I have been busy all day -and still am - reading these documents (below) today. Feel free to join me. Not that I would encourage anyone unless they felt compelled to really try and understand what happened. It is heavily redacted, but some is better than nothing I suppose. The below (h/t to Wash/Indie) is only a partial:
Eric Holder, our Attorney General, has apparently had his arm twisted because he is - gasp - appointing a special prosecutor to investigate CIA-linked torture (although apparently not DOD, not those who aided and abetted this, and so forth). I think it will still be up to the rest of the world to drag those entirely and fully responsible for all of these abuses and the policies which gave birth them to the gates of justice. The US of A has no justice left to be had it seems.
Additional reports and opinions on the torture documents can be found at these - among many - outlets and blogs:
The more I read the CIA inspector general report released today, the clearer it seems that any real investigation of CIA abuses will have to question the lawyers who approved the interrogation techniques. That’s because the guidelines governing the detention and interrogation of detainees appear to have all been approved by Justice Department lawyers (because the report is heavily redacted, some particulars of who approved what are unclear), yet the vagueness of those guidelines themselves may have encouraged CIA interrogators to violate them.
I will wager yes on intentional, but will leave it up to legal experts to determine if it were criminal.
Stephen Webster of Raw Story found an interesting nugget:
"Page 77 of the report discusses “unauthorized or undocumented techniques” used by CIA agents but not approved by the Bush administration’s Department of Justice. One such “improvised action” was a pressure point tactic: the compression of a detainee’s carotid artery by an agent with both hands around the prisoner’s neck.
Prolonged compression of the carotid artery is lethal, as it cuts off blood flow to the brain."
I assume the reasoning for using this tactic is that once the detainee is dead or brain damaged, they will surely tell us everything they know.
TPM discusses how an integrator revved a drill near a hooded detainees head:
"CIA interrogators racked an unloaded handgun close to the head of a high-value detainee, and revved a power drill while the detainee stood naked and hooded, according to the just-released CIA IG report. They also threatened to bring in the mother and family of the detainee, al Nashiri, as well as using a stiff brush to induce pain, and standing on Nashiri's shackles, causing cuts and bruises."
The glue-sniffers are ready, however, with Christian compassion (of the Satanic kind I am thinking) and American ideals (only if we were re-named Italy, Spain, or Germany during the reign of Il Duce, Franco, and Hitler), to defend the torture documented in the report.
First up is Senator Joe Lieberman, who demands that no investigation of the CIA (read Bush/Cheney circle of friends network) be conducted because it will have a "chilling effect" (read indictment effect) on CIA officers (to be turned by prosecutors against said Bush/Cheney circle of friends in exchange for immunity). Here is what the man I am now ashamed to say I voted for had to say:
“I respectfully regret this decision by Attorney General Holder and fear our country will come to regret it too because an open ended criminal investigation of past CIA activity, which has already been condemned and prohibited, will have a chilling effect on the men and women agents of our intelligence community whose uninhibited bravery and skill we depend on every day to protect our homeland from the next terrorist attack. Career prosecutors in the Department of Justice have previously reviewed allegations of abuse and concluded that prosecution was not warranted, with the exception of one CIA contractor who has already been convicted. President Obama has established clear guidelines to ensure that past abuses are not repeated and has stated his desire to look forward rather than backward."
Strangely, in all of my conversations with agency officers, managers, retired and still serving alike, none of them supported these techniques. As an example, see my interview with agency icon Milton Bearden.
Moreover, it was these types of good Americans who were the leakers of the allegations and such in the first place. They thought that the torture would make recruiting agents difficult. They also all agreed that the torture conducted was likely done so not by the brave men and women serving as officers of the CIA, but of the Cheney-hidden psychos to whom these things were outsourced - and these things were outsourced for just that reason, control. So unless Joey wants to spit up some names, I am going to have to respectfully call him nothing short of a liar.
Then there is is this glue-sniffer's reaction to AG Holder opening up an investigation into CIA torture practices:
"Make no mistake that Barack Obama is behind this, and do not let the language “limited” fool you. This of course after this week’s “leak” of a report that states that CIA ops went over the line in questioning high level detainees.
The average American could care less if the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole and 9/11 were waterboarded, had their kids - who are most likely terrorists too- threatened.
But more important it’s apparent that the pre-9/11 mentality is back in force, with the White House having it’s own “Beer Summits” with terrorist suspects to get them to talk. Additionally ABC News is reporting that Leon Pannetta is just about out of the job as Chief of the agency. For all we know there will be yet another Czar created from one of Obama’s former militant friends."
So to translate from glue-sniffer speak to sane-speak.
The above rant basically says that our terrorist loving leader - President Obama (not really the POTUS by the way, wink wink) wants an investigation just so he can appoint one of his terrorist friends to be head of it. This really upsets the glue-sniffer, because the average American "could care less if the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole and 9/11 were waterboarded, had their kids - had their kids - who are most likely terrorists [like our President] threatened."
Really? I assume that if we asked the average American glue-sniffer, they may agree with such an idiotic, barbaric, anti-Christian, anti-American statement. Luckily, I don't think we need to, since the ravings of religious terrorists (like OBL and his Christian counter-parts) or rabbid birther/haters/racists are not part of our system of laws (only referenced under freedom of speech protections, not under suggested reading for reasonable people).
This is the best and most sane - if you can imagine - example I could find from a glue-sniffer. The rest are so incoherent and angry, that it would be like citing the thinking of a chair for the reading pleasure of a human. So I end my own round-up here. I do urge you to please go explore on your own. There are many glue-sniffer funnies to be had.
Feel free to post your own glue-sniffer funnies in the comments.
