The first use of waterboarding and other rough treatment against a prisoner from Al Qaeda was ordered by senior officials despite the belief of interrogators that the prisoner had already told them all he knew, according to former intelligence officials and a footnote in a newly released legal memorandum.So now, if you connect the dots, it becomes clearer (at least to those who are not still drunk on Bushie-Brand Kool-Aid). The program to torture people was run out of the Vice President's office by Dick Cheney and David Addington. They bear direct responsibility for ordering it, and Bush, of course, is guilty under the doctrine of command responsibility.
The escalation to especially brutal interrogation tactics against the prisoner, Abu Zubaydah, including confining him in boxes and slamming him against the wall, was ordered by officials at C.I.A. headquarters based on a highly inflated assessment of his importance, interviews and a review of newly released documents show.
Abu Zubaydah had provided much valuable information under less severe treatment, and the harsher handling produced no breakthroughs, according to one former intelligence official with direct knowledge of the case. Instead, watching his torment caused great distress to his captors, the official said.
Even for those who believed that brutal treatment could produce results, the official said, “seeing these depths of human misery and degradation has a traumatic effect.”
Second, what is clear is the signal that is being given by the CIA: They are not going to take the bullet on this one.
Third, color me hugely unsympathetic that the torturers are suffering psychological problems as a result of torturing people.
In return for holding them harmless, Obama should be collecting resignations. No use keeping people around who can't get it right.
ReplyDelete