Babylonsister posted this article -
Salon: The CIA's torture teachersPlease read the article if you haven't already.
From the article:
“After the Sept. 11 attacks, both turned to a small cadre of psychologists linked to the military's secretive Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape program to
"reverse-engineer" techniques originally designed to train U.S. soldiers to resist torture if captured, by exposing them to brutal treatment
The SERE-based program undermines assertions made for years by Bush administration officials that interrogations conducted by U.S. personnel are safe, effective and legal.
SERE training, according to the Department of Defense inspector general's report,
is specifically designed "to replicate harsh conditions that the service member might encounter if they are held by forces that do not abide by the Geneva Conventions."
"The irony -- and ultimately the tragedy -- in the migration of SERE techniques is that the program was specifically designed to protect our soldiers from countries that violated the Geneva Conventions," says Brad Olson, president of the Divisions for Social Justice within the American Psychological Association.
"The result of the reverse-engineering, however, was that by making foreign detainees the target, it made us the country that violated the Geneva Conventions," he says.”
Reminded of anything?
Now let’s take a look at a comment Bush is fond of making and has made repeatedly - about “enhanced interrogation techniques”:
Interrogation Methods Rejected by Military Win Bush’s Support“
I cannot describe the specific methods used — I think you understand why,” he said. “If I did, it would help the terrorists learn how to resist questioning, and to keep information from us that we need to prevent new attacks on our country. But I can say the procedures were tough, and they were safe and lawful and necessary.”
And from
John Yoo in this article
Torture Becomes a Matter of Definition “"The last thing you'd want to do is publicly disclose how you interrogate people, because it would allow them to prepare their people to resist interrogations," Yoo said.”
From a 2006 article in Salon -
Torture teachers"A March 22, 2005,
sworn statement by the former chief of the Interrogation Control Element at Guantánamo said instructors from SERE also taught their methods to interrogators of the prisoners in Cuba.
"When I arrived at GTMO," reads the statement, "
my predecessor arranged for SERE instructors to teach their techniques to the interrogators at GTMO ... The instructors did give some briefings to the Joint Interrogation Group interrogators." "
More on Bush, Yoo and tortureIn speeches and in interviews, Bush continually claims the reason he can't discuss his
"enhanced interrogation techniques" is because the terrorists will learn to resist them - and as a justification for using
"enhanced interrogation techniques" And he uses that specific excuse because he knows exactly what happens at SERE - he knows exactly what the CIA, the military, and the psychologists working with the military are doing and have done.
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