Yes and I’m sure there are a lot of good CIA agents too. And if another cop committed a heinous at right in front of your pedo-chasing brother-in-law, and it was part of a systematic police operation, he would not hesitate to put his job and personal safety on the line to blow the whistle. You see, there’s the rub. The mentality I was referring to is “football team” mentality. Us against them, and fuck everyone else and a code of silence. Policing is drawn down to it’s lowest denominator: what the worst cop would do becomes institutionalized.
Of course, that’s giving football teams a bad name. The cop culture, as it exists on our streets and in the CIA, is judge, jury and executioner, no witnesses. No accountability and a code of silence.
As far as I know, my brother in law is not torturing anyone to get information. And as far as I know, he is not molesting any children. But do I know what transpires in secret? No. If I learned he was doing either, I would think he should be prosecuted and imprisoned for it. But as far as I know, the disgusting acts of certain members of the CIA are not representative of his mentality.
If this report is “heavily redacted”, just what the h…l are we NOT being told about beyond “rectal feeding and hydration.”
I repeat an earlier statement…I have a very strong suspicion that senior members of the administration watched either videos or live transmissions of torture sessions.
I doubt anyone involved will ever admit that or produce evidence, but my gut tells me it is the end game for pursuing this
approach by those who felt it was necessary to get revenge and demonstrate American “toughness.”
By the way, I think Feinstein is complicit as hell in all this as well. She was aware of much of this at the time or shortly thereafter, and hewed to the same party line about how it was tough but fair and effective, until the CIA finally got her PO’ed over hacking the Senate’s computers and dissing her in public about it.
I guess we can thank God for that, or otherwise all this would have remained as buried and secret as just what the telecoms did, that they received pro- and retro-active amnesty for back in 2008.
Aside from the moral repugnance, offensiveness, and general foulness of the disrespect for human life shown by the people involved, I have to wonder what the hell they were thinking? How could this possibly be helpful to our cause in either war - particularly when we are so quick to claim a moral high ground in our actions? This is really sad and awful to read. I truly hope that all Democrats and at least some Republicans will find the courage to condemn this behavior and add safe guards to ensure actions like these are not repeated.
As far as I can see there is nothing in this report which was not known to the world. Since 2002 plenty of torture victims have regained their freedom, some told their stories, many of them have brought law suits against their torturers (all of them unsuccessful). Anybody who wanted to know did already know.
Still, it is nice for the US to acknowledge the obvious. How about some justice for the victims and some bringing to justice for the perpetrators? That would be an even better next step.
Oh, and for futher reading: Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments (1764, english 1767). This little book contains everything anyone needs to know about torture and why torture is ALWAYS wrong. It has also some pretty good ideas about the death penalty and its abolishment. Just as an afterthought.
The summary that was released is over 400 pages long.
It’s now crystal clear that the Bush administration trashed every moral principle that this nation relied on and that made America different from most of the rest of the world.
That Bush never knew about this during his first term shows conclusively that he was nothing but Cheney’s puppet and that he was singularly unqualified to hold the nation’s highest elective office.
And Cheney—still defending the use of illegal torture techniques----should be publicly tried for his role in violating US law and all of the Geneva Conventions.
Unfortunately, we need the CIA.
But we need to rein it in, change its culture and its officials, and publicly repudiate its illegal actions, regardless of how embarrassing that may be.
I have a tiny, niggling feeling deep in my gut that part of the reason of releasing this report now is for The Hague.
I honestly don’t think this White House has it in them to proceed to a criminal investigation or charges. I say that as an Obama supporter. I never thought they would take that extraordinary step, no matter how badly I wanted them to. Bringing the entire program to a halt and doing everything he can in bits and pieces to work around Congress and release Gitmo detainees is about the extent that I think we can expect. I am supportive of the President on those things, but I do not support not following US law that requires them to bring the perpetrators of this to justice.
All that said, it’s still more than any GOP President would, or will ever, do. If a Republican is elected to the WH in 2016, you can damn well expect all documentation relating to this program, the history and its effects, to be wiped out. As in, “what torture? we didn’t torture. show me evidence that we had any such program” levels.
With this report release out there in the public air, they can no longer do that. So I’ll give this administration credit for that and for going against what are most definitely the CIA’s wishes to do so.
