TORTURE: Stage Being Set For CIA Apologists To Offer Justifications Based On "Plausible Deniability"
For one thing, what the Senate committee actually voted to release was not the full report, but rather the executive summary. While this portion of the report may be relatively comprehensive (apparently running 480 pages), by withholding the other several thousand pages of detailed accounts regarding individual cases, the stage is being set for CIA apologists to offer justifications, obfuscations and repudiations – based of course on the old adage of “plausible deniability.”
...........................
And this is assuming that even the executive summary is released in its entirety. After all, the SSCI did not actually declassify anything; it simply voted to send the report to the CIA for redactions and then to the president for declassification review and possible eventual public release. Until the declassification process is complete and that portion of the report is released (which could take months or even years), it will remain under wraps.
........................
“The recent allegations that the CIA searched computers made available to the SSCI, removed documents from them, triggered potential criminal proceedings against congressional staff and took other troubling steps make this inherent conflict of interest very vivid,” the letter says.
.................
But according to evidence uncovered by the SSCI, the agency may have tried to “minimize or sanitize that case” – in other words, [font color=red]to obstruct justice. [/font]“The documents initially make it seem like it was an accident,” a former official told McClatchy. “However, evidence pointed to what it actually was: willful negligence or even negligent homicide.”
.............
More plus links:
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/04/02/cias-own-records-of-cias-lies-to-congress/
http://essentialopinion.wordpress.com/
http://my.firedoglake.com/natparry/2014/04/04/senate-torture-report-controversy-is-the-cia-beyond-accountability/
******************
Refused, at first, to reveal that the CIA relied on the September 17, 2001 Finding and therefore hid that the President had personally authorized the torture.
Briefed on torture techniques that had happened months in the past, but claimed they had never yet been used.
Falsely claimed CIA had not tortured before the August 1 memos purportedly authorizing it.
Claimed Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah were not yet compliant as late as February 2003, even though they had been found compliant, after which CIA continued to use torture anyway.
Claimed the torture tapes were a perfect match with what had been recorded in the torture log when a CIA OGC lawyer reviewed them in December 2002.
Did not disclose the tapes had already been altered by the time CIA OGC reviewed them.
Claimed the torture tapes had shown the torturers followed DOJ’s guidance when in fact they showed the torturers exceeded DOJ guidance.
Misled regarding whether the detainees who had been killed had been tortured.
Oversold the value of information provided by Abu Zubaydah.
Lied about importance of torture in getting Abu Zubaydah to talk.
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/04/02/cias-own-records-of-cias-lies-to-congress/
= new reply since forum marked as read
