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Glenn Greenwald Previews The Senate Torture Report
Curious what to expect out of today's 600-page mega dump by the Senate Intelligence Committee revealing US torture techniques and practices, aka the "torture report"? The the following explainer by the Intercept's Glenn Greenwald should provide some useful pointers.
Coverage Of The Senate Torture Report
One of the worst myths official Washington and its establishment media have told itself about the torture debate is that the controversy is limited to three cases of waterboarding at Guantánamo and a handful of bad Republican actors. In fact, a wide array of torture techniques were approved at the highest levels of the U.S. Government and then systematically employed in lawless US prisons around the world - at Bagram (including during the Obama presidency), CIA black sites, even to US citizens on US soil. So systematic was the torture regime that a 2008 Senate report concluded that the criminal abuses at Abu Ghraib were the direct result of the torture mentality imposed by official Washington.
American torture was not confined to a handful of aberrational cases or techniques, nor was it the work of rogue CIA agents. It was an officially sanctioned, worldwide regime of torture that had the acquiescence, if not explicit approval, of the top members of both political parties in Congress. It was motivated by far more than interrogation. The evidence for all of this is conclusive and overwhelming. And the American media bears much of the blame, as they refused for years even to use the word “torture” to describe any of this (even as they called these same techniques “torture” when used by American adversaries), a shameful and cowardly abdication that continues literally to this day in many of the most influential outlets.
The Senate Intelligence Committee today will release part of its “torture report.” The report is the by-product of four years of work (2009-2013) and is 6,000 pages long. Only the Executive Summary, roughly 600 pages, will be released today. Even some of that is redacted: the names of CIA agents participating in the torture, countries which agreed to allow CIA black sites, and other details. For months, top Democrats on the Committee warred with the Obama White House due to the latter’s attempts to redact far more vital information than even stalwart CIA ally Dianne Feinstein thought necessary.
None of this has been in any plausible doubt for years. Recall that Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led an official investigation into prisoner abuse, said in 2008: “There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.” Gen. Barry McCaffrey said : “We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the CIA.” Nobody needs this Senate report to demonstrate that the U.S. government became an official squad of torture (with the American public largely on board).
Still, this will be by far the most comprehensive and official account of the War on Terror’s official torture regime. Given the authors – Committee Democrats along with two Maine Senators: Agnus King (I) and Susan Collins (R) – it’s likely to whitewash critical events, including the key, complicit role members of Congress such as Nancy Pelosi played in approving the program (important details of which are still disputed), as well an attempt to insulate the DC political class by stressing how the CIA “misled” elected officials about the program. But the report is certain to lay bare in very stark terms some of the torture methods, including “graphic details about sexual threats” and what Reuters still euphemistically and subserviently calls “other harsh interrogation techniques the CIA meted out to captured militants.”
Important parts of the Obama administration engaged in all sorts of gamesmanship to prevent the report’s release, including a last-minute call from John Kerry to Feinstein in which the Secretary of State warned that release of the report could endanger American lives (a warning affirmed yesterday by the White House) And a vital part of President Obama’s legacy will be his repeated and ultimately successful efforts to shield the torturers from all forms of legal accountability - which, aside from being a brazen breach of America’s treaty obligations, makes deterrence of future American torture almost impossible (Obama did that even in the face of some polls showing pluralities favored criminal investigations of torture).
To see how little accountability there still is for national security state officials, recall that the CIA got caught spying on the Senate Committee and then lying about it, yet John Brennan kept his job as CIA Director (just as James Clapper is still Director of National Intelligence despite getting caught lying about NSA domestic spying). Any decent person, by definition, would react with revulsion to today’s report, but nobody should react with confidence that its release will help prevent future occurrences by a national security state that resides far beyond democratic accountability, let alone the law.
The Intercept will have comprehensive coverage of the report throughout the day. We’ll have full annotations of the report; graphical guides to the key parts; reporting in Washington from Dan Froomkin, who has been covering the report for months, and other reporters; and I’ll be live-blogging key parts of the report and other fallout in this space all day, appearing, in reverse chronological order, underneath these initial observations.
Media Torture Advocates
Col. Morris Davis, the retired Air Force Colonel who served as the Chief Prosecutor of the Military Commissions at Guantánamo until 2007 when he lost his job for criticizing the tribunal, notes that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough this morning explicitly defended the torture techniques, arguing: “whatever it takes to keep America safe.” Aside from being the essence of the authoritarian mindset – security über alle – it’s quite striking that major television personalities in the U.S. explicitly justify the use of torture. Is there any other western country where that’s true? After all, The Washington Post hired former Bush speechwriter Marc Theissen as a columnist after he wrote an entire book justifying torture (when used by the U.S.).
The U.S. has led the way in destroying the ostensible western taboo surrounding torture, which is why official torturers go free and torture advocates are featured in almost every major media outlet.
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Arrest the Zionists
They are the Elites and advisors to the USSA. USSA is a Bitch to them
ZH doesn't like that kind of talk SandiaMan. Naughty naughty. Would you care to elaborate?
and why aren't they calling it enhanced interrogation anymore?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOW5eljyjms
We butt-raped some folks.
This is sanitized-for-your-protection...
Reality is worse.
We car-battery-to-the-testicled some folks.
TPTB just love Amerika so much that they do anything to protect us/them.
Crazy like a mama bear.....
The 'Zionists' are not the only entities involved. Focusing on one group ignores all the others.
Yeah, it was Israel, not the USA, that established Torture as an instrument of "Western" foriegn policy.
The Bushco "War on Terror" is slavishly taken from the Israeli playbook. Another example of the wildly corrosive effect the absolute American support for Israel "no matter what" has had on the world.
We tortured some folks. Get over it. /sarc
We Tortured a lot of Folks. And, no one, Absolutely no one will be Arrested, Tried, Convicted & Executed for the War Crimes.
No one will be , because most people don't care. They have bought into the scary terrorist boogeyman lie, pushed constantly for the past couple decades. The American public has to be the most cowardly group of people in history. Willingly giving up all their freedoms and liberty for the illusion of security a police state provides. And now it's coming home to roost, and people are still too stupid to connect the two together.
"people are still too stupid to connect the two together."
The Indoctrination is complete. Facilitated with the use of PsyOp, False Narrative Scripts & Propaganda.
For a PsyOp / Propaganda Campaign to be truly effective it has to span Generations or "Generational."
Eventually the slaves train and condition their fellow slaves. Do this, don't do that.
Most don't even understand why they are doing or not doing. Their fellow slaves (via the TV) told them it was the thing to do and so they do it.
When I first saw Bill Hicks' Puppet People routine ("put it on our TV it's true, put it on our TV it's true"), I laughed because he was sort of right. Now I cry because he was describing a fact of life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywewO3H08FQ (first 20 seconds or so will suffice)
Karma baby, karma. Yes, you are correct - the culprits will get away with it. However, karma is a tad blind. The recipients of blowback (beheadings anyone?) often have nothing to do with those who did the crime. Hence, by condoning torture, or simply by looking away, the American people will be saddled with bad karma for a generation. That is, we are less safe today than we were on 9-11, much less.
A question I haven't seen explored much is why did the Bush Administration condone and support torture of prisoners? I believe the answer has more to do with politics than military strategy and much more to do with fear than intelligence. In short, the Bush Administration was deathly afraid of another large-scale terrorist action - such as the underwear and tennis shoe bombers and were quite willing to subvert the rule of law for the comfort of knowing they did all they could, including breaking the law, to prevent such an event. Hence, they waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed dozens of times to slake their fear that he knew of such plans. I suspect he did and perhaps by torturing him they were able to thwart them, but that is an ends justifies the means argument most detest. One simply cannot know that the evil act of torture would bear any fruit, but doing so sure shows that you were willing to "do whatever it takes" to keep America safe. Fear stands behind many evil acts.
You need to learn more about the cast of characters involved. Start with Cheney and work down. These people knew what they were doing. They are sick, sub-human psychos, who spent decades working to these ends.
Oh yes, I know DC is Darth Vader incarnate and likely enjoyed the role of Chief Inquisitor, but he was not The Decider and the entire Bush Administration joined the conspiracy. They aren't all psychopaths. Why would they go along with the Evil One?
"Why would they go along with the Evil One?"
Because they are authoritarian followers. It's what they do. It's what they love to do. Bob Altemeyer has spent almost his whole career studying people like that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Altemeyer
Nation of Laws and we are Spreading Democracy, er meant Torture all around the Globe- Signed USSA
Why aren't they calling it enhanced interrogation anymore? What's the difference?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOW5eljyjms
Depends whether you are giving or receiving.
pods
If it's "enhanced" it must be betterer for Amerikkans! Number 1!
Funny, the difference in sensation of giving versus receiving. . . Just like down at the bathhouse.
". . .last-minute call from John Kerry to Feinstein in which the Secretary of State warned that release of the report could endanger American lives"
The gall of this argument just blows me away: Our conduct is admittedly so fucking bad that we have to keep it a secret because of the consequences. JFC, you think maybe the better option would be not to do shit like that to people?
Ya it's pretty disgusting. Even more so that most people in the US are ok with it, trusting their all knowing and all-caring govt to only torture bad guys and it's only to keep us safe. Then they act surprised when the inevitable consequences of this kind of behavior manifest themselves as a domestic police state. File this one under 'no one could have seen this coming' I suppose.
Adding fuel to the already raging forest fire...
Not a fan of A.J. but on occasion some of his guests compensate for the host.
Obama's plan to summarily execute anyone with a drone that he cares to...is much more caring method. How many women and children did this program injure...compared to Obama absolutly awful handingly of world affairs and his drone program.
Democrats on the path to destroy the US... Terrible foriegn policy, expose both Osama attack team, expose the hostage rescue program and give details how it was defeated, and tell terrorists they have the right to not talk and we will put them in touch with ACLU.
And don't forget massice deficit spending.
We're from .gov, and we're here to torture some citizens. I want you to keep screaming 'We're the good guys', OK? Now, let's have a look at your kidney . . .
We need something really scary to happen so that people forget about this shit..... Squirrel!
scary like ww3?
I think he meant more like a Kardashian's ass deflating or Lindsay Lohan explode in a fireball as she reenters the atmosphere after taking some Plutonium Nyborg.
Oh, I dunno, squirrels are plenty scary. Remember Y2K.
WB7 would you change the font on that "This Time It's Different" to something more classical looking like Roman or Greek type of some kind. I think it would fit the scene better.
muslims cut people's heads off. maybe you should deal with that first, instead of worrying about how we treated them.
Any worse than being bombed or droned> Whatever happens you wind up dead.
Is there also any difference between a mob of nutty muslims preaching death on the great satan (US) and some senator on FOX looking all important and smart saying 'bomb them all to hell?
If you look, the radicals are the same on both sides, just the clothes, religion and talk is different. The outcome for either side is the same, death and destrcution...
Don't forget more bombs bought with banker's money as another outcome.
pods
Oh, no, "war guilt". It's no different than white guilt. white folks feel bad that blacks are the way they are, as if whitey had anything to do with it.
muslims are muslims are monsters. they're depraved. i don't feel one ounce bad about "torturing" the goat humpers.
Remember you said that. That could be you one day for saying something some future regime in the US doesn't like.
muslims are muslims are monsters. they're depraved. i don't feel one ounce bad about "torturing".
If muslims were monsters, every U.S. soldier sent to Iraq would have been killed.
Well, shit.At least we're not THAT bad, right? I mean...that's WAY worse.
/sarc
As I recall, the one head chopping vid I saw years ago when it first started replacing "rape rooms" and "babies out of incubators" there were so many holes in the video I was left with concluding that it was a made for TV thing.
The fact that you reflexively ran to this as a defense of the supposed bastion for liberty speaks volumes.
pods
Madcow misses the point. Whether others torture is not the point. A democracy has to have a foundation of absolute respect for the human and the rule of LAW, otherwise how do we know we will not be the next one to be tortured?
It makes me want to vomit when i hear these psychopaths defend themselves with mindless patriotism. They are sick, as is the US body politic.
"Mindless patriotism" has saved your country's ass on many occasions.
Name one please. Just one time, in the last century of nearly nonstop warfare, when we were in danger of being invaded or occupied by a foreign power
I don't think it's so much mindless patriotism, but soulless patriotism. No force of conviction behind it, just conditioned responses.
"muslims cut people's heads off. maybe you should deal with that first, instead of worrying about how we treated them."
Maybe you aught to re-think that.
Why should we have to abide by standards of war when our enemy does not? If the enemy 1) wears uniforms 2) doesn't hide in civilian areas/use civilians as human shields 3) doesn't attack civilian targets then we'll reconsider, but until then I see nothing wrong with this.
"I see nothing wrong with this."
This is America in 2014, a nation that openly advocates the torture of human beings. I am ashamed of my own country.
It's ok to drone 'em from 30,000 feet, but not ok to give them leg cramps? Get real. War is a fucking bitch. If they were torturing for propaganda purposes, like the North Vietnamese, or the Iranians, I'd agree. But in this case they weren't burning somebody's balls off or beating them to death either. And, they weren't torturing for revenge.
Sorry you limp dicked guys will just have to face it, you are safer at home with the women and children where you can write articles about how icky war is and how only stupid people from the south and rural areas become soldiers.
No, it's not ok to do any of those things. And I'm sorry those people got beheaded, I really am. But that's why you don't go to fucking Syria to take pictures in the middle of a (US sponsored) civil war. They hate us because our govt has been meddling in the affairs of every single one of those countries for decades, and we have killed so many of them that we have guaranteed that several generations of those people will always want to kill us. Nothing can be gained by our further involvement there. The best way to keep Americans safe is by not sending them over there as soldiers, or inviting blowback by interference in their affairs.
"It's ok to drone 'em from 30,000 feet, but not ok to give them leg cramps? Get real."
You are not at all being real.
Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear helplessly tied to a tree, for him to shoot. Prisoners are not to be tortured. There is no justification, regardless how you want to falsely rationalize it.
George Washington was asked by his officers to abuse British POWs in reprisal for maltreatment of Continental soldiers. He refused.
Great argument, except for leaving out the part about how the iraqi's we were torturing didn't have anything to do with 9/11 and therefore had no useful information that could be possibly tortured out of them, an eye for an eye sounds about right.
"Why should we have to abide by standards of war when our enemy does not?"
You dont have to, but then dont claim a moral high ground. Then, you are the same as the extremists you are fighting against.
Got to love the care and humanity of this one -
"if beaten with a stick more than 20 times a Doctor has to be present".
They also have to say "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you."
They infected me with something, in a covert operation. You could tell by observing facial expressions and movement, that they were operational. I'll let you know if I come down with a degenerative disease, which would probably be the objective, as there is a time lag, that decreases the chances of the victim associating cause and effect.
Well if a Senate Commitee claims that people were only threatened with having their dicks drilled out, well that's good enough for me. As if drilling a cock off a man who never had a trial is a big deal or something.
And we all know they don't use broomsticks because pictures haven't already been released of that... or dogs.
greenwald went to work for omidyar at intercept, the new, supposedly, disruptive news source. matt tiabbi joined then went back to rolling stone.
omidyar was a principle player in the ukraine fiasco. he plays for the zionutz. greenwald plays for the same people now by association.
Some "Shining Beacon on the Hill" we've become. Torturing helpless prisoners when anyone that gives it two seconds of thought would realize the victim will say anything to get it to stop. Hardly actionable intelligence.
No, torture is a terror tactic, for punishment and the amusement of the sick fokks that ordered it. Don't forget the video, we want to watch... We'll always have plenty of enemies as long as we torture prisoners, right? We need them for the MIC budget process.
Sick. Perverse. Evil. The New American Way.
Abusing prisoners is an act of cowardice.
Worth repeating so the entire World can see, read & say.
"Sick. Perverse. Evil. The New American Way."
Worth repeating so the entire World can see, read & say.
"Sick. Perverse. Evil. The New American Way."
Abusing known terrorist kingpins to get actionable intelligence is . . . a good idea.
Great here's a short list of "Domestic Terrorist"
George Bush Jr. & Senior
Dick Cheany
Condoleza Rice
Michael Hayden
Hillary & Bill Clinton
Obama
Eric Holder
Etc....Please feel free to add to the list.
You get the picture now don't you?
Uh, no. You'll have to explain how any of those people compare to the muslim assholes who keep beheading people on TV.
Sure. We, the Criminal Fraud UNITED STATES, CORP. INC. via the Criminal Fraud Pure Evil Pyschopaths at the CIA / State Dept.
are you ready? Here it is.
Are arming, funding & traing the same terror organgizations, they, the Crrimimal Fraud UNITED STATES, CORP. INC. claim to protect us from.
Get it now.
Funding them since the Mujahadeen
You idiot Troll.
"how any of those people compare "
Most of the above seem to have been paid better, and many of their crimes were not yet televised.
Oh yeah, and they haven't yet covered their faces in public - that comes with the perp walks in their future.
However, like the "muslim assholes who keep beheading people on TV", they also pretend to believe in something besides power and money.
The Americans on the list you refer to have a higher death toll and they don't commit their acts on TV, so it is hard to compare. Drone-bombing a wedding or beheading a journalist? Both are savage acts. Except one has multiple innocent men, women and children as victims and the other has one innocent victim.
I suppose part of your rhetoric is that the wedding victims would be guilty by proximity, so killing them is excusable.
Hand me the plunger.....
Torture victims will say anything, including the truth. With enough victims the random things they say will start to have a common theme. With well trained victims the random things will be mostly missing the one thing they are trying to hide. If they name numerous cities as the one they are going to attack the most likely target is one few of them name.
Longing for the days when "The Senate Torture Report" will broadcast a "Saw"-like TV show featuring McCain v. Graham opening for Mikulski v. Murkowski.
I couldn't actually watch that crap anymore than whatever's on now, but I could take some satisfaction in the turnaround.
As long as we support the State, any State, we will continue to see war, criminality and the abuse of humanity. As long as we support it and defend it, it will be acceptable.
The only way to have peace and prosperity is to develop peace and prosperity in our everyday actions and eschew the death and depravity of all forms of governance.
Acting as if there is some "grey" areas which justify these actions is the essence of evil.
As long as panty-waisted liberals are "embarrassed" anytime America tries to defend itself against people who behead journalists and aid workers and crash airliners into buildings full of innocent people, we will be on a path toward western European style extinction.
If you are really an Ayn rand fan, you would know that the purpose of government is to secure and protect the rights of the individual. Ripping away liberty because of the muslim monster under the bed is hardly a worthwhile trade.
You are 6,000 times more likely to die from heart disease than terrorism, yet I don't see you petitioning the goverment to protect you from that.
Amen brother! You are more likely to be run over by a toddler in your own driveway than be involved in a terrorist attack.
Thanks to ths shiny new police state we have, you are way more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist.
Thanks Nanny!
"As long as panty-waisted liberals are "embarrassed" anytime America tries to defend itself against people who behead journalists and aid workers and crash airliners into buildings full of innocent people, we will be on a path toward western European style extinction."
Most of the hijackers were Saudi Arabian, not Afghan or Iraqi. There is apparently a secret report, which some congress people are trying to get released, which may implicate some Saudi officials in complicity in the 9/11 attack.
Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. Assad had nothing to do with 9/11. Khadaffi had nothing to do with 9/11.
"As long as we support the State..."
Exactly. Pack a Gun & pay no tax into their Criminal Fraud UNITED STATES, CORP. INC.
Peaceful Non Compliance / Non Participation into a Criminal System of Debt Bondage, Torture & Enslavement.
If none of these things happened then why are they withholding some hundreds of additional torture pictures? Oh that's right, if the pictures get out our troops will be in danger.
God wills it!
I am sure glad that all that torture has effectively stopped any future terrorist attacks on US soil.....
Where is Cheney so I can shake his hand and tell him he was right?
Of course it is fucking SARC
We have been torturing each other since Adam.
As Darwin observed: "Survival is hell."
We did what was necessary to get the info. War is hell and they should have known better than to bring it to our shores. Period. And there were no future attacks during the Bush administration after 9/11. Have fun with that Truthers.
I think you're confused. The fact that there were no future attacks during the (rest of) Bush admin. doesn't discredit "Truthers", it strengthens the argument.
Despite what you are trying to spin, most critical free thinkers (and physicists) agree that the official narrative is just a fairy tale. The torture meme is a tired justification for evil acts.
I see you claim on your profile to be a fiscal conservative. Tell me, what part of our policy of endless warfare that you favor, costing 4-6 trillion dollars(so far) that we don't have and must either borrow or print, qualifies as being 'fiscally conservative'?
"We did what was necessary to get the info."
That is simply false narrative. Saddam was not tortured. He was interrogated. Torture is not a part of interrogation.
A CIA interrogator wrote a book. He refused to abuse any prisoner. He interrogated prisoners and obtained the information he needed.
There was no need to torture anyone.
With the level of publicity this is now getting even on the mainstream media I wonder if some asses will not be on the line for this one... this seems to be getting too big just to be swept under as per usual...
I dunno, they've got some mighty big rugs. It won't be in the media for very long.
Fan the flames MFers, fan the flames. A American woman was stabbed to death just the other day in a supposibly "safe" country in the ME while using the rest room as her two children waited just outside. I guess they want more of this type of thing. Dirty MFers, I wish it were their family members who were in danger.
"Fan the flames MFers, fan the flames. A American woman was stabbed to death just the other day in a supposibly "safe" country in the ME while using the rest room as her two children waited just outside. I guess they want more of this type of thing. Dirty MFers, I wish it were their family members who were in danger."
and round and round it will go. Retribution begets retribution begets retribution.
Their family memnber are in danger. We watch the war on TV, they live it.
You misunderstood. I meant the families of those that had committed the torture, and those who released the report. Not to long ago, this would have been classified Top Secret, and buried, where it belongs. TPTB want retribution.
It's sad to see even a few of the "My country, right or wrong" people writing in, in defense of torture. But - sigh - what can we do? They're here to stay - probably hoping to be offered jobs with Big Brother. In SOTT in October there was a useful piece titled "The cornerstone of war is dehumanization", and it begins with a quote from a soldier in the Vietnam War: "When somebody asks, why do you do this [torture] to people? Your answer is 'So what, they're just gooks, they're not people. It doesn't make any difference what you do to them; they're not human'."
Wow! I Guess the Hedge really has gone to hell in a handbasket. I was expecting the blood out of a turnip (as in just who are the detainees and why are we torturing them) argument only to find well.....shit. (Except a few like chupacabra). 9-11 was an INSIDE job....remember?
And the American media bears much of the blame, as they refused for years even to use the word “torture” to describe any of this.
And who exactly is "the American media"?
Who is responsible?
What are their names?
government == predators.
government == torture.