NationStates Jolt Archive

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/TheLaw/story?id=4244423&page=1

CIA director Michael Hayden confirmed in an open session of Congress Tuesday his agency's use of an interrogation technique many consider torture -- a technique at the center of a national debate on the treatment of U.S. detainees in the war on terror and in the war in Iraq.

Until Hayden's comments before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today, no senior U.S. intelligence official had publicly acknowledged the technique.


Kind of hypocritical, since the US executed Japanese Officers after WWII who waterboarded US POW because it was considered a "war crime" and "torture".


But I guess its ok when the US does it.

But I guess its ok when the US does it.
Hey, it's a post 9/11 world, not a post Fire Bombing of Tokyo world...




...or something...

Hey, it's a post 9/11 world, not a post Fire Bombing of Tokyo world...




...or something...

Because the A-bomb and fire bombing Tokyo was not nearly as bad as 9/11.


I hate this country:rolleyes:


ps- Yes, I know you were joking, but I am expecting someone to make this exact comment in seriousness

but now how we will get them to confess being witches!?!

Check to see if they're ducks?

Meh, winners makes the rules,... I'm pretty much not surprised anymore.

See? This is what happens when you rid the high schools and colleges of hazing. Are you happy now? :mad:

:p

but now how we will get them to confess being witches!?!

edit:
Meh, winners makes the rules,... I'm pretty much not surprised anymore.

I hope when the terrorists win they are kinder to us :p

but now how we will get them to confess being witches!?!

Well, if she's weighs as much as a duck, then she's made of wood, and therefore, A WITCH!!! :D:D

How is this news? We've known about this for years.

It's news because the U.S. government has never admitted to it. They've always denied that it goes on despite the various reports about it. Now they're being honest.

Basically it's like a convicted rapist owning up to his or her crime after the evidence is already damning and they've been in jail for a few years.

How is this news? We've known about this for years.

It's news because the U.S. government has never admitted to it. They've always denied that it goes on despite the various reports about it. Now they're being honest.

Basically it's like a convicted rapist owning up to his or her crime after the evidence is already damning and they've been in jail for a few years.

I thought Rumsfeild did. Or maybe he just authorized torture. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the US engaging in torture isn't upsetting. I was just wondering what was new about an announcement when we already knew it happened. Your explanation makes sense.

How is this news? We've known about this for years.

For one thing, because the government finally admits it.

For another, because Attorney General Michael Mukasey testified that waterboarding is not currently in use, but neither him nor the CIA will say that it won't happen again.

Also because we now know that it was used on Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The tapes of the interregation of Abu Zubaydah were conveniently destroyed, and as Sidney Blumenthal writes:
In March 2002, Abu Zubaydah, touted as a top al-Qaida commander, was captured by a CIA and FBI team in Pakistan. Bush was prompted to call him "chief of operations" for al-Qaida, naming him as "No. 3" to bin Laden. Dan Coleman, one of FBI's top agents on al-Qaida, was assigned to read Zubaydah's diary. In it, he writes in three incoherent voices, reflecting different personalities, writes Suskind. "The CIA had long suspected that the ubiquitous Zubaydah was involved in the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa. He [Coleman] looked for entries in the summer of 1998 in Zubaydah's diary. Nothing ... nothing but nonsense." Coleman reported to an FBI official: "This guy is insane, certifiable, split personality."

Bush was briefed. "I said he was important," the president complained to Tenet. "You're not going to let me lose face on this, are you?" "No sir, Mr. President." So Zubaydah became the first experiment in the new rules on torture in which the Geneva Conventions did not apply. Over at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., a CIA official told Suskind, "Around the room a lot of people just rolled their eyes when we heard comments from the White House. I mean, Bush and Cheney knew what we knew about Zubaydah. The guy had psychological issues. He was, in a way, expendable. It was like calling someone who runs a company's in-house travel department the COO."

But the decision was made to "torture a mentally disturbed man and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered." He was "waterboarded," simulating drowning. Zubaydah babbled about terrorist threats to shopping malls, nuclear power plants, supermarkets, and about al-Qaida plans to build a nuclear device. The administration sounded alerts on every unconfirmed threat. In May 2002, New York City was put on high alert over Zubaydah's torture-incited ravings that the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty were targets. Cheney went on "Larry King Live" to defend the alerts: "We now have a large number of people in custody, detainees, and periodically as we go through this process we learn more about the possibility of future attacks."
On page 3 (http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/06/22/iraq_debate/index.html)

...which again begs the question: This guy was tortured - did it work? Did it give anything of value? Was it worth the cost to the soul of America?

but now how we will get them to confess being witches!?!


She turned me into a newt!*Looks down at self* I got better!
Was it worth the cost to the soul of America?

America lost it's soul a LONG time ago Gravlen.

America lost it's soul a LONG time ago Gravlen.

But... Well, you see... I mean...


DAMN YOU!! Damn you to heck (http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u275/Gravlen/NSG/god_will_get_you.jpg) for foiling me like that!

*Shakes fist at*

:p

...which again begs the question: This guy was tortured - did it work? Did it give anything of value? Was it worth the cost to the soul of America?




Well, anyone who listens to those who have been tortured or have tortured people and are now out of Government offices would tell you no.


The CIA and the Bush admin will tell you yes, but will follow it up with "but we cant tell you".


Im inclined to believe the former.

but now how we will get them to confess being witches!?!

We can try building bridges out of them . . .