this article sat on my yahoo news page all day but i didn't
want to read it.
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CIA Interrogations Said Verging on Inhumane
Thu Dec 26, 7:37 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA interrogators have been
using "stress and duress" techniques on captured enemies in
Afghanistan that blur the line between legal and inhumane,
the Washington Post reported Thursday.
The Post described a cluster of metal shipping containers
it said constituted a secret CIA interrogation center at
Bagram Air Base, headquarters of U.S. forces hunting al
Qaeda operatives and commanders of the ousted Taliban
militia.
Captives who refused to cooperate were sometimes kept
standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-
painted goggles, the Post said, citing intelligence
specialists said to be familiar with CIA interrogation
techniques.
At times they were held in awkward, painful positions and
deprived of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights --
subject to what are known as "stress and duress"
techniques, the report said.
Those who cooperated were rewarded with "creature comforts"
as well as feigned friendship, respect, cultural
sensitivity and, in some cases, money, from their
interrogators, it said.
On the other hand, some who did not cooperate were turned
over -- "rendered," in official parlance -- to foreign
intelligence services whose practice of torture has been
documented by the U.S. government and human rights
organizations, the Post said.
"In the multifaceted global war on terrorism waged by the
Bush administration, one of the most opaque -- yet vital --
fronts is the detention and interrogation of terrorism
suspects," the paper said.
U.S. officials have said little publicly about the
captives' names, numbers or whereabouts, and virtually
nothing about interrogation methods.
But the Post said it had gained insights thanks to
interviews with several former intelligence officials and
10 current U.S. national security officials -- including
several people who said they had witnessed the handling of
prisoners.
"The picture that emerges is of a brass-knuckled quest for
information, often in concert with allies of dubious human
rights reputation, in which the traditional lines between
right and wrong, legal and inhumane, are evolving and
blurred," the Post reported.
The U.S. government publicly denounces the use of torture.
But each of the current national security officials
interviewed for the article defended the use of violence
against captives as just and necessary, the Post said.
"They expressed confidence that the American public would
back their view," it added. The CIA had no comment on the
article, Mark Mansfield, a spokesman, said late on
Wednesday night.
The off-limits patch of ground at Bagram was described by
the Post as one of a number of secret detention centers
overseas where U.S. due process does not apply, where the
CIA undertakes or manages the interrogation of suspected
terrorists. Another was reported to be Diego Garcia, a
British-owned island in the Indian Ocean.
According to U.S. officials, nearly 3,000 suspected al
Qaeda members and their supporters have been detained
worldwide since Sept. 11, 2001. About 625 are at the U.S.
military's confinement facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Some officials estimated that fewer than 100 captives had
been rendered to third countries. Thousands had been
arrested and held with U.S. assistance in countries known
for brutal treatment of prisoners, the officials were
quoted as saying.
story.news.yahoo.com
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i finally read it and i wish i didn't; i can't think
of "right werds" to say.
"holy jihad batman."
"we have met the enemy, and he is us."
"the united states has chosen to go to war again
and we have already lost. we have tossed away what
is worthy of defending -- human dignity and respect
for life."
"So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I wanna go home"
"i don't know where that is
i only know it is a voyage to the heart.
it begins with the hoisting of the dacron,
catching the wind, and leaving the cold,
gray, savage shores of safety for the
danger of the open sea with integrity
intact and a vision of warmer climes"
-el polvo del mar |
