Under the leadership of George W Bush and Dick Cheney Americas high standing in the world was lowered considerably. We were willing to be just like the enemies we fought and then willing to lie to everybody to about what we did. The next time some of our troops get captured its katie bar the door, we have made everything we did acceptable for the enemy to do to our solders. Sure some future president will complain but who will be listening, we have broken treaties that we signed. The saddest part is there will be no punishment for those who soiled the American reputation. None.
The CIA "provided inaccurate information to the White House, Congress, the Justice Department, the CIA inspector general, the media and the American public" about the "brutal" interrogation techniques it used on terrorism suspects, a long-held Senate intelligence committee report finds.
It looked at more than 6 million pages of CIA material over the course of more than three years, and it came to two major conclusions: The CIA misrepresented the interrogation techniques it was using at secret prisons abroad, and it also overstated the techniques' efficacy. The report details the techniques used on detainees and found that those interrogations led to no useful intelligence.
Below are highlights from the report released by the Committee.
Interrogators Admitted to Sexual Assault
According the the report, "numerous CIA interrogators and other CIA personnel associated with the program had either suspected or documented personal and professional problems that raised questions about their judgement and CIA employment. This group of officers included individuals who, among other issues, had engaged in inappropriate detainee interrogations, had workplace anger management issues, and had reportedly admitted to sexual assault."
Round-the-Clock EIT
Detainee Abu Zubaydah was placed "in complete isolation for 47 days," then subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques on a near 24-hour-per-day basis." He “cried, begged, pleaded, and whimpered,” but denied having any information.
The CIA reportedly instructed personnel that his interrogation should take "precedence" over medical care, which eventually led to the "deterioration" of a bullet wound Zubaydah sustained during his capture.
Stuffed in a Coffin-Like Box
Zubaydah spent a total of 266 hours in a "large confinement box" that looked like a "coffin." He spent an additional 29 hours in an even smaller box, which was 21 inches wide, 2.5 feet deep, and 2.5 feet tall.
CIA interrogators reportedly told Zubaydah "that the only way he would leave the facility was in the coffin-shaped confinement box."
Waterboarding Continues
Even after the interrogation team told CIA headquarters that it was “highly unlikely” he had the information they were looking for, interrogators continued to waterboard Abu Zubaydah, who “coughed, vomited, and had involuntary spasms of the torso and extremities’” during the procedure. At one point, he "became completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth."
CIA Personnel ‘Choking Up’ During Waterboarding
The waterboarding eventually induced "involuntary leg, chest and arm spasms." According to CIA records, “it seems the collective opinion that we should not go much further.” Several on the team were “profoundly affected,” “some to the point of tears and choking up.”
Rectual Infusion of 'Pureed' Humus, Pasta, Nuts and Raisins
Several detainees, including Zubaydah, Marwan al-Jabbur, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, underwent "rectal rehydration" or "rectal fluid resuscitation" -- and detainee Majid Klian's “lunch tray," made up of hummus, pasta with sauce, raisins and nuts, was "pureed" and rectally infused.
According to CIA medical officers, rectal infusions were partially used as a behavior control: "While IV infusion is safe and effective," an officer noted, "we were impressed with the ancillary effectiveness of rectal infusion."
Intimidation with a Power Drill
Another detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was blindfolded before an interrogator placed a pistol near his head and operated a cordless power drill near his body.
‘Let’s Roll With the New Guy’
Less than two hours after the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-professed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, in March 2003, an CIA interrogation chief sent an email to CIA headquarters requesting permission to “press [Sheikh Mohammed] for threat info right away.” The subject line: “Let’s roll with the new guy.”
Medical Officer: Waterboarding is ‘Basically…Drownings’
During waterboarding sessions, Sheikh Mohammed ingested significant amounts of water. According to CIA records, his abdomen “was somewhat distended and he expressed water when the abdomen was pressed.”
“In the new technique,” a medical officer wrote, “we are basically doing a series of near drownings.”
Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded at least 183 times.
Transforming Interrogations into ‘Battles of Will’
Sheikh Mohammed was also subject to abdominal and facial slaps, standing sleep deprivation, stress positions, nudity, water dousing. And although he hadn’t determined it was medically necessary, an interrogation chief also ordered rectal hydration.
The procedure, the chief said, illustrated the interrogators’ “total control over the detainee” – but an on-site psychologist later concluded that sessions would have been more successful had interrogators avoided “confrontations that allow [Sheikh Mohammed] to transform the interrogation into battles of will with their interrogator.”
'Mr. Rogers' Persona'
The interrogation team eventually concluded the enhanced techniques had caused Sheikh Mohammed to "clam up," prompting interrogators to adopt a "softer Mr. Rogers' persona."
In what the interrogation team deemed the "best session held to date," a "more cooperative" Sheikh Mohammad revealed information about an individual he described as the protector of his children. The information turned out to be fabricated, resulting in the capture and detention of two innocent people.
Family Photo
When interrogators concluded there would be “no further movement” in Sheikh Mohammed’s interrogations, detention site personnel hung a photograph of his sons in his cell to “[heighten] his imagination concerning where they are, who has them, [and] what is in store for them.”
Interrogators Threatened Families
CIA officers also threatened at least three detainees with harm to their families. Those threats included doing harm to the children of a detainee, threats to sexually abuse the mother of a detainee and to "cut" a detainee's mother's throat.
'They Cowered'
Detainees at a detention facility referred to in the report as "COBALT" were kept in complete darkness -- paired with constant noise.
Detainees "'literally looked like a dog that had been kenneled,'" one CIA interrogator said. "When the doors to their cells were opened, 'they cowered.'"
Naked Detainees Doused With Ice Water
Without approval from CIA headquarters, interrogates doused COBALT detainees with ice water. They were hosed down while shackled in a standing position or held down naked on the floor.
One detainee, Gul Rahman, naked except for a sweatshirt, died of hypothermia while chained to a wall at COBALT in 2002.
Diapers, Sleep Deprivation
Mohamed Rahim, the last CIA detainee in the Detention and Interrogation Program, was kept awake for 138 1/2 hours -- almost six days.
Diapered and and shackled in a standing position, Rahim “reiterated several times during the session that he would make up information if interrogators pressured him, and that he was at the complete mercy of the interrogators.”
26 Individuals Improperly Detained
Twenty-six of the CIA's 119 detainees "did not meet the ... standard for detention," according to the report.
One of these improperly detained individuals, Abu Hudhaifa, endured 66 hours of standing sleep deprivation and ice water baths "before being released because the CIA discovered he was likely not the person he was believed to be."
A second "intellectually challenged" individual was detained and used "as leverage" against a family member. Two more spent 24 hours chained in the standing sleep deprivation position, until CIA Headquarters "confirmed that the detainees were former CIA sources," who had previously reached out to the CIA to try to share intelligence.
Cheney Throws Bush Under The Bus On Torture Program
Dick Cheney discussed the newly released Senate torture report Wednesday on Fox News, and in particular challenged a finding that former President George W. Bush hadn't been briefed on the CIA's harsh interrogation methods until years after they'd already been in use.
Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked the former vice president whether the agency deliberately kept Bush in the dark about its so-called enhanced interrogation techniques.
"Not true. Didn't happen," Cheney responded. "Read his book, he talks about it extensively in his memoirs. He was in fact an integral part of the program, he had to approve it before we went forward with it."
Asked if there was ever a point where he knew more about the CIA's activity than the President, Cheney said "I think he knew everything he needed to know and wanted to know about the program."
Baier then asked if the former President knew about the "details" of the program. The report -- which Cheney called "full of crap" -- described brutal interrogation methods including waterboarding, extensive sleep deprivation, threats to harm detainees' families and "rectal feeding."
"I think he knew certainly the techniques, we did discuss the techniques," Cheney said. "There was no effort on our part to keep him from that."
"The notion that the committee's trying to peddle, that somehow the agency was operating on a rogue basis, and we weren't being told or the President wasn't being told, is just a flat out lie," he later added.
What the World Thinks about the CIA and Torture
CHINA
"China has consistently opposed torture," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported. "We think the U.S. should reflect on that and correct related practices, to earnestly abide by and honor the regulations of international conventions."
FRANCE
Extreme-right politician Marine Le Pen said she "did not condemn" the CIA's methods. "On subjects like this it's quite easy to go on television to say 'Oh, la la! That's wrong'," Le Pen told French broadcaster BFMTV. "I believe that those people who are dealing with terrorists, and trying to get information out of them that helps save civilian lives, are responsible people."
NORTH KOREA
The rogue state weighed in via its official state news agency in typically cryptic fashion: "Why is the UNSC turning its face from the inhuman torture practiced by the CIA over which the UN Anti-Torture Committee expressed particular concern and which is dealt with in the 6,000 page-long report presented by the Intelligence Committee of the U.S. Senate ... If the UNSC handles the "human rights issue" in the DPRK while shutting its eyes to the serious human rights issue in the U.S., one of its permanent members, while failing to settle the pending and urgent issues directly linked with the world peace and security, it will prove itself its miserable position that it has turned into a tool for U.S. arbitrary practices just as everybody can hear everywhere."
RUSSIA
The Guardian reported that Konstantin Dolgov, Russia's human rights ombudsman, released a series of tweets slamming the U.S. response to the report: "The Senate's report proves that there was systematic use of torture in CIA prisons in violation of the international obligations of the US.
Everyone has known this for a long time. But the Obama administration, having formally banned torture, hasn't lifted a finger to punish those guilty for these egregious human rights abuses. This has created a further stain on the already stained US reputation in human rights. Let's see what the administration's reaction to the report is."
Everyone has known this for a long time. But the Obama administration, having formally banned torture, hasn't lifted a finger to punish those guilty for these egregious human rights abuses. This has created a further stain on the already stained US reputation in human rights. Let's see what the administration's reaction to the report is."
UNITED KINGDOM
British Prime Minister David Cameron: "Let's be clear: torture is wrong; torture is always wrong. In Britain we have had the Gibson inquiry and that inquiry has now produced a series of questions that the intelligence and security Committee will look at. But I am satisfied that our system is dealing with all these issues and I, as prime minister, have issued guidance to all of our agents and others working around the world about how they have to handle these issues in future."
UNITED NATIONS
The United Nations' top special investigator for counterterrorism, Ben Emmerson, called for the prosecution of senior U.S. officials who authorized and carried out torture as part of former President George W. Bush's national security policies. "It is now time to take action. The individuals responsible for the criminal conspiracy revealed
in today's report must be brought to justice, and must face criminal penalties commensurate with the gravity of their crimes," Emmerson said.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and an assortment of GOP Clowns Out a CIA Base
When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big, and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA’s cover.
The purpose of Wednesday’s hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was to examine security lapses that led to the killing in Benghazi last month of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others. But in doing so, the lawmakers reminded us why “congressional intelligence” is an oxymoron.
Through their outbursts, cryptic language and boneheaded questioning of State Department officials, the committee members left little doubt that one of the two compounds at which the Americans were killed, described by the administration as a “consulate” and a nearby “annex,” was a CIA base. They did this, helpfully, in a televised public hearing.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was the first to unmask the spooks. “Point of order! Point of order!” he called out as a State Department security official, seated in front of an aerial photo of the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, described the chaotic night of the attack. “We’re getting into classified issues that deal with sources and methods that would be totally inappropriate in an open forum such as this.”
A State Department official assured him that the material was “entirely unclassified” and that the photo was from a commercial satellite. “I totally object to the use of that photo,” Chaffetz continued. He went on to say that “I was told specifically while I was in Libya I could not and should not ever talk about what you’re showing here today.”
Now that Chaffetz had alerted potential bad guys that something valuable was in the photo, the chairman, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), attempted to lock the barn door through which the horse had just bolted. “I would direct that that chart be taken down,” he said, although it already had been on C-SPAN. “In this hearing room, we’re not going to
point out details of what may still in fact be a facility of the United States government or more facilities.”
May still be a facility? The plot thickened — and Chaffetz gave more hints. “I believe that the markings on that map were terribly inappropriate,” he said, adding that “the activities there could cost lives.”
In their questioning and in the public testimony they invited, the lawmakers managed to disclose, without ever mentioning Langley directly, that there was a seven-member “rapid response force” in the compound the State Department was calling an annex. One of the State Department security officials was forced to acknowledge that “not
necessarily all of the security people” at the Benghazi compounds “fell under my direct operational control.”
And whose control might they have fallen under? Well, presumably it’s the “other government agency” or “other government entity” the lawmakers and witnesses referred to; Issa informed the public that this agency was not the FBI.
“Other government agency,” or “OGA,” is a common euphemism in Washington for the CIA. This “other government agency,” the lawmakers’ questioning further revealed, was in possession of a video of the attack but wasn’t releasing it because it was undergoing “an investigative process.”
Or maybe they were referring to the Department of Agriculture.
That the Benghazi compound had included a large CIA presence had been reported but not confirmed. The New York Times, for example, had reported that among those evacuated were “about a dozen CIA operatives and contractors.” The paper, like The Washington Post, withheld locations and details of the facilities at the administration’s request.
But on Wednesday, the withholding was on hold.
The Republican lawmakers, in their outbursts, alternated between scolding the State Department officials for hiding behind classified material and blaming them for disclosing information that should have been classified. But the lawmakers created the situation by ordering a public hearing on a matter that belonged behind closed doors.
Republicans were aiming to embarrass the Obama administration over State Department security lapses. But they inadvertently caused a different picture to emerge than the one that has been publicly known: that the victims may have been let down not by the State Department but by the CIA. If the CIA was playing such a major role in these
events, which was the unmistakable impression left by Wednesday’s hearing, having a televised probe of the matter was absurd.
The chairman, attempting to close his can of worms, finally suggested that “the entire committee have a classified briefing as to any and all other assets that were not drawn upon but could have been drawn upon” in Benghazi.
Good idea. Too bad he didn’t think of that before putting the CIA on C-SPAN. Secrets are not safe in the hands of these clowns. Chairman Issa and this GOP gang will give the store away to throw a punch at President Obama. Now these fools are running the House and the Senate, God Help Us.
Amherst County Virginia Democratic News
Amherst Democratic News
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