Torture report

[Manowar]

The Senate is going to release a torture report. Not sure if this is a good idea, there is going to be a shit storm over this. I think most of people know what we did to out prisoners but this is going to remind them and may put our soldiers at a greater risk if captured. What do you guys think, good idea or bad idea?

manowar

[Thumpalumpacus]

I think it's good to know what our government is doing in our name, for better or worse.

I don't think it's going to further endanger our fighting men and women by reminding jihadists of our crimes. Firstly, I'll bet that those crimes are used in the indoctrination of each new jihadi already, and secondly if those tortures didn't exist, they would be invented.

[vorlon13]

Our government and most all the others otta fess up.

I'm not holding my breath waiting though

[downbeatplumb]

The Senate is going to release a torture report. Not sure if this is a good idea, there is going to be a shit storm over this. I think most of people know what we did to out prisoners but this is going to remind them and may put our soldiers at a greater risk if captured. What do you guys think, good idea or bad idea?

manowar

The first part of fixing a mistake is acknowledging one was made.
America has for too long been the country that's cool with torture, time for the madness to end.

[vorlon13]

Curiously, I don't have a problem with waterboarding members of congress during the evening news about malfeasance, corruption, stupidity, and/or being a kiddie diddler.

[Nope]

We need to shine a light on the torture that our government allowed. The people who allowed the torture should be tried and punished but that won't happen. I think that putting some of them on trail would go a long way to healing our reputation with the world but, like I said, it won't happen.

[Heywood]

The Senate is going to release a torture report. Not sure if this is a good idea, there is going to be a shit storm over this. I think most of people know what we did to out prisoners but this is going to remind them and may put our soldiers at a greater risk if captured. What do you guys think, good idea or bad idea?

manowar

This is like the drone memo that I made a thread about calling for Obama to release the rationale he used to justify the targeting of American citizens. This stuff should be made public so that we may scrutinize it and hold our government accountable.

[Thumpalumpacus]

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.

[abaris]

I wonder if it shows how many EU dipshit governments operated black prisons for the CIA to crawl into Bush's ass.

[Lemonvariable72]

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