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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Rude Pundit - Working Though the Torture Report, Part 1: Janat Gul Tortured for Nothing
Page 11 of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's report, "Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program":
"Conditions at CIA detention sites were poor, and were especially bleak early in the program. CIA detainees at the COBALT detention facility were kept in complete darkness and constantly shackled in isolated cells with loud noise or music and only a bucket to use for human waste. Lack of heat at the facility likely contributed to the death of a detainee. The chief of interrogations described COBALT as a 'dungeon.' Another senior CIA officer stated that COBALT was itself an enhanced interrogation technique.
"At times, the detainees at COBALT were walked around naked or were shackled with their hands above their heads for extended periods of time. Other times, the detainees at COBALT were subjected to what was described as a 'rough takedown,' in which approximately five CIA officers would scream at a detainee, drag him outside of his cell, cut his clothes off, and secure him with Mylar tape. The detainee would then be hooded and dragged up and down a long corridor while being slapped and punched."
Also on page 11:
"CIA officers also threatened at least three detainees with harm to their families to include threats to harm the children of a detainee, threats to sexually abuse the mother of a detainee, and a threat to 'cut (a detainee's) mother's throat.'"
Starting on page 164:
"After being rendered to CIA custody on July (redacted) 2004, Janat Gul was subjected to the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques, including continuous sleep deprivation, facial holds, attention grasps, facial slaps, stress positions, and walling, until he experienced auditory and visual hallucinations. According to a cable, Janat Gul was 'not oriented to time or place' and told CIA officers that he saw 'his wife and children in the mirror and had heard their voices in the white noise.' The questioning of Janat Gul continued, although the CIA ceased using the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques for several days. According to a CIA cable, '(Gul) asked to die, or just be killed.' After continued interrogation sessions with Gul, on August 19, 2004, CIA detention site personnel wrote that the interrogation 'team does not believe (Gul) is withholding imminent threat information.' On August 21, 2004, a cable from CIA Headquarters stated that Janat Gul 'is believed' to possess threat information, and that the 'use of enhanced techniques is appropriate in order to obtain that information.' On that day, August 21, 2004, CIA interrogators resumed using the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques against Gul."
You got that? At the CIA's detention site, where they were torturing Janat Gul, the torturers said that he had no information. CIA Headquarters demanded that he be tortured some more. Someone in a position of authority above the torturers said to continue the torture. And they did get something out of him eventually. See, Gul was accused of being a terrorist by a single source. Even though Gul gave no information on any plots, the CIA saw his torture as successful. Why? Because his inability to provide information under torture proved that the source who gave him up was a liar.
" T)he CIA began representing that its enhanced interrogation techniques were required for Gul to deny the existence of the threat, thereby disproving the credibility of the CIA source."
That's right. He knew nothing. But he was forced to stand for 47 hours straight, wearing a diaper, with no sleep, just to prove he knew nothing. And the CIA decided to say that the glass was half-full.
Fuck us. Truly. Fuck us.
More later. The Rude Pundit needs a mid-afternoon six-pack.
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2014/12/working-though-torture-report-part-1.html
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Now I've heard everything!
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)If nothing else, these monsters know their history.
underpants
(182,788 posts)Warpy
(111,254 posts)Torture produces no information. It becomes a game to say anything to make it stop.
Torture's only benefit is to the torturer, who gets his sick jollies doing it.
Abrogating the Geneva Conventions should have gotten Bush & Cheney convicted of treason before their terms were up. Now it will cost US lives in conflicts around the world.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Smells like Poppy Bush's legacy.
Matariki
(18,775 posts)It needs to be called what it is. ALWAYS.
The United States TORTURED people. PERIOD.
cyberswede
(26,117 posts)Speechless.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)calimary
(81,225 posts)I wish we'd been able to do SOMETHING to stop them. One more reason why I hate the GOP and the whole Pox Noise/radio gas giant machine. They did their damnedest to cover for these godless heartless soulless bastards.
And they'll sure try to keep the cover going. But they can't fool anybody anymore. They can't hide from it or excuse it or otherwise make it go away or minimize it or pretend it didn't happen. This is ALL out there.
graywarrior
(59,440 posts)Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)As for the elected officials that approved this shit, this is another symptom of the lack of accountability to the American people! They get billions in campaign money to convince us that they deserve re-election, their donors own the media so their bad acts get distorted, justified, or plain not reported on. To put it bluntly, they don't give a shit what we think!
Let's fight for Publicly Funded Elections and get Representatives who respond to the will of the People. Maybe then there will be accountability for these war crimes, Wall Street crimes, and corporate tax fraud. Until then we will get what we always got because we are doing what we have always done! Spread the word!
blackspade
(10,056 posts)Just when I thought that the CIA was staffed and run by a bunch of Stazi assholes.....
It turns out we are looking at something even worse...
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)No wonder they all fought so hard to keep this quiet.
This makes our government look as bad as it ever did. Let us hope it is as bad as it ever gets, but I think there are some who are looking to go one up. Maybe Obama can stop it, someone needs to halt this slide into more torture.