CIA torture report

Interestingly, in reading the CIA response, Brennan says that once detainees were tortured, CIA was inevitably forced to hold them longer than it should have to maintain secrecy. That's another issue with torturing detainees. When it turns out they are not, in fact, terrorists - something that we know happened - CIA can't just let them go because they'll tell the world they were tortured. They can't just apologize, give the guy cab fare and continue on as if nothing happened.

I don't understand how an American citizen can believe that it is OK to wrongfully detain someone (even if by honest mistake at first), torture them and then hold them even longer because, well, we fucked up and we don't want you telling the world about it.

 

That's what they get for having "al" in their name.

 

Do you know what "same" means? Are you equating the CIA with, say, ISIS? Do you really think America is the same as the terrorists?

 

Brennan also notes that despite the Attorney General's ruling water boarding a legal method of interrogation (which is horrifying on its face), CIA's "improved skill at less coercive techniques" and medical concerns contributed to CIA ending the use of water boarding. So, basically, despite saying earlier that it is unknowable if other methods of obtaining information would have yielded results, he acknowledges here that there are better methods than water boarding.

 

More than 90 percent of Americans supported the internment and deportation of Japanese people during World War II. Almost 60 percent of Americans supported the internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese heritage during World War II. The Supreme Court of the time upheld the internment as constitutional.

And, you don't understand how Americans can think like that?

 

Fear is a powerful thing.

 

If the terrorists were utilizing the tactics the CIA used, do you think for one minute Americans in general wouldn't be outraged? Yet, somehow, it's A-OK for the CIA do these things to known or suspected terrorists.

It's called "don't stoop to their level." As in, committing acts that would be considered "inhumane" in diplomatic terms and "evil" in terms of the harshest possible word.

 

If you look at the typical American citizen, regardless of where he or she stands politically, they are more concerned with feeling "safe and secure" than they are about proper intelligence gathering.

Also see how the typical American citizen, regardless of political standing, reacts to crimes such as murder, rape and drunk driving, as terrible as they are, with a mindset that basically says about the suspects, "Off with their heads, screw due process and the judicial system."

 

I'm outraged that terrorists behead innocent people and actual sentient beings want to equate those animals with CIA operatives. It would be wonderful if everyone in the world was nice to each other. It would also be wonderful if it rained lollipops.

 

BTW, if you folks have the time, reading this report and the responses is really fascinating stuff. At the very least, I'm glad it was released.

 

I will add the only thing that is really "different" in today's world, as it pertains to heinous activities such as terrorism, is the technology available to people and the fact it's far easier to get information about such activities.

There are countless incidents throughout human history in which certain people used violent methods (often resulting in the death of others) to promote some sort of agenda. Just because firearms weren't as advanced, airplanes didn't exist, and the Internet wasn't around to allow written word to spread more easily, doesn't mean there weren't as many people and/or organizations going around killing others in the name of whatever cause they had, or governments who engaged in less-than-honest (some would say inhumane) means to combat such means.

Or in some cases, the government didn't bother at all.

 

Your perspective anything short of beheading is acceptable is mind-blowing.