"If a US pilot is captured in Middle East, beaten & held naked?"

A Washington Post editorial asks, "If an American pilot is captured in the Middle East, then beaten, held naked in a cold cell and subjected to simulated drowning, will Mr. Goss say that he has not been tortured?"

Director for Torture

Wednesday, November 23, 2005; A18

CIA DIRECTOR Porter J. Goss insists that his agency is innocent of torturing the prisoners it is holding in secret detention centers around the world. "This agency does not torture," he said in an interview this week with USA Today. "We use lawful capabilities to collect vital information, and we do it in a variety of unique and innovative ways, all of which are legal and none of which are torture." Mr. Goss didn't describe any of those "innovative" interrogation techniques, nor has his agency allowed its secret prisons to be visited by the International Red Cross or any other monitor. But some of the people who work for him provided a description of six "enhanced interrogation techniques" to ABC News, because they believe "the public needs to know the direction their agency has chosen," the network reported. Thanks to that disclosure, it's possible to compare Mr. Goss's words with reality.

The first three techniques reported by ABC involve shaking or striking detainees in an effort to cause pain and fear. The fourth consists of forcing a prisoner to stand, handcuffed and with shackled feet, for up to 40 hours. Then comes the "cold cell": Detainees are held naked in a cell cooled to 50 degrees, and periodically doused with cold water. Last is "waterboarding," a technique that's already been widely reported. According to the information supplied to ABC: "The prisoner is bound to an inclined board, feet raised and head slightly below the feet. Cellophane is wrapped over the prisoner's face and water is poured over him. Unavoidably, the gag reflex kicks in and a terrifying fear of drowning leads to almost instant pleas to bring the treatment to a halt." ABC quoted its sources as saying that CIA officers who subjected themselves to waterboarding "lasted an average of 14 seconds before caving in."

Are these techniques "not torture," as Mr. Goss claims? In fact, several of them have been practiced by repressive regimes around the world, and they once were routinely condemned by the State Department in its annual human rights reports. By insisting that they are not torture, Mr. Goss sets a new standard -- both for the treatment of detainees by other governments and for the handling of captive Americans. If an American pilot is captured in the Middle East, then beaten, held naked in a cold cell and subjected to simulated drowning, will Mr. Goss say that he has not been tortured?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201692_pf.html

<snip>

"But Mr. Goss's statements suggest a deeper problem. Even if the legislation passes -- and Mr. Bush has threatened a veto -- the CIA will be led by an administration that has redefined standard torture techniques as "unique and innovative ways" of collecting information. No one beyond Mr. Goss and a handful of senior officials accepts that spin: not the agencies' professionals, or 90 members of the Senate, or the rest of the democratic world. Yet now that the Bush administration has so loosened and degraded the torture standard, the abuse of detainees will become far harder to prevent -- not only in the CIA's clandestine cells but around the world."

<end>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201692_pf.html

They are only "unique and innovative" to this administration because they have never read history. They are "unique and innovative" because they haven't read the Geneva Conventions .

They are only "unique and innovative" because this administration is ignorant.

They are only "unique and innovative" because this administration cares nothing for human dignity; human rights.

I think I'm going to puke.

They'd scream bloody murder if this was done to one of "ours", but they pride themselves on doing it to "others". When will they figure out that doing it to ANYONE opens the door for it to be done to ALL of ours -- civilians included. Idiots!

Although they'll certainly speak differently in public about it, my hunch is that they really don't care if civilians are at risk.

Their actions/inactions over the past five years bear that out.

torture.

I seem to remember him taking a lot of heat oh how he was treated.

when he didn't, if I recall correctly.

Total partisan hack. Republican stooge.

while the majority of its citizens sat idly by.

Guess now I understand.

Just funlovin' fratboys, you know.

Of course, I have no PROOF of this, but it's not the sort of thing that Rummy and the others would publicize, is it?

If those that are running this "war" will hide detainees from the Red Cross, and concoct falsehoods for Colin Powell to serve up for UN consumption, would they have ANY problem with hiding uncomfortable things like this from us?

And, conversely, in the wake of Abu Grahib and all the violence the invasion has caused, directly and indirectly, what will protect US soldiers who fall into enemy hands? Goodwill? Ha. International treaties? Double Ha. Fear of US reprisals? Give me a break. The US has already used "shock and Awe," white phosphorus, daisy cutters,and lots of things we'll never hear about.

The US is reaping what has been sown in Iraq. It breaks my heart and angers me to no end, but it is what it is.

on the torture issue. On just about everything else, they've basically been a CNN style mouthpiece for the far right, the neocons and the K street interests. But not on this issue.

I wonder who among their management has the bee under their bonnet? And why?

Amerika has lost it's moral compass. It is doubtful now that Amerika will ever regain it.