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CIA torture report

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by bigpern23, Dec 10, 2014.

  1. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    I'm surprised not to see a thread on this already. The Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA interrogation methods, with included torture, is stunning in its clarity and shocking in the brutality it exposes.

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/09/politics/cia-reports-shocking-passages/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

    I don't have time at the moment to find a copy of the full report (I'm not sure if it's available), but good God, I really thought we were better as a nation than this.

    Not surprisingly, Cheney dismisses the report as "a bunch of hooey." Eloquent.

    I'm disappointed Obama would rather "turn the page" than allow this report to lead possible prosecutions. I don't believe in chalking up such terrible transgressions to, "the past is in the past." These weren't petty crimes, these were legitimate war crimes that violate the Geneva Convention, which the U.S. willingly joined. I know we wouldn't "turn the page" on these crimes if they were committed by another government or state actor against our citizens.

    John McCain summed up my thoughts on the subject rather well:

     
  2. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

  3. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    What does Marc Trestman have to say about it?
     
  4. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    A report written entirely by the staff of the Democrats on the committee is inherently political in nature.

    I think it's worth discussing, but it will be impossible to do so without acknowledging and discussing the political factors and motivations. If we can't do that here, I'm not sure how we can talk about it in a thoughtful and thorough manner.
     
  5. Justin_Rice

    Justin_Rice Well-Known Member

    I'll happily dismisses 75 percent of whats in the report as partisan nonsense, and I'd still consider our actions reprehensible.
     
  6. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    I'm not sure what that has to do with what I wrote.

    The report, and its politics can either be discussed, or they can't.

    It's a joke to pretend you can talk about this and leave politics out of the discussion. It's why no one bothered to start a thread on it yesterday, and why Dick created a thread mocking the absence of the biggest news story of the day from the board.
     
  7. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    Genuine question because I haven't seen that anywhere - What makes you think it's written entirely by the Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence? There are seven Republicans on the committee.

    Without having read through it all to see if there is a dissent, is this report not the collective findings of the entire committee?
     
  8. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    The only thing worse than trying to discuss a report that is inherently political, without discussing the politics of it, is trying to discuss it with someone who doesn't know enough about it to properly discuss it.

    Seriously, if you've read any discussion of the report, you'll know how it was written, and who wrote it.
     
  9. Justin_Rice

    Justin_Rice Well-Known Member

    Because it was written by Democrats, which portions do you dismiss?
     
  10. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    Regardless, the fact is, CIA nearly drowned one suspect through waterboarding, despite all of the assurances given that the process would only "simulate" drowning. It fed detainees through rectal hydration without medical cause to do so. It beat and threatened detainees with mock executions. It killed at least one detainee in its custody.

    It did all these things in the name of national security and, yet, it received no credible information that led directly or indirectly to thwarting an attack. CIA basically proved that torturing detainees for information does not work, then mounted a PR campaign to tell the public that torture led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

    I don't see how anyone can read that report and decide that because Dianne Feinstein wrote the foreword, we should just discount everything that's in it.

    The report should absolutely sicken anyone who believes this country was founded on the ideals laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, no matter which side of the aisle they sit. We're supposed to be better than what is in this report.
     
  11. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    We were good at the beginning. But then we just went too far.
     
  12. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    So are you saying the seven Republicans on the committee abdicated their responsibility to contribute to the findings?

    If you don't want to discuss it, then bail from the thread. If you want to read "discussion of the report" to inform your point of view, rather than the report itself, well, you're part of the problem.

    EDIT: I just found the link to the Republican response ... I'll get to it after reading the report.
     
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