THE PAPERS' TOP STORIES :: The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, i The CIA's interrogation of terrorism suspects was "far more brutal" than the agency admitted and produced no actionable intelligence. :: The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail The intelligence agency lied over threats to Britain in order to justify torture CIA Torture Report: The three British plots that the CIA falsely cited to justify torture
Surely no one is surprised about any of this. This is nothing new at all it just makes the news now, and really even having it make the news makes you wonder. Is this some kind of set up for an "attack" by our enemies because they are angered by this information?
Intelligence agencies use torture to find information! REALLY!? You don't say... This is kind of like the whole super huge media coverage of how the NSA is spying on people... which is pretty much exactly what the NSA was created to do in the first place, so I thought it was kind of obvious they do that. Yet still somehow people buy these "news"papers and read them online... just fueling the media to write more obvious and "shocking" stories.
Would CIA admit that they tortured anyone? Haven't we been hearing the same old lies until someone leaks the truth but still they'll deny it. It's the principle of thing. They just have to deny it for form's sake. Remember Yoo's thoughts on torture back in 2005? Now if the CIC can legally torture someone if he deems it necessary to extract information from anyone, why shouldn't the CIA do the same? From the way the agency acts, it's like they believe they are above the law.
It is a fact the CIA tortured and killed people by using torture, lied about it and when it was eventually uncovered, lied about the usefulness of information extracted by the torture in an effort to justify it. This is all fact and has been known for some time, (albeit I still see people trying to justify it by claiming they foiled terrorist plots etc from the information extracted). This is why I felt it a thread worthy topic. I was interested to see what people think about the facts i) they systemically did it ii) they lied about it iii) they made false claims about the information extracted under torture iv) what message it sends (i.e. radicalising people), v) the hypocrisy vi) the scope/propensity for wider use (inc in the U.S, bearing in mind the legal manipulation by using semantics and legal experts to interpret the 'laws' to their end) Also the fact that around 180 people are still being indefinitely detained at Gitmo and are still being tortured by force feeding, sleep deprivation and solitary confinement for decades even though it is officially acknowledged that 80% of them are entirely innocent of any crime. Also the 'renditions' to other countries were illegal. Personally, I find it reprehensible, unjustifiable and completely contrary to International Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_against_Torture
Just to clarify as I see some people have been claiming it was legal and effective thereby justified, (Cheyne et al) Signed by Ronald Reagan http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.htm So when are the prosecutions going to take place?
'Yes we executed Japanese soldiers for waterboarding Americans during World War II, but it's totally different - they were Japanese.' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/yes-inational-reviewi-we_b_191153.html
Surely unspeakable things may happen on battlefields, but I do not think modern governments should enable agents to torture people. The USA government can be pretty hypocritical with the whole freedom and justice thing.
Torturing one person just to get information is not new. It has long been practiced since time immemorial. For the CIA, maybe it is the easiest and fastest way to get information. But for me, this is inhuman and against the right of every human being. There is no justice in this kind of act and therefore, this must be condemned in every possible way.
