Quick poll -- was torture justified in defense of USA post 9/11, as so many ex-CIA leaders maintain? Or was it a deep stain on our democracy? After your gut reaction, take a moment and read this summary of reactions from Politicos Mike Allen. Personally I think this says something about the power of spin -- the denials by Cheney, Hayden and others deflect the criticism. But I think careful reading of this will change minds. Maybe not. ... TORTURE INTERVIEW -- Michael Hayden Is Not Sorry: The Senate report rakes Bushs former CIA director over the coals. He fires back, by Politico Magazines Michael Hirsh: Hirsh: The report concludes ... [that a]ccording to CIA records, ... no CIA officer including Directors George Tenet and Porter Goss briefed the president on the specific enhanced interrogation techniques before April 2006. Is that true? Michael Hayden: It is not. The president personally approved the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah [in 2002]. Its in his book! What happened here is that the White House refused to give them [the Senate Intelligence Committee] White House documents based upon the separation of powers and executive privilege. Thats not in their report, but all of that proves that there was dialogue was going on with the White House. What I can say is that the president never knew where the [black] sites were. Thats the only fact Im aware that he didnt know. politi.co/1x0MM8Y --List of the 13 techniques used on detainees - AP: Here are the methods, as listed by a May 30, 2005, Justice Department memo to the CIA: 1. Abdominal Slap ... 2. Attention Grasp ... 3. Cramped Confinement ... 4. Dietary Manipulation ... 5. The Facial Hold ... 6. The Facial Slap/Insult Slap ... 7. Nudity ... 8. Stress Positions ... 9. Sleep Deprivation ... 10. Wall Standing ... 11. Walling ... 12. Waterboarding ... 13. Water Dousing. With detailed descriptions of each technique: bit.ly/1IyF1KZ --Ex-CIA Directors: Interrogations Saved Lives - WSJ op-ed by former CIA Directors George J. Tenet, Porter J. Goss and Michael V. Hayden and former CIA Deputy Directors John E. McLaughlin, Albert M. Calland and Stephen R. Kappes: The program was invaluable in three critical ways: It led to the capture of senior al Qaeda operatives, thereby removing them from the battlefield. It led to the disruption of terrorist plots and prevented mass casualty attacks, saving American and Allied lives. It added enormously to what we knew about al Qaeda as an organization and therefore informed our approaches on how best to attack, thwart and degrade it. on.wsj/1x0NnYj JON STEWART: This report is the Frozen of CIA Senate Intelligence Committee redacted torture reports. Let me go, let me go, dont hold me back ... Why do we need to see this stupid old boring CIA torture report anyway? We got to the bottom of this years ago. [Plays a 2007 clip of Pres. Bush saying This government does not torture people.] Boom! Pow! If that famed painter of cats and feet says we didnt torture, who are we to disagree? My guess is that the Senate report is just a single piece of paper, saying This government does not torture people. VIDEO: bit.ly/1BybPBQ TORTURE TAKEAWAYS: --ANDREW SULLIVAN: The great achievement of this report ... is its meticulousness. No one can now claim that these torture sessions gave us anything of any worth, while damning this country for decades to come as the worst human rights abuser in the West. bit.ly/1ukz8av --JEFFREY GOLDBERG: The next time a group of Islamist terrorists succeeds in killing large numbers of Americans-and such an attack should be expected-it is important for those who are in positions of power (very much including the writers and commentators who shape popular thinking) to keep in mind that the goal of the United States is to neutralize the threat, and not to seek retribution for the sake of retribution. theatln.tc/1By74Ix --R. Jeffrey Smith ?(@rjsmithcpi): Bush himself expressed discomfort when shown pic of detainee in diaper chained to ceiling & forced to defecate on self, sez Intell Rpt. --JOHN McCAIN on the Senate floor: [T]he American people ... must know when the values that define our nation are intentionally disregarded by our security policies ... They must be able to make informed judgments about whether those policies and the personnel who supported them were justified in compromising our values; whether they served a greater good; or whether, as I believe, they stained our national honor, did much harm and little practical good. 1.usa.gov/1z5Bwq3 --DAVID IGNATIUS: This is a political document, not a dispassionate history, but thats part of its value: There simply is no way for a democracy to get past a trauma like the interrogation issue without an honest public accounting. Its a strange healing process, ripping off the scab, exposing our wounds; perhaps its like the self-flagellation of the early saints. wapo.st/1Aep32A DRILLING DOWN: --Does Torture Work? The C.I.A.s Claims and What the Committee Found, by NYTs Matt Apuzzo, Haeyoun Park and Larry Buchanan: Here are eight cases cited in the report where the C.I.A. made the case that its tactics thwarted plots and led to the capture of terrorists, and how the committees report undercut those accounts ... Killing of Osama bin Laden ... Thwarting of Dirty Bomb and Capture of José Padilla ... Thwarting of the Karachi Plots ... Thwarting of Second Wave Plot and Discovery of Al Ghurabaa Group ... Identification, Capture and Arrest of Iyman Faris ... Thwarting of the Heathrow Airport and Canary Wharf Plot ... Capture of Ramzi bin al-Shibh ... Capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. nyti.ms/1yybo9j --John Brennans zigzag on torture: Has Obamas CIA director gone native? by Michael Crowley: Brennan defended his agency - and the fruits of severe interrogation practices. politi.co/1qtXKS0 --13 shocking moments in the Senate torture report, by Jonathan Topaz: politi.co/12LWMoN --Architects Of CIA Torture Program Raked In $81 Million, Report Reveals, by HuffPosts Paul Blumenthal and Christina Wilkie: The contract psychologists are identified with pseudonyms -- Grayson Swigert and Hammond Dunbar ... Published reports dating back to 2007, however, identify the two men as James Elmer Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, both former members of the military. huff.to/12saNbC --Obama: CIA Rushed to Respond to Sept. 11 Attacks, by NBC News Andrew Rafferty: Obama told Telemundo he is concerned of possible backlash against Americans overseas, but the report needed to be released to make sure that we dont make those mistakes again. nbcnews.to/1zNRbtk --Biden: Release of torture report is badge of honor, by Lucy McCalmont: Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday called the bombshell report on CIA interrogation tactics a badge of honor and said its public release would strengthen the United States ... when [he was] asked at POLITICOs Women Rule Summit whether the sharply critical report by the Senate Intelligence Committee is a black stain. Every country, every country, has engaged in activities somewhere along the line that it has not been proud of, he added. politi.co/1By6PgA HOW ITS PLAYING: N.Y. Times (2-line banner), SENATE PANEL FAULTS C.I.A. OVER BRUTALITY AND DECEIT IN TERRORISM INTERROGATIONS: Failure of Oversight Is Outlined - Agency Defends Program ... WSJ 2-col. lead, Senate Report Blasts CIA on Interrogations ... WashPost banner, A grim portrait of CIA tactics after 9/11 See the page. nyti.ms/1vNtO47 ... USA Today banner (coverage - 3 stories - takes up whole front page), AN UGLY TRUTH: CIA torture was brutal, ineffective, report says ... L.A. Times 2-col. lead, Panel faults CIA for lies and torture ... Chicago Tribune banner, Report lists CIAs brutal tactics? ... ... The Guardian banner , Torture: the stain on America ... The Daily Telegraph banner, CIA lied over threat to Britain to justify torture ... Daily Mail cover, SHAMING OF THE WEST ... The Independent cover, Americas day of shame ... The Times of London (lead story), CIA agents should be charged over torture: Shock report details abuse during War on Terror ... Financial Times (U.S. Edition, below fold), Senate accuses CIA of lying over brutal torture that leaves stain on US values ... International New York Times (banner of Europe Edition; report hadnt come out in time for Asia), C.I.A. assailed for deceit on torture ... WSJ Europe (1-col. lead), Senate Blasts CIA Post- 9/11 Practices. --EDITORIALS: NYT lead, A Record of Torture and Lies nyti.ms/1yy5SDR ... WashPost lead, Americas dungeon wapo.st/1GcipOf ... WSJ, Spooks of the Senate: The report on CIA interrogations is a collection of partisan second-guessing. on.wsj/1B6nPaK
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:49:34 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015