Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

US: Senate Report Slams CIA Torture, Lies in Human Rights Debacle

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • US: Senate Report Slams CIA Torture, Lies in Human Rights Debacle

    US: Senate Report Slams CIA Torture, Lies
    Release Full Study; Investigate Senior Officials

    DECEMBER 10, 2014

    (Washington, DC) ? The US Senate Intelligence Committee?s report summary on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detention and interrogation program is a powerful denunciation of the agency?s extensive and systematic use of torture, Human Rights Watch said today. The 525-page partially redacted summary, released on December 9, 2014, is part of a 6,700-page classified report that the committee has still not indicated it plans to release.

    The summary documents numerous misrepresentations the CIA made about the program?s effectiveness and demonstrates US officials? knowledge that it was illegal. It underscores the need for the US government to promptly release the full report, bolster oversight of the CIA, and investigate and appropriately prosecute the senior officials responsible for the torture program, Human Rights Watch said.

    more....


  • #2
    Re: US: Senate Report Slams CIA Torture, Lies in Human Rights Debacle

    After CIA torture revelations, US must now recover moral high ground ? UN expert

    11 December 2014 ? The United States' use of torture when interrogating prisoners captured in its ?War on Terror? has damaged the country's moral high ground and created a set-back in the global fight against the condemnable practice, a United Nations human rights expert has declared.

    ?The example set by the United States on the use of torture has been a big draw-back in the fight against such practice in many other countries throughout the world,? Juan Mendez, the UN's Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, said in a news release today.

    As a Special Rapporteur with a mandate to visit numerous countries across the globe, he added that now Member States were either implicitly or explicitly telling him ?Why look at us? If the US tortures, why can't we do it??

    ?We have lost a little bit of the moral high ground,? he continued. ?But it can be regained and it should be regained.?

    Mr. Mendez's comments follow the long-awaited release of the US Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA interrogation techniques which concluded that US high officials promoted, encouraged and allowed the use of torture after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and during President George W. Bush's administration. The practice, known as ?enhanced interrogation techniques,? was terminated by President Barack Obama.

    The Special Rapporteur commended the ?thorough and frank? report, particularly as it managed to break through a wall of silence put into place by the former administration which, he said, had ?aggressively and repeatedly rejected the principles of transparency and accountability and maintains the pattern of denial and defense.?

    ?It is the Government's responsibility to let the US people know what happened during the years when extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and so-called enhanced interrogation techniques were practiced, and to ensure accountability and transparency to the fullest extent possible.?

    Mr. Mendez noted that despite the United States' continued use of torture in interrogating prisoners suspected of affiliations with terrorist groups, the practice was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees. Instead, he added, the torture programmes had made the matter of terrorism worse and provided ?a breeding ground for more terrorism.?

    ?As a nation that has publicly affirmed its belief that respect for truth advances respect for the rule of law, and as a nation that frequently calls for transparency and accountability in other countries, the United States must rise to meet the standards it has set both for itself and for others.?

    "Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
    -Nelson Mandela

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: US: Senate Report Slams CIA Torture, Lies in Human Rights Debacle


      The CIA Torture Details Are Appalling
      Business Insider
      Dec. 9, 2014, 11:21 AM

      ...
      You can read the full report here (PDF).

      ...

      Full details of the report are below, but here are some of the most shocking findings:
      • Bush was not briefed during the first four years of the program, but Vice President Dick Cheney was.
      • A CIA email from 2003 said "the White House is extremely concerned [Secretary of State Colin] Powell would blow his stack if he were to be briefed" about the details of the program.
      • The report says the CIA paid two psychologists more than $80 million to come up with torture methods. In the report's executive summary, the programs developed by the CIA and these two contractors are described as "brutal" and "in violation of U.S. law, treaty obligations, and our values."
      • Additionally, the report found the agency paid millions of dollars, in cash, to foreign governments to get them to host "black sites" where interrogations were held (two of which were not used because of political concerns about the host countries). The report says one country paid by the CIA torture program was told that the black site was serving a different purpose entirely.
      • Torture programs described in the report include "rectal feeding," sleep deprivation, insects, use of diapers, and mock executions. According to the report, "rectal hydration" was used as a means of "behavior control."
      • The CIA accidentally tortured two of its informants.
      • CIA forced detainees to wear diapers "to cause humiliation" and "induce a sense of helplessness." Learned helplessness is used to coerce the prisoner's cooperation in terms of confessions, many of which later turn out to be false.
      • The report repeatedly questions the quality of the information obtained through enhanced interrogation techniques. It found at least 26 people were wrongly detained as part of the program. One detainee was recommended for release because he was given to the CIA under false pretenses. Instead, the CIA transferred the detainee to US custody for another four years. The report noted detainees who were tortured "provided fabricated information on critical intelligence issues."
      • According to the report, CIA officials, including the agency's former director, Michael Hayden, repeatedly lied about details of the program. The report describes instances of the CIA misleading the Department of Justice, a US Senate committee, and the media about the usage and effectiveness of enhanced interrogation techniques. It says that the CIA attempted to manipulate press coverage of the program. Hayden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about the report.



      _____________________________________________

      Ask Congress to Investigate COVID Origins and Government Response to Pandemic.

      i love myself. the quietest. simplest. most powerful. revolution ever. ---- nayyirah waheed

      "...there’s an obvious contest that’s happening between different sectors of the colonial ruling class in this country. And they would, if they could, lump us into their beef, their struggle." ---- Omali Yeshitela, African People’s Socialist Party

      (My posts are not intended as advice or professional assessments of any kind.)
      Never forget Excalibur.

      Comment

      Working...
      X