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Amy Goodman: Brennan and Kiriakou, Drones and Torture
from truthdig:
Brennan and Kiriakou, Drones and Torture
Posted on Feb 6, 2013
By Amy Goodman
John Brennan and John Kiriakou worked together years ago, but their careers have dramatically diverged. Brennan is now on track to head the CIA, while Kiriakou is headed off to prison. Each of their fates is tied to the so-called war on terror, which under President George W. Bush provoked worldwide condemnation. President Barack Obama rebranded the war on terror innocuously as overseas contingency operations, but, rather than retrench from the odious practices of his predecessor, Obama instead escalated. His promotion of Brennan, and his prosecution of Kiriakou, demonstrate how the recent excesses of U.S. presidential power are not transient aberrations, but the creation of a frightening new normal, where drone strikes, warrantless surveillance, assassination and indefinite detention are conducted with arrogance and impunity, shielded by secrecy and beyond the reach of law.
John Kiriakou spent 14 years at the CIA as an analyst and a case officer. In 2002, he led the team that found Abu Zubaydah, alleged to be a high-ranking member of al-Qaida. Kiriakou was the first to publicly confirm the use of waterboarding by the CIA, in a 2007 interview with ABCs Brian Ross. He told Ross: At the time, I felt that waterboarding was something that we needed to do. ... I think Ive changed my mind, and I think that waterboarding is probably something that we shouldnt be in the business of doing. Kiriakou says he found the enhanced interrogation techniques immoral, and declined to be trained to use them.
Since the interview, it has become known that Zubaydah was waterboarded at least 83 times, and that he provided no useful information as a result. He remains imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, without charge. Kiriakou will soon start serving his 30-month prison sentence, but not for disclosing anything about waterboarding. He pled guilty to disclosing the name of a former CIA interrogator to a journalist, with information that the interrogator himself had posted to a publicly available website. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/brennan_and_kiriakou_drones_and_torture_20130206/
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Amy Goodman: Brennan and Kiriakou, Drones and Torture (Original Post)
marmar
Feb 2013
OP
Faryn Balyncd
(5,125 posts)1. John Kiriakou is an American hero.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)2. du rec. nt
Overseas
(12,121 posts)3. K&R. Well said.
Hell Hath No Fury
(16,327 posts)4. K&R
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)5. Here's an excerpt from Chris Hedges post-election observations
Liberals, by voting for Barack Obama, betrayed the core values they use to define themselvesthe rule of law, the safeguarding of civil liberties, the protection of unions, the preservation of social welfare programs, environmental accords, financial regulation, a defiance of unjust war and torture, and the abolition of drone wars.
...
Liberals...have played their appointed roles in the bankrupt political theater that passes for electoral politics. They have wrung their hands, sung like a Greek chorus about the evils of the perfidious opponent, assured us that there is no other viable option, and now they will exit the stage. They will carp and whine in the wings until they are trotted out again to assume their role in the next political propaganda campaign of disempowerment and fear. They will, in the meantime, become the butt of ridicule and derision by the very politicians they supported.
...
Liberals...have played their appointed roles in the bankrupt political theater that passes for electoral politics. They have wrung their hands, sung like a Greek chorus about the evils of the perfidious opponent, assured us that there is no other viable option, and now they will exit the stage. They will carp and whine in the wings until they are trotted out again to assume their role in the next political propaganda campaign of disempowerment and fear. They will, in the meantime, become the butt of ridicule and derision by the very politicians they supported.
we need to face the fact that those of us who are against torture, endless war, union-busting, fair taxes, and decimation of social programs are completely without representation in the government.