Who bears ultimate responsibility for the US torture program? The report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released in December, told us much about how the program was implemented and carried out: it was fundamentally ill-conceived, poorly managed, and led to grievous abuses of basic human rights with little or no accountability.
"In the end, what it took to kill the CIA’s detention and interrogation
program was the election of Barack Obama; he prohibited torture and
closed the CIA’s secret prisons on his second day in office."
Say What?!!! I know that the last two years of Barry's second term are legacy building time, but this is ridiculous. Has Mr. Cole never heard of the forced feeding program at Guantanamo? Who cares if the CIA stopped what they were doing and the US military (or worse yet Erik Prince's Acadame services or some other private contractor goons) took over such duties?
The bottom line is that the US still tortures those it holds prisoner without charges filed against them or any hope of a trial to resolve their continued incarceration. They do so with practices found to be cruel and degrading by human rights organizations whose findings US officials regard with all the concern they would give to used toilet paper.
" the election of Barack Obama; he prohibited torture and closed the CIA’s secret prisons on his second day in office."
Chelsea Manning may disagree.
Don't you just hate these blind spots in the Obamabots.
"Vice President Cheney was apparently aghast, not at the program, but at the press. He “asked how the press could have gotten such an impression” that the US had pledged not to use “stress and duress” techniques. Bellinger blamed the press office, and “explained that the [White House] press officer had ‘gone off script’ and had mistakenly gone back to ‘old’ talking points.” No one blamed the CIA for using cruel and inhumane tactics. The problem lay elsewhere."
Readers might wish to look at the Jon Stewart videos posted today to see how the right wing press corps, notably Fox News' stable of idiot-reporters like Bill O'Reilly express their outrage... that the subject of police violence aimed AT young Black males is being discussed. They prefer to focus on Black-on-Black crime... never mentioning the employment problems faced by this community and why some of its members thereby feel forced to turn to black market economics or gangs.
Similarly, when Snowden exposed the length and breadth of the Surveillance State, media talking heads took direct aim at HIM.
When Chelsea Manning exposed the murderous actions of rabid soldiers, she became the target of blame, shame and vitriol.
THAT is how a fully bought-and-paid for press frames its stories. They NEVER target the lawless perpetrators. Instead, they look for ways to shoot holes in the messengers who dare to expose malfeasance, murder, and mayhem... generated from high places.
In recent cases where young Black men were openly shot down, to protect power--the police (part of the Mars rules culture sworn to war, violence, and constant muscular shows of armed prowess), it's the character of the kids shot down that gets the official press's interest and castigation. Not the cops.
Authoritarian States with controlled presses and media are notorious for following these protocols.
We are living in one now.
Truth is irrelevant. THEY create THEIR own reality as Rumsfeld, or one of his compatriots once confided to the media.
Start with the five in the picture jail them now, we must never allow this horrendous act to go unpunished. They have stained the hands of all America !
The simple fact is this. Torture at the hands of the United States Government did not start post 9/11 as this article tries to suggest.
It was always "permissible" as far as the Government was concerned and was a tactic used in places like Panama, The Philippines , Korea , Vietnam and elsewhere under the auspices of the CIA or some other US Government agency. The only thing that changed post 9/11 is the US Government decided it would no longer need to pretend it was opposed to torture. After all who said NO to MK Ultra and who said no to the instruction at "the school of the Americas"?
Wow, I feel so much better knowing its been going on for a long time that just makes everything Oky Doky
