Torture report

[abaris]

I remember when zero dark 30 came out, everyone talked about how great a movie it was. I scoffed and said that torture yields more bullshit then anything

I didn't watch that one, but one or two episodes of 24 were enough for me to get the barf cramps. It's a torture justification feast.

[Minimalist]

Borowitz - again too close to reality for most republicunts although I have to give McCain credit today. For once the old fart got it right.

Anyway:

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-...MjAzMjU4S0

Cheney Calls for International Ban on Torture Reports

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Former Vice-President Dick Cheney on Tuesday called upon the nations of the world to “once and for all ban the despicable and heinous practice of publishing torture reports.”

“Like many Americans, I was shocked and disgusted by the Senate Intelligence Committee’s publication of a torture report today,” Cheney said in a prepared statement. “The transparency and honesty found in this report represent a gross violation of our nation’s values.”

[Heywood]

The report is out. Bullet-point findings:

The Committee makesthe following findings and conclusions:

#1: The CIA's use of its enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.

[...]

#2: The CIA'sjustification for the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques rested on
inaccurate claims oftheir effectiveness.

[...]]

#3: The interrogations ofCIA detainees were brutal and far worse than the CIA represented to policymakers and others.

[...]

#4: The conditions of confinement for CIA detainees were harsher than the CIA had represented to policymakers and others.

[...]

#5: The CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Department of Justice, impeding a proper legal analysis of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.

[...]

#6: The CIA has actively avoided orimpeded congressional oversight ofthe program.

[...]

#7: The CIA impeded effective White House oversight and decision-making.

[...]

#8: The CIA's operation and management ofthe program complicated, and in some cases impeded, the national security missions of other Executive Branch agencies.

[...]

#9; The CIA impeded oversight by the CIA's Office ofInspector General.

[...]

#10: The CIA coordinated the release of classified information to the media, including inaccurate information concerning the effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques.

[...]

#11: The CIA was unprepared as it began operating its Detention and Interrogation Program more than six months after being granted detention authorities.

[...]

#12: The CIA's management and operation of its Detention and Interrogation Program was deeply flawed throughout the program's duration, particularly so in 2002 and early 2003.

[...]

#13: Two contract psychologists devised the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques and played a central role in the operation, assessments, and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program. By 2005, the CIA had overwhelmingly outsourced operations related to the program.

[...]

#14: CIA detainees were subjected to coercive interrogation techniques that had not been approved by the Department of Justice or had not been authorized by CIA Headquarters.

[...]

#15: The CIA did not conduct a comprehensive or accurate accounting of the number of individualsit detained, and held individuals who did not meet the legal standard for detention. The CIA's claims about the number of detainees held and subjected to its enhanced Interrogation techniques were inaccurate.

[...]

#16: The CIA failed to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of its enhanced interrogation techniques.

[...]

#17: The CIA rarely reprimanded or held personnel accountable for serious and significant violations, inappropriate activities, and systemic and individual management failures.

[...]

#18: The CIA marginalized and ignored numerous internal critiques, criticisms, and objections concerning the operation and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.

[...]

#19; The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program was inherently unsustainable and had effectively ended by 2006 due to unauthorized press disclosures, reduced cooperation from other nations, and legal and oversight concerns.

[...]

#20; The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program damaged the United States' standing in the world, and resulted in other significant monetary and non-monetary costs.

Those are the bullet-point summaries found in the Report. Read the abridged Report here at this link.

So, we've got incompetent, dishonest, dysfunctional, and useless here. I'd argue for a house-cleaning, but first, that would entail the power to do so, which I doubt even the President has given the secretive nature of the organization, and second, that would still only be frying the small fish, leaving Bush, Cheney, Tan, et al off to enjoy retirement at the taxpayers' expense.

It's a crying shame. These fuckers stained whatever was left of our good name.

I hope you are not taking this report as gospel truth. If a different people were in power those bullet points would be completely different.

[Minimalist]

If the same fuckheads were in control there would be no report, dummy.

That is the point.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I hope you are not taking this report as gospel truth. If a different people were in power those bullet points would be completely different.

I'm still digging through it.

What are your specific objections, and on what basis do you hold them?

[Heywood]

I hope you are not taking this report as gospel truth. If a different people were in power those bullet points would be completely different.

I'm still digging through it.

What are your specific objections, and on what basis do you hold them?

I haven't read it so I don't have any objections. If I did read it I would keep a couple of things in mind. First, it is the work of Feinstein, while I disagree with her ideology, she is probably one of the only democrats that has any integrity. I'm glad to see her name attached to the work. Second, the purpose of this report wasn't to give an objective analysis of the actions of the CIA but rather to convince people the actions of the CIA were not in the best interest of the country. It has a political motivation behind it.

That being said, I do think it is a valuable tool when we examine in detail the actions of different government organizations. This includes examining the state department and White House action surrounding Benghazi, and the CIA and White House actions surrounding the interrogation of captive terrorist.

Really these interrogations should have been videotapped and those videotape released for public scrutiny after some period of time...when keeping them secret no longer provides strategic value.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm still digging through it.

What are your specific objections, and on what basis do you hold them?

I haven't read it so I don't have any objections.

Well, I appreciate your advice, then ... though you're about 30 years too late with it.

Also, you seem to be unaware that many of those interrogations were videotaped, and that those videos were subsequently destroyed after it became clear that the matter would be investigated.

I wonder why there's no indictments over that?

[A Theist]

After watching people jump to their deaths to escape the burning towers on 911 and after the release of videos showing the beheadings of American captives by al qaeda and other terrorist groups, I don't care how we extract information from terrorist prisoners. The release of the CIA report will only aid in the recruitment propaganda for al qaeda and will further put Americans, our military personnel and our allies at risk abroad.

[simplemoss]

Why did they shove hummus up peoples asses? Was it some psychopathic cultural thing??? picture a gaurd screaming take this you hummus eating sand nigger

I think the psychotic state of mind, you must be in too do, the things these men did too alqueda. Says something about the horrible training these US soldiers must go through.

Maybe its time too change that

[Exian]

After watching people jump to their deaths to escape the burning towers on 911 and after the release of videos showing the beheadings of American captives by al qaeda and other terrorist groups, I don't care how we extract information from terrorist prisoners. The release of the CIA report will only aid in the recruitment propaganda for al qaeda and will further put Americans, our military personnel and our allies at risk abroad.

But

The Committee makesthe following findings and conclusions:

#1: The CIA's use of its enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.