Difference between revisions of "CIA/Torture"

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|description=US foreign policy has made extensive use of torture and continues to do so.
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* The [[Obama]] Administration itself has declassified and publicly released torture information that "contains inaccurate characterizations of CIA programs" and "is misleading and inaccurate."<ref>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/obama-is-complicit-in-suppressing-the-truth-about-torture/284225/</ref>
 
* The [[Obama]] Administration itself has declassified and publicly released torture information that "contains inaccurate characterizations of CIA programs" and "is misleading and inaccurate."<ref>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/obama-is-complicit-in-suppressing-the-truth-about-torture/284225/</ref>
  
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==Insider Confirmation==
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==History==
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In 2004 [[CIA]] retiree, [[Bob Baer]] told a reporter of the British political weekly ''[[New Statesman]]'', how the CIA deals with [[terrorism]] suspects, "If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to [[Jordan]]. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to [[Syria]]. If you want someone to [[Forced disappearance|disappear]] - never to see them again - you send them to [[Egypt]]."
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The [[CIA]]'s [[Operation Phoenix]] used the lawless environment of the [[Vietnam War]] to carry out research on the use of [[torture]]. Methods included "[[rape]], gang rape, rape using eels, snakes, or hard objects, and rape followed by murder; electric shock ('the Bell Telephone Hour') rendered by attaching wires to the genitals or other sensitive parts of the body, like the tongue; the 'water treatment'; the 'airplane' in which the prisoner's arms were tied behind the back, and the rope looped over a hook on the ceiling, suspending the prisoner in midair, after which he or she was beaten; beatings with rubber hoses and whips; the use of police dogs to maul prisoners.<ref name="Blakely, Ruth 2009 50">{{cite book|author=Blakely, Ruth|title=State terrorism and neoliberalism: the North in the South|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|year=2009|isbn=978-0-415-46240-2|page=50|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=FoxuDCMmlqoC&pg=PA50}}</ref>
 +
 
 +
Military intelligence officer [[K. Milton Osborne]] witnessed "The use of the insertion of the 6-inch dowel into the canal of one of my detainee's ears, and the tapping through the brain until dead. The starvation to death (in a cage), of a Vietnamese woman who was suspected of being part of the local political education cadre in one of the local villages ... The use of electronic gear such as sealed telephones attached to ... both the women's vaginas and men's testicles <nowiki>[</nowiki>to<nowiki>]</nowiki> shock them into submission."<ref>{{cite book|authors=[[Joe Allen (writer)|Allen, Joe]] & [[John Pilger|Pilger, John]]|title=Vietnam: the (last) war the U.S. lost|publisher=[[Haymarket Books]]|year=2008|isbn=978-1-931859-49-3 |page=164|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EE1Rs6kBWssC&pg=PA164}}</ref>
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The CIA and special forces reportedly supervised and trained South Vietnamese forces in carrying out the torture.<ref name="Harbury, Jennifer 2005 97">{{cite book|author=[[Jennifer Harbury|Harbury, Jennifer]]|title=Truth, torture, and the American way: the history and consequences of U.S. involvement in torture|publisher=[[Beacon Press]]|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8070-0307-7|page=97|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=ZIcZjlj1hLEC&pg=PA97}}</ref>
 +
 
 +
==Location==
 +
Torture is carried out at a range of locations, including [[Guantanamo Bay]] and a network of CIA secret 'black sites'. In 2004 CIA retiree, [[Bob Baer]] told a reporter of the British political weekly ''[[New Statesman]]'', how the CIA deals with [[terrorism]] suspects, "If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to [[Jordan]]. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to [[Syria]]. If you want someone to [[Forced disappearance|disappear]] - never to see them again - you send them to [[Egypt]]."
  
 
==Legislative challenges==
 
==Legislative challenges==
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Two [[FBI]] informants, [[Donald Vance]] and [[Nathan Ertel]] were detained and tortured in Iraq in 2006 by the [[US]] occupying forces without any legal representaion. They filed suit for damages and [[Alternet]] reported that "Former [[Secretary of Defense]] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] has been stripped of legal immunity for acts of torture against US citizens authorized while he was in office." However, in 2012 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Rumsfeld could not be sued for his role in approving the torture techniques, a decision which the [[US Supreme Court]] upheld in 2013 without comment, establishing that US military officials are immune to civil lawsuits over torture.<ref>http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/668680/welcome_to_boston%2C_mr._rumsfeld._you_are_under_arrest./#paragraph2/</ref><ref>http://www.neontommy.com/news/2011/09/donald-rumsfeld-stripped-immunity-torture-case</ref><ref>http://rt.com/usa/supreme-rumsfeld-vance-court-493/</ref>
 
Two [[FBI]] informants, [[Donald Vance]] and [[Nathan Ertel]] were detained and tortured in Iraq in 2006 by the [[US]] occupying forces without any legal representaion. They filed suit for damages and [[Alternet]] reported that "Former [[Secretary of Defense]] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] has been stripped of legal immunity for acts of torture against US citizens authorized while he was in office." However, in 2012 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Rumsfeld could not be sued for his role in approving the torture techniques, a decision which the [[US Supreme Court]] upheld in 2013 without comment, establishing that US military officials are immune to civil lawsuits over torture.<ref>http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/668680/welcome_to_boston%2C_mr._rumsfeld._you_are_under_arrest./#paragraph2/</ref><ref>http://www.neontommy.com/news/2011/09/donald-rumsfeld-stripped-immunity-torture-case</ref><ref>http://rt.com/usa/supreme-rumsfeld-vance-court-493/</ref>
  
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==Senate Intelligence Committee investigation==
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===Senate Intelligence Committee investigation===
 
A 6300 page report by the [[Senate Intelligence Committee]] concluded that the [[CIA]] misled the US government and the public about aspects of its 'brutal interrogation program' for years. One (unnamed) U.S. official briefed on the report stated "The CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives. Was that actually true? The answer is no.”<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-misled-on-interrogation-program-senate-report-says/2014/03/31/eb75a82a-b8dd-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html</ref>
 
A 6300 page report by the [[Senate Intelligence Committee]] concluded that the [[CIA]] misled the US government and the public about aspects of its 'brutal interrogation program' for years. One (unnamed) U.S. official briefed on the report stated "The CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives. Was that actually true? The answer is no.”<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-misled-on-interrogation-program-senate-report-says/2014/03/31/eb75a82a-b8dd-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html</ref>
  
 
[[image:torture-us.jpg|right|550px]]
 
[[image:torture-us.jpg|right|550px]]
 +
 
==US public opinion==
 
==US public opinion==
 
A YouGov survey of December 2011 stated that 47 per cent of Americans believe that torture is sometimes justified. In 2014 [[Sarah Palin]] urged for an increased use of torture in what the UK Independent referred to as a "crowd-pleasing speech to Republican grass-roots".<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10794527/Sarah-Palin-waterboarding-is-how-I-would-baptise-terrorists.html</ref>
 
A YouGov survey of December 2011 stated that 47 per cent of Americans believe that torture is sometimes justified. In 2014 [[Sarah Palin]] urged for an increased use of torture in what the UK Independent referred to as a "crowd-pleasing speech to Republican grass-roots".<ref>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10794527/Sarah-Palin-waterboarding-is-how-I-would-baptise-terrorists.html</ref>

Revision as of 17:26, 12 May 2015

Event.png CIA/TortureRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
Interest of• Jeffrey Kaye
• Alfred McCoy
US foreign policy has made extensive use of torture since at least the 1960s, and continues to do so.

A Senate intelligence committee into the CIA's torture program produced a 6000 page report after a $40 Million investigation, which has never been made public. In 2014, one member of this committee, Senator Mark Udall, wrote a letter to the White House, alleging that

  • The CIA is erecting "impediments and obstacles" to its overseers.
  • The CIA's internal review of its torture program contradicts what it told the oversight committee.
  • The Obama Administration itself has declassified and publicly released torture information that "contains inaccurate characterizations of CIA programs" and "is misleading and inaccurate."[1]

History

The CIA's Operation Phoenix used the lawless environment of the Vietnam War to carry out research on the use of torture. Methods included "rape, gang rape, rape using eels, snakes, or hard objects, and rape followed by murder; electric shock ('the Bell Telephone Hour') rendered by attaching wires to the genitals or other sensitive parts of the body, like the tongue; the 'water treatment'; the 'airplane' in which the prisoner's arms were tied behind the back, and the rope looped over a hook on the ceiling, suspending the prisoner in midair, after which he or she was beaten; beatings with rubber hoses and whips; the use of police dogs to maul prisoners.[2]

Military intelligence officer K. Milton Osborne witnessed "The use of the insertion of the 6-inch dowel into the canal of one of my detainee's ears, and the tapping through the brain until dead. The starvation to death (in a cage), of a Vietnamese woman who was suspected of being part of the local political education cadre in one of the local villages ... The use of electronic gear such as sealed telephones attached to ... both the women's vaginas and men's testicles [to] shock them into submission."[3]

The CIA and special forces reportedly supervised and trained South Vietnamese forces in carrying out the torture.[4]

Location

Torture is carried out at a range of locations, including Guantanamo Bay and a network of CIA secret 'black sites'. In 2004 CIA retiree, Bob Baer told a reporter of the British political weekly New Statesman, how the CIA deals with terrorism suspects, "If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear - never to see them again - you send them to Egypt."

Legislative challenges

In 2005, US Senator John McCain, a former POW from the Vietnam War, attached a passage to a military spending bill that would proscribe inhumane treatment of detainees and restrict US officials to use only the interrogation techniques mentioned in the US Army's field manual on interrogation. Ninety of the one hundred Senators supported this amendment.

On Thursday, October 20, 2005, Vice President Dick Cheney proposed a change to McCain. Cheney unsuccessfully tried to get McCain to limit the proscription to just military personnel, thus allowing CIA personnel the freedom to use torture.[5]

Former US President George W Bush has openly admitted authorising torture and since 2011 has been the subject of ongoing legal action in this regard.[6]. Dick Cheney has been more guarded, stating that "Some people called it torture. It wasn’t torture... If I would have to do it all over again, I would. The results speak for themselves."[7]

Rumsfeld Torture Suit

Two FBI informants, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel were detained and tortured in Iraq in 2006 by the US occupying forces without any legal representaion. They filed suit for damages and Alternet reported that "Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been stripped of legal immunity for acts of torture against US citizens authorized while he was in office." However, in 2012 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Rumsfeld could not be sued for his role in approving the torture techniques, a decision which the US Supreme Court upheld in 2013 without comment, establishing that US military officials are immune to civil lawsuits over torture.[8][9][10]

Senate Intelligence Committee investigation

A 6300 page report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that the CIA misled the US government and the public about aspects of its 'brutal interrogation program' for years. One (unnamed) U.S. official briefed on the report stated "The CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the Department of Justice and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives. Was that actually true? The answer is no.”[11]

Torture-us.jpg

US public opinion

A YouGov survey of December 2011 stated that 47 per cent of Americans believe that torture is sometimes justified. In 2014 Sarah Palin urged for an increased use of torture in what the UK Independent referred to as a "crowd-pleasing speech to Republican grass-roots".[12]

Public Admission

US President Barack Obama admitted on August 1st, 2014, that "we tortured some folks", but was unforthcoming about the consequent prosecutions mandated by the United Nations Convention Against Torture.[13]

Support

In April 2015, The New York Times fingered the American Psychological Association in the torture programme.[14] Other had described it as "central" to the programme[15] [16]

Torture Training

The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the US Army School of the Americas has for decades trained government personnel of Latin American countries in techniques such as torture.

See Also

https://wikispooks.com/wiki/9-11/Commission/Report#Procedural_issues


 

Related Quotations

PageQuoteAuthorDate
APA“The military psychologists’ claims of offering quality care to detainees is false. A few years ago, I received documents via Freedom of Information Act that showed that at least one detainee who died ostensibly of suicide at Guantanamo, Mohamed Al Hanashi, killed himself in large part because of a negative encounter with a military psychologist.”Jeffrey Kaye29 July 2018
Black site“They would have had to all three tie their hands and feet together, shove rags down their throats, put a mask over their face, made a noose, hung it from the ceiling on the side of the cellblock, jumped into the noose, and hung themselves simultaneously. In a cellblock where guards are ordered to check on detainees every four minutes. They had a policy that if a detainee is hunger-striking, he cannot be interrogated, I believe the number-one mission in JTF-GTMO (Joint Task Force Guantanamo) at the time was, stop the hunger strikes at all costs. I think you get rid of the people that provoked the hunger strikes and you get rid of the problem. After the deaths, there were no hunger strikes for a long period of time.”Joseph Hickman2015
Black site“They always followed the same procedure. We were always told to keep away. The planes would stay at the end of the runway, often with their engines running. A couple of military vans from the nearby intelligence base would go up to them, stay a while and then drive off, out of the airport. "I saw several of these flights but never saw inside the vans because they had tinted windows and they never stopped at the terminal building”Mariola Przewlocka2006
Black site“The US does not torture. I have not authorized it and I will not”George W. Bush2005
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References

  1. ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/obama-is-complicit-in-suppressing-the-truth-about-torture/284225/
  2. ↑ Blakely, Ruth (2009). State terrorism and neoliberalism: the North in the South. Taylor & Francis. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-415-46240-2.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  3. ↑ Allen, Joe & Pilger, John (2008). Vietnam: the (last) war the U.S. lost. Haymarket Books. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-931859-49-3.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  4. ↑ Harbury, Jennifer (2005). Truth, torture, and the American way: the history and consequences of U.S. involvement in torture. Beacon Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-8070-0307-7.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css must have content model "Sanitized CSS" for TemplateStyles (current model is "Scribunto").
  5. ↑ {{URL|example.com|optional display text}}
  6. ↑ http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/bush-torture-indictment
  7. ↑ http://www.juancole.com/2014/04/ordering-torture-waterboard.html
  8. ↑ http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/668680/welcome_to_boston%2C_mr._rumsfeld._you_are_under_arrest./#paragraph2/
  9. ↑ http://www.neontommy.com/news/2011/09/donald-rumsfeld-stripped-immunity-torture-case
  10. ↑ http://rt.com/usa/supreme-rumsfeld-vance-court-493/
  11. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-misled-on-interrogation-program-senate-report-says/2014/03/31/eb75a82a-b8dd-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html
  12. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10794527/Sarah-Palin-waterboarding-is-how-I-would-baptise-terrorists.html
  13. ↑ http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/08/obama-we-tortured-some-folks
  14. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/01/us/report-says-american-psychological-association-collaborated-on-torture-justification.html
  15. ↑ http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/10/new-evidence-links-cia-apas-war-terror-ethics.html
  16. ↑ http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-01/who%E2%80%99s-crazy-now-american-psychological-association-supported-torture-%E2%80%9C-every-critica
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