Why the Torturers Will Get Away With It

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/why-torturers-will-get-away-it


With the release of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on the use of torture by the CIA after 9/11, the final defense of the indefensible by its perpetrators, advocates and publicists is falling apart before our eyes.

Not only did "enhanced interrogation," the Nazi euphemism adopted by the Bush-Cheney administration, include methods outlawed and prosecuted by our country for more than a century, such as waterboarding -- and not only did those "activities," as Dick Cheney called them, violate American law, the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions and the conventions on torture -- but also we now know with great certainty that the CIA executed this secret program with horrific incompetence and that it produced nothing of significant value.

Indeed, the SSCI report concludes -- contrary to the boasting of Cheney and many others -- that torture was proved "not an effective means of gathering intelligence," let alone saving millions of Americans from jihadi plots, and actually "complicated, and in some cases impeded, the national security missions." The overseers of the torture program, themselves of dubious competence, were unable even to assess the impact or effectiveness of their orders.

As Micah Zenko of the Council on Foreign Relations points out, the CIA itself has admitted, in its otherwise aggressive response to the SSCI, that it lacked the "structure, expertise, and methodologies" to "systematically evaluate the effectiveness" of its "covert actions." The CIA didn't know what it was doing. But it was doing grave damage to itself and to us.

[1StrongBlackMan]

1. Posted to for later. n/t

[blkmusclmachine]

2. MUST.

LOOK.

FORWARD.

[99Forever]

3. The "why" is simple.

The Obama Administration has CHOSEN to stand with the torturers and those that ordered it.

That fact is quite clear.

[countryjake]

4. And becoming clearer...

They're practically building a united front now with this:

U.S. Tells Court That Documents From Torture Investigation Should Remain Secret

[Old Codger]

5. Cowardly acts

By torturers and not enough balls in current leadership to stand for their avowed "principals".

All they stand for is corporate power.

[ladjf]

6. Are you saying that "corporate power" backed torture?

And if so, in what way? Please understand that I strongly oppose corporate manipulation of American Politics. However, I can't see how or why they would promote torture.

To me it seems more like guys such as Cheney and Bush were just pushing a "tough guy image" based on the premise that the "end justifies means". There may be a sado/sexual element here that ,like rape, was a form of humiliation or domination.
Whatever their motives were, we definitely had some crazy sadistic people calling the shots on CIA torture.

And on another note. did I read it correctly that the two psychologists in charge of designing the torture program received 81 million dollars?

[Old Codger]

7. NO

I am not saying that I said the government and i mean most of it's only real principal that they stand for is whatever the "corporate" elite want.. we have a real corporate/military alliance so maybe they had something to do with it... My point it that our government has a legal and moral duty to charge criminals when they commit crimes regardless of their positions and I mean all of them from shrub down to the actual perpetrators...And that the present "leadership" is lapse in not enforcing our laws irrespective of who the criminals are or were.

[ladjf]

8. Thanks for the clarification. I was just curious. I totally agree with your post.