Release the Entire Torture Report!
http://www.juancole.com/2014/04/release-torture-report.html
Release the Entire Torture Report!
By Juan Cole | Apr. 17, 2014
(By Scott Corey)
There are two powerful reasons why the government should release both the summary and the full Senate Intelligence reports on CIA torture during the Global War on Terror. One is moral necessity. When we were attacked, our governments first resort was to exploit our fears and abandon everything America means to those who love it. Time now to recover our moral courage and face what was done. The second reason is practical. US intelligence will get a lot of mud on it, but it will also earn a firmer institutional position for the future.
First, the practical. The fires were still smoking at ground zero when officials in the Bush administration began advocating abusive treatment for prisoners we did not yet have. Professional interrogators were critical, but not effectively so. Their bottom line conclusion torture doesnt work was widely heard, but they could not defend that position without betraying intelligence doctrine. A full release of the history will show how right they were.
Expect the record to show that all of the known problems of torture were rehearsed with sickening predictability.
- The confession problem. Even the innocent confess, because the torturer demands that as a minimum.