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15 Feb ’12
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that's pretty disturbing
Five years after President Obama ended the CIA's rendition and interrogation program, the Senate Intelligence Committee released its report on the agency's methods. Here are samples of some of the more harrowing passages about the program. Read about the key findings here and take a look back at the roots of the program.
1. Of the 119 CIA detainees, 26 should not have been apprehended. Among them was Abu Hudhaifa, who was "subjected to ice water baths and 66 hours of standing sleep deprivation" before the CIA discovered that he was probably "not the person he was believed to be."
2. President Bush received his first briefing on enhanced interrogation techniques in 2006, about four years after the program started. According to CIA records, Bush expressed discomfort with an image of a detainee "chained to the ceiling, clothed in a diaper."
3. The CIA used rectal feeding and rectal rehydration on at least five detainees. Even though detainee Majid Khan was cooperating with feedings, for example, the CIA subjected him to "involuntary rectal feeding and rectal hydration" and would puree his lunch tray, which was then "rectally infused."
4. CIA interrogators threatened to harm the family members of at least three detainees. In one case, a detainee was told that his mother's throat would be cut.
5. The CIA apprehended two foreigners working for a "partner government" allied with the agency. They were subjected to sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation. The two detainees were trying to give the CIA information on possible future al-Qaeda attacks. It took them months to get released.
6. Abu Zubaida, the CIA's first detainee, spent 266 hours in a coffin-size confinement box. Zubaida, who was born Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, often "cried, begged, pleaded, and whimpered" and was told that the only way he would leave the facility was in the coffin-shaped box.
7. When Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times, tried to breathe during the procedure, interrogators held his lips and poured water over his mouth.
8. The Senate committee found a photo of what looked like a well-used waterboarding station at a site where there was no reported use of the technique. The CIA could not explain the presence of the waterboard.
9. Of the at least 26 detainees who were wrongfully held, one was "intellectually challenged." Interrogators taped this detainee crying and used it as leverage against one of his relatives.
10. CIA officers would "strip a detainee naked, shackle him in the standing position for up to 72 hours, and douse [him] repeatedly with cold water."
15 Feb ’12
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okay that's messed up
Ex-CIA Operative Says Prison Was Punishment for Whistleblowing on Torture
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou is the only CIA employee connected to its interrogation program to go to prison. But he was prosecuted for providing information to reporters, not for anything connected to waterboarding or other actions that today’s Senate Intelligence Committee report calls “torture.”
No other person connected to the program has been charged with a crime, after the Justice Department said their actions had been approved legally or that there was not sufficient admissible evidence in a couple cases of potential wrongdoing, even in light of the death of two detainees in the early 2000s.
Today the Justice Department said that the Senate Intelligence report didn’t provide new information that would lead them to reopen any of the old cases.
Kiriakou was the first person with direct knowledge of the CIA interrogation program to publicly reveal its existence, in an interview with ABC News in 2007. He is now serving a nearly-three-year prison sentence for violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, but he says that’s only what the government wants people to believe.
“In truth, this is my punishment for blowing the whistle on the CIA’s illegal torture program and for telling the public that torture was official U.S. government policy,” Kiriakou said in a letter last May from a prison in Loretto, Penn. “But that’s a different story.”
In his groundbreaking interview with ABC News and later with other news outlets, Kiriakou described the details of the program which he had been briefed on but never witnessed firsthand. In some cases, it turned out that even Kiriakou, who served briefly as an ABC News consultant, was misled or kept in the dark about the extent of the program
For instance, he told ABC News that al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah broke after being water boarded once for less than 35 seconds and began answering “every question” the next day. “The threat information he provided disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks," Kiriakou said.
But later it was revealed Kiriakou was wrong and Zubaydah had been waterboarded 83 times, according to CIA documents released in 2009. Kiriakou later said in a book that the number of waterboarding sessions “rais[ed] questions about how much useful information he actually supplied.”
Though Kiriakou’s 2007 admissions angered the CIA, the Agency said they were unrelated to the DOJ investigation that in 2012 accused Kiriakou of disclosing the name of the covert CIA operative to a reporter.
Kiriakou pleaded guilty to one charge in early 2013 and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Since, he and his supporters have mounted a public campaign aimed at getting him a pardon.
15 Feb ’12
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Interesting stance by MaCain, wonder if he is happy that is released because it will fuel further military action in the ME
(CNN) -- Republican Sen. John McCain broke with members of his party Tuesday, lauding the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on torture and decrying the use of torture as having "stained our national honor" and doing "much harm and little practical good."
McCain, a survivor of torture himself from his Naval service during the Vietnam War, said from the Senate floor that the techniques outlined in the report "not only failed their purpose — to secure actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the U.S. and our allies — but actually damaged our security interests, as well as our reputation as a force for good in the world."
Many Republicans have argued against releasing the report, especially as the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria grows, and U.S. intelligence officials have warned that its release could cause backlash from nations and groups hostile towards the nation. American embassies in the Middle East have been put on heightened security alert for its release.
McCain said that while "the truth is a hard pill to swallow...the American people are entitled to it." And he acknowledged that violence against the U.S. from the "Muslim world" is "possible..perhaps likely," but argued that America's enemies "hardly need an excuse" to attack the nation, so the good done by the release of the report should trump any security concerns.
"This report strengthens self-government and, ultimately, I believe, America's security and stature in the world," he said.
During his comments, McCain referenced his own experience with torture and argued that it "produces more misleading information than actionable intelligence," and that "we can and we will" win the war on terrorism without such techniques.
But he argued that the U.S. shouldn't resort to such tactics not just because they're ineffective and potentially dangerous, but because they undermine the nation's values and beliefs.
"I have often said, and will always maintain, that this question isn't about our enemies; it's about us. It's about who we were, who we are and who we aspire to be. It's about how we represent ourselves to the world," he said.
McCain added: "When we fight to defend our security we fight also for an idea...that all men are endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights."
"Our enemies act without conscience. We must not," he added.
15 Feb ’12
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That's quite the pay scale
2 psychologists earned $81M from CIA torture tactics
The Central Intelligence Agency’s torture of detainees was developed by two inexperienced contractors who were eventually paid $81 million for their work, according to a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the program released Tuesday.
The two psychologists were working at the U.S. Air Force Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
They had no knowledge of interrogation techniques, al Qaeda, counterterrorism or “any relevant cultural or linguistic expertise,” the report said.
The report suggests that the program was poorly managed with limited oversight. A surprisingly small number of officials were running the program.
The two contractors played a central role — they developed, operated and assessed its interrogation operations.
Modal Trigger
“The CIA relied on these two contractors to evaluate the interrogation program they had devised and in which they had obvious financial interests,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat of California, said in a statement on the Senate floor.
From 2005 to 2008, the CIA “outsourced almost all aspects of its detention and interrogation program to this company,” Feinstein said. The contract was worth $181 million but only $81 million was paid, she said.
The two contractors personally conducted interrogations, including waterboarding, of the CIA’s most significant detainees. They provided official evaluations of the psychological state of detainees to determine if the enhanced techniques would continue.
“Evaluating the psychological state of the very detainees they were interrogating is a clear conflict of interest and a violation of professional guidelines,” Feinstein said.
The two contractors even acted as a liaison between the CIA and foreign intelligence services.
The names of the two contractors were not provided, but they were referred to in the report by the pseudonyms Grayson Swigert and Hammond Dunbar.
15 Feb ’12
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Reactions from around the world
Media around the world condemn as shocking the revelations in a US Senate report that the CIA used brutal techniques to interrogate al-Qaeda suspects.
Traditional critics of US foreign policy, like the media in China, Russia and Iran, use the report to accuse Washington of not having the "moral right" to condemn the human rights records of other states.
Some commentators suspect the Democrat administration in the White House of making the revelations public just in order to attack its Republican opponents during whose rule the interrogations took place.
"No role model"
"Perhaps the US government should clean up its own backyard first and respect the rights of other countries to resolve their issues by themselves," suggests China's state-run Xinhua news agency. "America is neither a suitable role model nor a qualified judge on human rights issues in other countries… including China," says the commentary.
Although the story features prominently mainly in the international news sections rather than on the front pages, criticism of CIA actions is outspoken. "The report will be powerful evidence that will totally unveil the ugly human rights face of the US and will serve a heavy blow to its credibility and international image," predicts pro-Beijing Hong Kong paperTa Kung Pao.
"CIA torture report reveals chilling torture techniques," says a headline in the Peninsula Morning Post.
In Russia, state-run Channel One TV said in its news bulletins that the Senate report "makes people shudder". "This is a real bomb," added a reporter, detainees "were tortured with an inquisitor's ingeniousness".
"No blame"
Some media are suspicious of the White House's true intentions for revealing CIA torture techniques.
"This belated report has finally been released thanks to Obama's support, because of his need to attack his opponents in the Republican Party and thanks to letters by human rights experts at the UN," opines acommentator in Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao.
Russian state-owned news TV channel Rossiya 24 also highlights differences between President Obama's Democrats and their opponents. The TV showed former Republican President George W Bush praising the CIA and saying that if the report diminished the contributions of "patriots", then "it is way off base".
The end result of the senators' work is "a document that fails to assign any blame for the abuse of detainees," quipped a presenter on Russian English-language international broadcaster RT.
Iran's international-facing English-language Press TV also stated in its news bulletins that "despite the report, the US Justice Department says it will not reopen criminal investigation into CIA torture".
"A confrontation between the Obama administration (Democrats) and his critics (Republicans) over making the report public and the danger of its subsequent fallout in other countries has begun," states Iranian dailyVatan-e Emruz.
Iranian media in general use the word "shocking" to describe the findings of the Senate investigation. "Torture, surveillance, shooting - the three pillars of American human rights," reads the front-page caption of Tehran's Hemayat. "It puts a question mark over… American human rights," the paper adds.
Most of the press in other Middle Eastern countries, however, do not comment on the CIA report, preferring instead to focus on the results of the Gulf Co-operation Council summit in Doha.
"Sign of national greatness"
Praise for what some analysts see as brave step by the White House to reveal torture committed by its intelligence agency can be found mainly in the media of countries that are US allies.
"Obama's admission of guilt is a sign of national greatness," say a commentary in the German daily Bild. "The country that cuts itself loose from these crimes deserves the highest respect. America's conscience has gained a victory," the article declares.
For Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, "the public airing of scandals and errors is one of the basic pillars of democracy". The newspaper argues that this is particularly important in the case of the United States. "The country that sees itself as a moral world power needs such steps to win back the confidence that the Bush administration squandered with this part of its 'war against terror'."
An article on Radio France Internationale's website, however, terms the Senate report "a complicated exercise in democracy", while the French press openly condemns the methods used by the CIA. The United States faces a "dark era" in its history, announces the daily Le Monde. "Lies and torture," adds L'Express in its headline.
In Spain, an editorial in El Pais argues that after the revelations, the US can no longer present itself as "a beacon of freedom".
15 Feb ’12
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will be interesting to see how this develops
Americans Involved in Torture Can Be Prosecuted Abroad, Analysts Say
UNITED NATIONS — The United States is obliged by international law to investigate its citizens suspected of engaging in torture, but even if it does not, Americans who ordered or carried out torture can be prosecuted abroad, by legal bodies including the International Criminal Court, legal experts say.
Whether they will be is another question. That’s largely a political determination. But calls for international prosecution, legal experts say, are likely to grow so long as the United States chooses not to prosecute its own.
“If I am someone implicated in the torture report, I am thinking twice about traveling to Europe anytime soon,” said Steve Vladeck, a law professor at American University in Washington. “It puts those governments in a sticky position if someone who is accused of torture presents themselves on that country’s soil.”
Three questions arise from the United States Senate’s release of an internal investigation into the interrogation tactics of the Central Intelligence Agency.
First, must the United States prosecute its own citizens? According to the International Convention on Torture, which the United States has ratified, the federal authorities are obligated to conduct “a prompt and impartial investigation.”
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, said in a statement on Wednesday that while he welcomed the release of the Senate report, he hoped it would lead to accountability of those who ordered, enabled, or carried out torture. “The convention lets no one off the hook — neither the torturers themselves, nor the policy-makers, nor the public officials who define the policy or give the orders.”
Second, can the International Criminal Court prosecute these cases?
In principle, yes, though the prospects of a prosecution, experts say, are exceedingly slim and a political hot potato. Even though the United States has not signed the treaty that created the tribunal, the court can prosecute the most serious crimes in countries that have signed it, like Afghanistan, where some of the torture was said to have occurred.
Indeed, in early December, the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, for the first time confirmed that she was “assessing available information” on the American military’s “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
“While continuing to assess the seriousness and reliability of such allegations, the office is analyzing the relevance and genuineness of national proceedings by the competent national authorities for the alleged conduct described above as well as the gravity of the alleged crimes,” the prosecutor said in a report summarizing the work of her office.
Poland, long suspected of having an American-run “black site” for terror suspects, also falls under the court’s jurisdiction. A former Polish president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, on Wednesday confirmed the existence of the secret prison on his country’s territory, saying that it was part of an effort to build Polish-American trust.
Jordan J. Paust, professor of international law at the University of Houston, said that any of the 122 countries that have submitted themselves to the authority of the I.C.C. could arrest a torture suspect and then turn him or her over to The Hague-based tribunal. The prospect of a prosecution overseas, he said, could be even more likely, because of the Obama administration’s reluctance to prosecute, which he called a major disappointment.
But for Ms. Bensouda, who has had enormous difficulty even gaining custody of some of her most high-profile defendants, let alone winning convictions, the prospect of going after Americans could prove especially tricky. The court is still new, and fragile, said one of her former colleagues, Alex Whiting, and picking a fight with the United States could be “damaging” to the court’s standing in the world.
“On the other hand the legitimacy of the court depends on it reaching a point where it treats countries alike,” said Mr. Whiting, who was the prosecution coordinator in The Hague from 2010 until last year and now teaches law at Harvard University. “The court is in a very difficult position on this.”
Besides, trying a case that involves torture, especially in a place like Afghanistan, is likely to be difficult, he and others said, especially if the United States refuses to cooperate in furnishing evidence of who did what and who gave orders. A case against the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, fell apart, Ms. Bensouda said, because she could not muster sufficient evidence to proceed.
The third and final question: Can a C.I.A. officer suspected of torture — or even the former C.I.A. boss, Michael V. Hayden — be arrested while visiting Europe, under universal jurisdiction laws? Again, in principle yes, though diplomatically, that seems unlikely anytime soon. Several countries have laws on the books that allow them to try those accused of human rights abuses. Spain in 1998 sought to prosecute the former Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet, on these grounds.
Diane Orentlicher, a law professor at American University, said that countries that pursued cross-border justice most aggressively have since limited the reach of their laws. “That said, efforts to invoke universal jurisdiction or to persuade states where torture occurred to prosecute those responsible are likely to continue as long as the United States is seen as falling short of meeting its own responsibilities to ensure accountability,” she argued.
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