The State Department has issued a document that endorses the findings of the Senate report on the CIA’s interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks. The document notably avoids references to “torture” but discussed now the CIA brutalized suspects and misled Congress. Putting aside such word substitutions of “brutalizing” for “torture” and “misleading” for “lying,” there remains one glaring omission: not a single CIA official was disciplined, let alone criminally charged. One official even publicly admitted to destroying evidence to avoid its use in court in a torture prosecution. He was allowed to retire with honors and accolades. The Bush and Obama Administration steadfastly refused to prosecute such officials. Indeed, soon after coming to power, Obama went to the CIA to assure officials that they would never face prosecution.
The document states to its credit that “This report tells a story of which no American is proud.” However, it then adds: “But it is also part of another story of which we can be proud. America’s democratic system worked just as it was designed to work in bringing an end to actions inconsistent with our democratic values.” Is this really how the system “was designed to work”? We are bound by treaty and federal law to investigate torture — a standard that we have applied to other nations. However, Obama kept his pledge to the CIA and moreover leaks have shown how the U.S. government threatened both Spain and England not to investigate American torture.
Now we have a celebration over the fact that we are willing to admit that the CIA committed such violations, including lying to Congress, while ignoring that no one was punished for these acts. Indeed, as we saw with the false statements given Congress over surveillance by James Clapper, there remains a pattern of protection for intelligence officials committing what many allege to be criminal acts like perjury.
I am impressed by the openness of the State Department under John Kerry on such issues. However, the disconnect with the absence of any accountability continues to erode the credibility of the country on human rights and civil liberties.
Notably, the State Department affirms again that no life-saving intelligence was actually produced from our torture of suspects. It still however refuses to call it by its proper and legal name: “[The Senate report] leaves no doubt that the methods used to extract information from some terrorist suspects caused profound pain, suffering and humiliation. It also leaves no doubt that the harm caused by the use of these techniques outweighed any potential benefit.”
The report does acknowledge obvious questions that continue to lack any real answer from the Administration:
“Doesn’t the report make clear that at least some who authorized or participated in the RDI program committed crimes?”
“Will the Justice Department revisit its decision not to prosecute anyone?”
“Until now the (U.S. government) has avoided conceding that the techniques used in the RDI program constituted torture. Now that the report is released is the White House prepared to concede that people were tortured?”
“Isn’t it clear that the CIA engaged in torture as defined in the Torture Convention?”
The mere fact that these questions even appeared in such a report is a triumph for Kerry and a positive development. It also admits that some ambassadors who were informed of the use of torture at black sites were instructed not to tell their superiors at the State Department.
I do believe that the State Department and John Kerry deserve credit for this frank discussion. It is the type of action that will help to restore our position in the world. However, we will never regain our position as the world’s leader on human rights and civil liberties if we continue to shield our own officials for accountability for such actions.
Source: Fox
First step, he admitted they did a wrong. Now where is the admission by Bush Cheney? And no Jill, I am not attempting to distract from the Obama Administration engaging in torture. What’s good for the goose… You know.
http://mashable.com/2014/08/01/obama-we-tortured-some-folks/
“We tortured some folks,” Obama said at a televised news conference at the White House. “We did some things that were contrary to our values.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-11-us-tortured-folks-24811845
(Said, oh so casually. Hey, so “we tortured some folks.” No big deal, apparently.)
Anonymous and Max-1, Thank you for the many important links.
I really hope this will make people rethink what the powerful are doing in our names. We should not accept this behavior and lack of legal accountability.
Paul, until the law changes, the wording of the law against torture is clear. It has been interpreted in a court of law. Further, as Rafflaw pointed out, the US has prosecuted others for the crime of waterboarding.
There is nothing about torture and the law prohibiting torture that has changed in meaning. What is different is that the law remains unenforced and torture goes on despite that law.
People who don’t mind torture seem to think there is something strong about engaging in it. Actually, it is a sign of weakness. If you have a prisoner, they are under your complete control. Only a coward would think they were acting out of strength to abuse such a person.
“The substance of the report is the most comprehensive accounting of what happened,” said Gude. “The information is just so shocking that I find it hard to believe that once this comes out in public the debate is going to center on anything else but what’s in it.” -from the following link
“The CIA’s Dirty Playbook Is About to Be Opened”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/31/cia-torture-report-won-t-call-interrogations-torture-but-it-will-show-horrors.html
And then maybe, just maybe, it will lead us to what’s taking place on U.S. soil.
How long before the CIA demands that the State Department be reshuffled?
That is what is so sad about this whole episode. The redefining works the other way too. I think most are catching on now that “Terrorist” is really an open-ended enabler now. It’s a catch-all like Nazi, red, communist, etc. I think it won’t be long until there is a new term now though. I think the DC marketing minds realize that these enabler terms only last about a generation, then need to be replaced. Citizens need to stop letting the government misinformation machine color their world. Don’t go by defense industry-owned network news. Listen to people, think for yourselves.
We do not find it necessary to redefine words of common usage each morning in order to communicate with each other. So why do so many people find it necessary to redefine torture? The answer, of course, is that having engaged in acts of torture, we must devise new definitions in order to preserve that illusion of moral superiority we boastfully describe as American exceptionalism. But whether waterboarding constitutes torture is not a topic for debate among reasonable people because the question has been adjudicated under both international law and the domestic law of this country.
Covering unlawful acts in flowery rhetoric will no more change their nature than covering filthy hands in silk gloves will make them clean.
Mike – we have redefined ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ before and for a lawyer you should be aware that words are always in flux. New words are added, new meanings are added, meanings are changed, etc. Pick up an OED and check how a single word can change in meaning. American English leads the world in changing words.
rafflaw
It appears that the ‘beltway logic’ is so constrained that it has choked off oxygen supply to the heads in charge and corrupted their reasoning skills. They keep arguing that it’s not when the Government does it. Yet that same Government will prosecute it’s own citizens for acts of water TORTURE. A more recent conviction below…
Delaware pediatrician convicted of waterboarding stepdaughter
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/delaware-pediatrician-convicted-waterboarding-stepdaughter-article-1.1613903
The idea that anyone would think that waterboarding is not torture, only has to look to the past where we have prosecuted foreigners and our own soldiers for waterboarding.
Jill, Paul probably thinks you’re spreading propaganda.
Maybe Carol thinks Jesus will help them through the torture.
All these officials get off completely free, but a whistle blower like Snowden faces decades in prison.
Carol, People have not only thought they were drowning while being waterboarded, medically they were drowning. Some died.
Unless your daughter was kidnapped, drugged, chained up, subjected to sound, light, heat/cold, beatings and then drowned, it really isn’t the same as when you wash her hair. If you have done those things, you would be arrested for child abuse.
I truly hope you are just another govt. commenter on this blog and not a person who believes these things are equivalent.
Paul, I am not telling you what my law is. I am telling you the truth. Torture is illegal under both US and international law.
Jill – what is defined as torture is open to interpretation.
Annie, On this very thread I have said Bush and Cheney should face legal consequences for the crime of torture. Last I checked they were Republicans. Now Palin was never president. She never did get the chance to torture anyone. So we need to stick with the people who did/do torture others. That would include the prior Republican administration and the current Democratic administration. So, if you wonder about whether I am even handed, I don’t think you are paying attention to what I am writing.
I just despise propaganda. It is despicable because it deliberately points people away from the truth into lies.
Start the Brennan video at 18:37.
http://youtu.be/6apC6jN0TZo
Carol Frazier,
You might want to start with this:
Torture, Lies and Hollywood
By ALI H. SOUFAN
Published: February 22, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/opinion/sunday/torture-lies-and-hollywood.html
“Numerous investigations, most recently a 6,300-page classified report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, have reached the same conclusion: enhanced interrogation didn’t work. Portraying torture as effective risks misleading the next generation of Americans that one of our government’s greatest successes came about because of the efficacy of torture. It’s a disservice both to our history and our national security. ”
“Ali H. Soufan is a former F.B.I. special agent who interrogated Qaeda detainees and the author of “The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda.””
Jill
It’s never when their Party endorses it.
It’s laughable when self professed “progressives” refuse to call out truths to power, especially when that power is corrupt and comes from the Party they associate with. Real progressives keep marching toward Justice, regardless of who’s face has egg on it. Loyalist partisans protect Party over People… Ergo I call them Loyalists. Couple that with their overwhelming sense of Nationalism and I no longer recognize them.