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Merged Senate Report on CIA Torture Program

Puppycow

Penultimate Amazing
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CIA misled on interrogation program, Senate report says

A report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that the CIA misled the government and the public about aspects of its brutal interrogation program for years — concealing details about the severity of its methods, overstating the significance of plots and prisoners, and taking credit for critical pieces of intelligence that detainees had in fact surrendered before they were subjected to harsh techniques.

The report, built around detailed chronologies of dozens of CIA detainees, documents a long-standing pattern of unsubstantiated claims as agency officials sought permission to use — and later tried to defend — excruciating interrogation methods that yielded little, if any, significant intelligence, according to U.S. officials who have reviewed the document.
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Any thoughts? Shouldn't some heads roll over this at least? I don't think there is much appetite for prosecutions, but shouldn't there be some kind of accountability?

Current and former U.S. officials who described the report spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue and because the document remains classified. The 6,300-page report includes what officials described as damning new disclosures about a sprawling network of secret detention facilities, or “black sites,” that was dismantled by President Obama in 2009.
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Let's face it: There will never be accountability for turning the US into a torture regime during that era. As a matter of fact, it may even lead to promotion, as with John Brennan.
 
Of course there should be accountability. But there won't be. For some high-profile, well evidenced offenders, there might be the risk of arrest if they travel abroad - particularly to some part of Europe - but I doubt that there will ever be domestic accountability within the US. US courts have pretty uniformly rejected even civil suits complaining of torture and illegal detention by the government.
 
Yes there should be some kind of accountability. I'd say jail time for many people is in order. Do I think it will happen? No. :(
 
Unabogie said:
Seriously?
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Seriously. That guy and his buddies spent their time plotting to kill complete strangers- just blow them up and maim them, to further their twisted ideology.
I really don't care how roughly they treated him or any of his friends.
 
Torture is morally repugnant. It would still be repugnant even if it worked, which is something we all used to agree on back when St.Ronnie signed the convention against torture. We didn't even torture the goddamned Nazis.

Detainees must at all times be protected against acts of violence, insults, and public curiosity. Physical coercion must not be resorted to and, except in self-defense, to prevent escape or for purposes of proper search, no employee of this Service under any pretext shall invade the person of any detainee. No measures calculated to humiliate or degrade shall be undertaken.
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That's the Geneva Convention, and it served us well for decades until Bush and his people threw it out the window. So no, it's not ok that they tortured. It's made worse that it didn't even work, which made it evil in service of futility.

If it makes anyone feel better, though I consider Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the rest of their accomplices criminals, if they were ever brought to justice for it, I'd oppose their torture.
 
Monketey Ghost said:
Seriously. That guy and his buddies spent their time plotting to kill complete strangers- just blow them up and maim them, to further their twisted ideology.
I really don't care how roughly they treated him or any of his friends.
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How about their kids? We could probably seriously **** with them if we kidnapped their children and squeezed their testicles with pliers.
 
Monketey Ghost said:
Seriously. That guy and his buddies spent their time plotting to kill complete strangers- just blow them up and maim them, to further their twisted ideology.
I really don't care how roughly they treated him or any of his friends.
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Condoning torture for the obviously guilty is an awfully slippery slope since the obviously guilty tend to populate movies and television more than they do reality.
 
If there was a line to punch KSM once in the mouth for anyone who felt like doing so, I'd join it and camp out for the wait.
 
Unabogie said:
Should there be state sanctioned beatings for all prisoners in our country, or just the ones you hate the most?
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The folks you shed a tear for, I never will, and I'll never lose a wink of sleep.

I do feel badly for those in the intelligence community whose jobs have been to drag the information out of the bad guys and have been thanked with the prospect of prosecution and loss of future opportunity in their careers serving their country.
 
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Monketey Ghost said:
The folks you shed a tear for, I never will, and I'll never lose a wink of sleep.

I do feel badly for those in the intelligence community whose jobs have been to drag the information out of the bad guys and have been thanked with the prospect of prosecution and loss of future opportunity in their careers serving their country.
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Perhaps those in the intelligence community should have been a little more careful about the methods they employed?
 
Amazer said:
Perhaps those in the intelligence community should have been a little more careful about the methods they employed?
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*shrugs*

Tough assignment. Heavy pressure from above to generate actionable intelligence, from scumbags who will certainly withhold it.

Like I said, I don't care what methods they used on the individuals.
 
Monketey Ghost said:
*shrugs*

Tough assignment. Heavy pressure from above to generate actionable intelligence, from scumbags who will certainly withhold it.

Like I said, I don't care what methods they used on the individuals.
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And yet countless people later found to be innocent of anything were also tortured. Amazingly, with torture it's harder to figure out which is which, since people being tortured tell you anything to make it stop.

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/20...victim-fouad-al-rabiah-is-released-in-kuwait/
 
Monketey Ghost said:
The folks you shed a tear for, I never will, and I'll never lose a wink of sleep.

I do feel badly for those in the intelligence community whose jobs have been to drag the information out of the bad guys and have been thanked with the prospect of prosecution and loss of future opportunity in their careers serving their country.
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Personally I'm happy to see the members of the intelligence community who used ineffective methods to protect myself and others weeded from the pack.

I want intelligence organisations that use proven and effective methods rather than career orientated yes men who fold to political pressure and use techniques that are known not to work.

Being British I'm always reminded of the IRA statement that they only have to get lucky once. That's why I want intelligence operatives that use methods that produce good material not just a stream of what the subject thinks the torturer wants to hear. It's my safety at stake and I'm selfish that way.
 
Myself, I'm inclined to believe that harsh interrogations produced names and made clear relationships.
 
Upchurch said:
What is that belief based on?
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The near certainty that I myself would crack under such pressure and sing like a bird. I have a high tolerance to pain, and am pretty tough. But combined water boarding, sleep deprivation, painful postures, constant interrogation, there's not a single bit of information I could withhold.

The alternative is that such methods never produce names and phone numbers or other relevant information, and that's just obviously not so.
 
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