also a moral fiasco, staining our democracy and commitment to human rights. Torture is wrong no matter where, when or how it is applied. Moreover, it is illegal, without exception.
North Carolina must hold accountable the individuals and entities that engaged in extraordinary rendition and used state resources to facilitate torture. Among them is Aero Contractors, Ltd. (Aero), a private company whose role in the CIA rendition and torture program is beyond dispute. The CIA used Aero to transport at least 49 human beings to “black sites” purpose-built for torture or to foreign proxy countries so that they would do the torture — in some cases, multiple times.
That horrific journey — in which detainees were deprived of sight, hearing and touch, diapered and even drugged, sexually or physically assaulted, unable to speak or see where they were, terrified and often in pain — was in itself torture. Many of these individuals were effectively “disappeared,” a term originating in Latin America for illegal detention without legal oversight or acknowledgment that the person is in custody.
Once Aero delivered their human cargo to CIA “black sites”, interrogators and guards often beat them; placed them in stress positions; and subjected them to isolation, sleep deprivation, extremes of temperature and excruciatingly loud music, water tortures and sexual violation, among other abusive techniques. The CIA rendered some people — a number we can’t yet determine — to foreign custody in Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and perhaps other states to be tortured. To date, a full accounting of this program remains inappropriately hidden by our government.
This all occurred without regard for a detainee’s innocence or guilt. While some of the 49 documented cases may have involved individuals linked to terrorism – and torture even for them is unconditionally prohibited — a significant number were innocent, as indicated by their ultimate release. A few have received an apology or financial compensation from foreign governments, affirming the victim’s innocence and wrongful detention, but nothing from the US government or any US state.
In fact, instead of holding Aero accountable, the State of North Carolina and Johnston County have effectively endorsed these abuses. This is reflected in the continued hosting of Aero’s headquarters at the Johnston County Airport and decisions to provide other airport and county services in face of the shocking and public evidence of torture. Even after North Carolina residents repeatedly informed state authorities of Aero’s participation in the torture program, the State of North Carolina approved a grant to the airport to fortify the company’s perimeter. The state-run Global TransPark in Kinston, in addition to providing airport services to Aero, authorized the company to build a new hangar and occupy it rent-free.
In effect, taxpayer money continues to subsidize a company, Aero Contractors, that played a material and open role in facilitating torture, a violation of State and Federal law. Our public infrastructure has been subverted to support a program that led to profound suffering. To date, only a few low-level members of the military have been held accountable for their role in the American torture program. So long as the full scope of this program is kept secret and none of the leadership is held accountable, we will continue to face a grave danger that the United States will once again engage in torture — a threat that President Trump has openly contemplated — with the possibility of North Carolina again being used as a crucial launching platform.
The Commission recognizes the continuing harm visited by the United States on the 49 detainees who, with North Carolina’s assistance, were subjected to extraordinary rendition, kidnapping, unlawful detention, and torture. We recognize the aggravated harm that flows from the fact that our government has neither acknowledged injuring them nor offered any reparations. We further recognize that the injury was not only to these 49 individuals, but also to their families and communities. We deeply regret that local, state and federal agencies of the United States have ignored both the law and our moral obligation to take responsibility.
Embedded in this report, however, is another story — one of citizens outraged by torture and determined to hold Aero and the State of North Carolina accountable. While the torture program was underway, North Carolinians joined other Americans and international partners to document what they could of the program and urge accountability. They insisted that the only way for the State of North Carolina and the United States to remove the stain of this dark legacy is to address it directly through the legal and political means available.
Indeed, much of what we know about the United States torture program and North Carolina’s role in it comes from the determination of individuals, including citizens of North Carolina, to stop torture and insist on adherence to the rule of law. This Commission — and the people of this state — owe an enormous debt of gratitude to these individuals. It is only through their dedication to human rights — to human dignity — that we are able to shed light on this dark chapter and press for a full measure of justice for the victims.
Some injustices, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans, took our nation decades to address. Other crimes, such as lynching of African-Americans and atrocities against Native Americans, have yet to receive sufficient attention. We are certain that the only way to overcome brutal chapters in our history is to confront them with honesty and integrity and to ensure that those responsible are revealed and held to account. To do that, we must fully account for our actions, identify the people responsible, hold them to account, and through these actions make vivid our vow that it will not happen again. Collectively, we must seek truth and justice and find ways to heal the breach we have opened with other human beings.