More ’sickening’ truths about torture soon to be revealed
Published: June 11, 2009
Updated 5 months ago
A crucial CIA Inspector General’s report from May 2004 is expected to reveal some long-hidden truths about the Bush administration’s use of torture.
According to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, “This report is sort of the big kahuna in terms of what we have been waiting to see from the government’s own files on torture. That report, which is long and has been described by people who have seen it as ’sickening,’ apparently stopped the torture program in its tracks.”
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) recently warned in a speech on the floor of the Senate that almost everything we think we know about the Bush administration’s torture program is wrong.
“There has been a campaign of falsehood about this whole sorry episode,” Whitehouse stated. “We’ve been misled about nearly every aspect of this program. … Measured against the information I’ve been able to get access to, the storyline that we have been led to believe … is false in every one of its dimensions.”
Maddow then asked Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff whether the report will fill in the mission information to which Whitehouse referred.
“We don’t know how complete the disclosures are going to be,” Isikoff cautioned. “Will we see the complete unredacted report? That is the key question here.”
“There are three key questions to look for,” Isikoff explained. “Were there harsh interrogations that began before the … legal authorizations? … Did they go beyond what was authorized? … Did it go beyond just finding out about possible plots against the United States to provide other information, such as supplying possible evidence that could be used to justify the war in Iraq?”
Isikoff noted that there are footnotes in the torture memos already released which “quote from the Inspector General’s report that what was actually done went beyond what was authorized — that how waterboarding was conducted, the frequency with which it was conducted, and the manner in which it was conducted was beyond what the CIA told the Justice Department it was going to do when the Justice Department authorized the technique.”
Isikoff emphasized, however, that almost none of this information is being released voluntarily. It’s being slowly pried out through Freedom of Information Act requests, most of them filed by the ACLU, and “it’s become trench warfare — document by document.”
“The CIA and the intelligence community has pushed back hard,” Isikoff stressed. “People in the intelligence community never wanted this stuff out to begin with.”
This video is from MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast June 10, 2009.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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one more nail in the coffin of cheney, bush and rummy. Now the congress MUST take action against these war criminals.
The congress MUST take action against these war crimnals? And implicate and incriminate THEMSELVES. Come out your thick Denial. When will people like you come out your Denial and realize that the Bush-accomplice Dems served as accomplices and enablers to the criminality? Therefore, they are no better than war criminals Bush, Cheney et al.
So, what is your solution to the war criminal problem?
As of now, there is NO SOLUTION based in reality, when they are ALL complicit and accomplices (except for Kucinich).
Millions could take to the streets in every city and town across this nation demanding justice, but that is NOT going to happen. Millions are NOT going to do that. They are watching American Idol.
One could try to vote out war criminal Ds and Rs over election cycles, but nobody has that much time!
the solution has to be multifaceted. We first have to start with what is available to us right now and that is pushing congress to do SOMETHING. I agree that the chances are slim but that is all we have right now. Then we have to push to get a multi party system into our govt - this 2 party system is a joke because it is really just 1 big party doing the same thing. We need a Kuchinich to start a viable 3rd party, the election laws have to be changed to lessen the bias toward the 2 major parties and open it up to 6 or 8 parties. We need different points of views other than just dems and repubs. Then the primariy elections need to be changed to occur over a single week of time with the polls open all week. None of this just one day of voting. Our current 6 months of primaries gives the 2 major parties too much time to play their mind games. Then we need to have paper ballot only so true recounts can occur. So with all that said, I’m not in denial, I’m trying to work with the stinking system we are currently stuck with. Back to the problem at hand - what to do about the war criminals?
We first have to start with what is available to us right now and that is pushing congress to do SOMETHING.
——————————————
So you really expect war criminals to investigate other war criminals?
Well, you can “push congress” all you want. You seem to live under the illusion that they care what we think. It should be abundantly clear to anyone who’s been paying close attention since 2000 that the congress doesn’t give a damn what any of us think. Period. They have consistently ignored us despite all the protests, faxes, phone calls, e-mails, visits, petitions, you name it. You see the state of things don’t you? They could care less what we think because we are not their owners. They listen to their corporate and military industrial complex owners.
And you expect war criminals with a D behind their name to investigate the war criminals the Ds served as accomplices to with a R behind their name? Yeah, that’s likely to happen Right. Most of what your wrote (all this “pushing” of things) would take years to do. By that time, the 3-second attention span sheep in this nation will have forgotten all about this stuff, if they even remember it now, or have even heard about it.
Again, nothing of substance will be done about the D and R war criminals, as some of us said many months ago. Because the Ds and Rs are all part of it. It’s another reason why war criminal Pelosi said, “impeachment is off the table.”
i cant believe they are releasing this… this is that big scary report that alot of other reports quote from, including some of the ‘torture memos’.
how could they not redact a bunch of it? IIRC, the public quotations of the report are themselves redacted. it probably reveals a ton of names and places, probaly of still-undercover agents.
‘how could they not redact a bunch of it? IIRC, the public quotations of the report are themselves redacted. it probably reveals a ton of names and places, probaly of still-undercover agents.’
Obviously, individual names should be expected to be redacted, as seen in the release of torture memos previously.
I have yet to see anything released and I am expecting Obama to censor the whole thing at the last minute, necessitating yet another lawsuit from ACLU.
Anything else?
What I find most astonishing about Joe Lieberman’s and Lindsey Graham’s FEARS that releasing photographs of torture will INCITE VIOLENCE against Americans is that they apparently have NO FEARS that allowing those who ordered and conducted TORTURE to go UNPUNISHED actually INCITES MORE VIOLENCE than photographs of what the ordered, did and got away with doing.
Everywhere you look, propaganda rules, or am I just paranoid? Carefully read the following, and tell me if this isn’t just chock full of obfuscation and spin, intended or not from Isikoff. Isikoff noted that there are footnotes in the torture memos already released which “quote from the Inspector General’s report that what was actually done went beyond what was authorized — that how waterboarding was conducted, the frequency with which it was conducted, and the manner in which it was conducted was beyond what the CIA told the Justice Department it was going to do when the Justice Department authorized the technique.” First of all, authorizing something illegal to begin with makes the authorization moot. Not making that distinction is the first problem. Secondly, Iikoff’s noting of “how waterboarding was conducted, the frequency…” in the context of discussing how the CIA went “beyond” the “authorization” only serves to obfuscate the fact that any form of waterboarding is torture plain and simple, and that the documentation of the degree by which it was implemented is moot. Lastly, Isikoff reports how the CIA’s report tattles on itself by admitting that it did stuff that went beyond what the CIA told the Justice Department it was doing is not even worth mentioning, unless of course it is pointed out that it is known that the CIA destroyed all of those interrogation videos, and that the Justice Department under Bush was well aware of such, and did nothing about it.
I think your suspicions are correct. I thought the same thing when I read it. They’re essentially establishing everything as legal along the way… particularly everything the Democrats already knew about.
I think after several decades of revealing the ’sickening truths’ about how the U.S. operates militarily, we should all know whats up by now. I think the whole torture debate is largely artificial and it’s being presented to Americans as this sort of epic battle, to torture or not to torture, what a fucking no brainer. I suspect the torture debate will continue for a few more years with the same amount of blather until about that time it’s pretty obvious we’re never leaving Iraq or Afghanistan. Then they’ll give America the win, no more torture (by Americans) and Americans win! Whoopie ding! Back to the war suckers, back to torture by proxy, back to pretending dropping o bomb on a bunch of innocent people is nothing compared to the horror of water boarding.
Let me get this right; the CIA is going to reveal something called “TRUTH”.
You got to be kidding me; I’m not reading this shit! This is the same agency that lives in the trash can and lies to the American people!
CIA to reveal “Truth”!
My ass!
(((3)))
Another excellent report, Raw Story. I was not aware of Sheldon Whitehouse’s involvement before, but he’s apparently one of the few we can trust on this issue. It’s interesting that all these time bombs are going to explode “in the next few days” which means the weekend and hopefully for the Obama administration, a short shelf life. Sad that the Obama administration has to resort to keep the lid on Bush’s war crimes to such an extent.
Bush and Cheney, dangling from the end of a rope, eyes bulging out of their heads, feet a twitching, shit running down their legs……………………priceless.
Come on. Aren’t we better than that?
watch AmBUSHed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ypsEmg9yOs&fmt=22
it will bring a smile to your face.
Since Torture is So Sickening and everyone with a functioning brain is aware that Bush, Cheney and appointee Lawyers did in fact
Violate our Federal Anti-Torture Laws
Why haven’t our Congressional Democrats
pushed President Obama and AG Holder to
Appoint a Special Prosecutor for Torture Crimes
and create an investigatory
Congressional Commission?
Are they Soft On Crimes
committed by their
fellow Politicians?
If you do nothing else for your Country today,
SIGN THE PETITION To Prosecute Them For Torture
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Over 250,000 have signed
Join them and call yourself a Patriot
.
Are they Soft On Crimes
committed by their
fellow Politicians?
It would certainly appear so.
who is expecting the hail mary play by the justice dept and/or Obama to squelch this report?
I know I am.
Me
The CIA is in the BUSINESS of secrecy. Is this some sort of going out of business sale? The sickening truths apparently are the lack of testimony corroborating the 9/11 Commission report from these otherwise thoroughly tortured people. Very sick.
While Michael Isikoff’s name is in the air . . .
http://123realchange.blogspot.com/2009/06/project-expose-msm-reports.html
decora: Good. Let it. Criminals should be held accountable for their crimes. If CIA agents and military investigators committed war crimes in spite of the Geneva Conventions, well, fuck them. Take your pity party somewhere with a lot of dry towels.
i wanna make a rap song with all the quotes of Boosh and the ziocons denying torture and then saying how it “kept us safe” and then in between the quotes have hollywood soundtracks from the many movie scenes involving torture complete with screams of agony like in “rise of the footsoldier” which all old Taratino fans should rent immediately.
you can borrow my idea if you are bored and techno savvy.
“The truth will set you free.” Except, that is, in Washington, D.C., where the truth gets you in trouble.
“Now the congress MUST take action against these war criminals.”
Don’t be ridiculous, congress needn’t do anything of the kind. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely. America was born of revolutionaries who opposed tyranny to become the most powerful nation in the world. And that absolute power corrupted us. Counter-tyranists that became tyrants themselves. With 75% of Americans believing in God and angels and Heaven and Hell, and another 50% believing that torture is sometimes necessary to protect the Fatherland, and our oligarchy being run by The Virtue of Selfishness Ayn Randian corporatists, American hegemony and hedonism and soul-less, un-spiritual, me-first, trash-the-planet, free-enterprise, military-industrial-petroleum-consumerism, the U.S. truly is The Great Satan. AND NOTHING SUBSTANTIVE WILL BE DONE AT ALL CONCERNING THE CRIMINALITY OF TORTURE, POVERTY, AND THE SYSTEMIC INJUSTICES THAT EXIST IN AMERICA. NOTHING.
I’m beginning to believe that this whole thing will be investigated. Thank God for the ACLU and their push for information. One more thing, if saying that pictures of what was done by the torturers to the detainees will cause the USA to look bad, they are saying that, if fact, the USA did something horrendous that should cause worldwide uproar, and we have pictures of it. Well, the pictures aren’t the crime, and whether we see the pictures or not the crime was committed. Charge the motherfuckers and let the pictures come out in court. It’s all just a diversion right now, giving the culprits time to work up a defense and possibly an escape.
I’m beginning to believe that this whole thing will be investigated.
——————————-
Well people can believe anything. That doesn’t make it so. I mean, millions of people have believed in witches, the Floating Cloud Being and talking snakes, etc.
Were you one of the same people who wanted to “believe” that war criminal Pelosi wasn’t serious when she said, “impeachment is off the table?”
Did you want to “believe” that the Dems would stop serving as accomplices to Bush/Cheney following the 2006 election where the Dems became the majority in congress?
Did you also “believe” in Mr Hope/”Change we can believe in” messiah Obama and the manure he spewed during the campaign….most of which has turned out to be LIES?
Get the point?
Nothing of substance is going to be done about any of this shit because both D and R “teams” are complicit, accomplices and war criminals.
But also what thx1138 said. This country has an evil undercurrent. Kind of like we’re all riding on the back of a snake.
Bush, Cheny et al never expected to lose the election. They thought they had it all wired… until Mr. Charisma showed up, Of course Bush et al never thought this material would become public. They were fools enough to believe that their spin and electional fraud would continue indefinitely. From Mr. 911 to Mr. BombIran, the neocons shot themselves in the foot over and over again. Now… the info on torture is coming out. Whatever would they do if the truth about 911 ever came out? What was it that was recently recovered from building 7… was that thermite?
In my opinion, messiah Obushma was ALLOWED to win the election because he had assured the Bush regime that he would continue their agenda, as he IS doing. That’s why there was a so-called “peaceful transition of power.” Because there was no transition of power. Bush/Cheney are still in power, just under another name.
I don’t give a fuk about Bush-accomplice messiah Obama’s “Charisma” that the sheep allowed themselves to fall for while willingly ignoring Obama’s Bush-accomplice senatorial voting record. I care about the US Constitution, a document that “Mr Charisma” is continuing to shred.
What Dubya meant by “we don’t torture,” is: “What we do is WAY worse than just torture!”
i’ve been saying and thinking this since the whole waterboarding issue exploded upon the scene:
that it was a purposely manufactured story to sway public observation and opinion away from the real hardcore facts that innocent people have been likely murdered through torture. they have tried to mislead the public with waterboarding by representing it as a band-aid, when in actual fact below the surface is a deep and horrible wound they don’t want anyone to see or know about. it is the height of shame and disgrace for america.
The fact that there is no accountability for lying this country into an invasion or for other crimes over the last eight years along with no accountability for admitted war crimes MAKES THIS COUNTRY WHAT IT IS TODAY. And I won’t say it.
I hope the stores in DC, Dallas, and whatever cave Dickhead Cheney is calling home these days, have plenty of hipwaders - shits going to be running quite deep there …
Investigate, Indict, and Prosecute Bush and His Cabal of War Criminals.
Does this mean that Liz and Dick Cheney will be on all the channels 24/7 telling us how this is making us unsafe?
LOVE IT EARL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
re: thomasmc “What Dubya meant by “we don’t torture,” is: “What we do is WAY worse than just torture!”
That is why we must keep the pressure on the Democrats to investigate and prosecute.
SIGN THE PETITION
To Prosecute Them For Torture
http://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Over 250,000 have signed
Join them and call yourself a Patriot
.
More lies were told in the bush administration by his administration and the well paid propaganda media than any other administration..They thought we were gullible and could easily confuse us with spin..Not gonna happen anymore..I dont believe we heard one truth the whole time from bush..Sadly we must be accountable because many were criminals in our name ,but we are responsible if we are silent. This can never happen again ever.