tagged w/ Enhanced Interogation
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Since 9-11, and the declaration of the War on Terror by the George W. Bush administration, there has been continuous conflict waged by the U.S. and her allies including the Canadian military.
The October 2001 invasion of Afghanistan quickly morphed into a decade-long bloody counter-insurgency that shows no signs of a successful conclusion in the foreseeable future.
Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, under the falsified claim of self-defence from non-existent weapons of mass destruction, toppled Saddam Hussein in a matter of weeks. However, that "victory also quickly slid into the quagmire of a bloody insurgency.
Last December’s pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq may have halted the American casualty count, but the war-torn country remains immersed in an inter-factional civil war.
Ditto for the 10-month NATO air campaign that helped Libyan rebels depose and murder Moammar Gadhafi in cold blood. Without a common purpose, other than the removal of Gadhafi from power, Libyan militias continue to fight among themselves for a bigger share of the victor’s spoils.
Despite the failure to produce a verifiably successful result in any of these three campaigns, the U.S. is now clamouring for the international sanction to intervene in Syria and Iran.
Full Story: http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/67540-us-has-own-take-what-war-crimes-areSince 9-11, and the declaration of the War on Terror by the George W. Bush... more
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Over the last year there have been an increasing number of accounts suggesting that, along with the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" torture program, there was a related program experimenting with and researching the application of the torture.
For example, in the seven paragraphs released by a British court summarizing observations by British counterintelligence agents of the treatment of Binyan Mohamed by the CIA, the first two of these paragraphs
these paragraphs stated:
It was reported that a new series of interviews was conducted by the United States authorities prior to 17 May 2002 as part of a new strategy designed by an expert interviewer….
BM had been intentionally subjected to continuous sleep deprivation. The effects of the sleep deprivation were carefully observed. [emphasis added]
The suggestion was that a new strategy was being tested and the results carefully examined. Several detainees have provided similar accounts, expressing their belief that their interrogations were being carefully studied, apparently so that the techniques could be modified based on the results. Such research would violate established laws and ethical rules governing research.
Since Nazi doctors who experimented upon prisoners in the concentration camps were put on trial at Nuremberg, the U.S. and other countries have moved toward a high ethical standard for research on people. All but the most innocuous research requires the informed consent of those studied. Further, all research on people is subject to review by independent research ethics committees, known as Institutional Review Boards or IRBs.
In the U.S., there was a major push toward more stringent research ethics when the existence of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was publicly revealed in the early 1970s. In that study nearly 400 poor rural African-American men were denied existing treatment for their syphilis, and indeed, were never told they had syphilis by participating doctors. The study by the U.S. Public Health Service was intended to continue until the last of these men died of syphilis. When the study became public the resulting outcry helped cement evolving ethical standards mandating informed consent for any research with even a possibility of causing harm. These rules were codified in what has become known as the Common Rule, which applies to nearly all federally-funded research, including all research by the CIA.
Experiments in Torture
A new report of which I am a coauthor, Experiments in Torture: Evidence of Human Subject Research and Experimentation in the "Enhanced" Interrogation Program, just released by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) confirms previous suspicions and provides the first strong evidence that the CIA was indeed engaged in illegal and unethical research on detainees in its custody. The report, the result of six months of detailed work, analyzes now-public documents, including the "torture memos" from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and the CIA's Inspector General Report and the accompanying CIA Office of Medical Services (OMS) guidelines for monitoring of detainees.
The report points to several instances where medical personnel -- physicians and psychologists -- monitored the detailed administration of torture techniques and the effects upon those being abused. The resultant knowledge was then used both as a legal rationale for the use of the techniques and to refine these abusive techniques, allegedly in order to make them safer.
For example, the OMS guidelines contain this note emphasizing how important it is "that every application of the waterboard be thoroughly documented" by medical personnel, and clarifying the nature of this documentation:
"how long each application (and the entire procedure) lasted, how much water was applied (realizing that much splashes off), how exactly the water was applied, if a seal was achieved, if the naso- or oropharynx was filled, what sort of volume was expelled, how long was the break between applications, and how the subject looked between each treatment."
This type of documentation was not part of routine medical care as it was not being done in the interests of the person being waterboarded. Rather, the OMS made clear that this was being done
"[i]n order to best inform future medical judgments and recommendations" [regarding how to torture people.]
The purpose of this systematic monitoring was to modify how these techniques were implemented, that is, to develop generalizable knowledge to be utilized in the future. As Renée Llanusa-Cestero demonstrated in a recent paper on CIA research in the peer-reviewed journal Accountability in Medicine, the medical personnel conducting these observations were primarily present as researchers to observe and monitor, not as treating doctors.
Other examples in the PHR report describe instances in which OMS staff investigated the degree to which severe pain that may meet the legal definition of torture arose from the applications of a specific technique (sleep deprivation) or from combinations of individual techniques. In the combined techniques example, they apparently experimented with different combinations of abusive techniques -- "for example, when an insult slap is simultaneously combined with water dousing or a kneeling stress position, or when wall standing is simultaneously combined with an abdominal slap and water dousing" -- and studied the suffering that each combination created. The Office of Legal Counsel drew upon this research in one of the torture memos to argue that, because they claimed the individual "enhanced techniques" were not harmful, combining these varied techniques also would not cause interrogators to slip over the line allegedly separating legal techniques from illegal "torture."
It is hard not to conclude that the CIA was conducting research upon detainees. These observations and experiments were not conducted for the benefit of the individuals being brutally interrogated but for the purpose of creating generalizable knowledge and thus constituted research subject to the laws and ethical rules regulating research, including the Common Rule.
Evidence Techniques Are Harmful
(more @ link)Over the last year there have been an increasing number of accounts suggesting that,... more
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"Attorneys defending Abu Zubaydah, a Guantanamo prisoner designated as the first "high-value" detainee by the Bush administration, have finally gained access to three volumes of diaries he wrote while he was in the custody of the CIA and brutally tortured by agency interrogators and contractors at a secret "black site" prison.
The diaries, identified as volumes 7, 8 and 9, were written between 2002 and 2006 and total a little more than 300 pages. They were turned over to defense attorneys by the government late last year after a lengthy legal battle, and are believed to contain detailed descriptions of the torture techniques to which Zubaydah was subjected.""Attorneys defending Abu Zubaydah, a Guantanamo prisoner designated as the first... more
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Prolonged stress from the CIA's harsh interrogations could have impaired the memories of terrorist suspects, diminishing their ability to recall and provide the detailed information the spy agency sought, according to a scientific paper published Monday.
The methods could even have caused the suspects to create — and believe — false memories, contends the paper, which scrutinizes the techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration through the lens of neurobiology. It suggests the methods are actually counterproductive, no matter how much suspects might eventually say.
"Solid scientific evidence on how repeated and extreme stress and pain affect memory and executive functions (such as planning or forming intentions) suggests these techniques are unlikely to do anything other than the opposite of that intended by coercive or enhanced interrogation," according to the paper published Monday in the scientific journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
In the paper, Shane O'Mara, a professor at Ireland's Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, wrote that the severe interrogation techniques appear based on "folk psychology" — a layman's idea of how the brain works as opposed to science-based understanding of memory and cognitive function.Prolonged stress from the CIA's harsh interrogations could have impaired the... more
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Battered by recriminations over waterboarding and other harsh techniques sanctioned by the Bush administration, the CIA is girding itself for more public scrutiny and is questioning whether agency personnel can conduct interrogations effectively under rules set out for the U.S. military, according to senior intelligence officials.
Harsh interrogations were only one part of its clandestine activities against al-Qaeda and other enemies, and agency members are worried that other operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan will come under review, the officials said.
CIA Director Leon Panetta said he has established a group at the agency to handle requests for documents by Congress, the prosecutors and any "truth commission." The agency is facing a dispute with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over how much agency officials told congressional overseers about the harsh techniques.Battered by recriminations over waterboarding and other harsh techniques sanctioned by... more
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My brother in law sent a power point presentation on this. I am trying to think of this as a "good thing", but someone told me it was coming about a year ago and I thought they were just paranoid. I am reserving judgement but would love to hear your feed back. Do you want a lithium chip implanted for medical ID, tagging infants, etc. Also, if you remove it, it calls the police to "check on you". HmmmmmmmmmmmMy brother in law sent a power point presentation on this. I am trying to think of... more
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You must see this to believe it. It was on the ABC Newser today. This is beyond torture for such a small crime. But remember, in Saudia Arabia, punishment for DUI is death by firing squad. That is posted at The Drivers License office!
This is difficult to watch. I don't know how this man survived but he was in the hospital for months. He was shot all around his body to scare him, sand filled his mouth, beaten with a board bearing a NAIL, and after even more sadistic torture, he was run over by Shiek Issa several times in his big luxury car. Even the Police share in the torture.You must see this to believe it. It was on the ABC Newser today. This is beyond... more
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We worry about losing rights. And we should. It is a slippery slope. But what could cause man to be so full of hate to believe that their God appoints them to be judge, jury and executioner. I know there are articles about this but a picture is worth a thousand words. Watch as the Taliban decide that this couple who were "eloping" decided instead that they needed to die immediately. The Taliban have moved as close as 60 miles from Pakistan where their nuclear weapons are. I have been against going back into that area because the terrain makes it so difficult for our military and many more will die. Do you think these guys would use the nukes if they could get their hands on them?
For those against "enhanced interrogation"...would you be against it if they were headed to our country to dish out their brand of justice and we could foil their plot to blow up America?We worry about losing rights. And we should. It is a slippery slope. But what could... more
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The reports of over 30 meetings between Bush and law-makers and all the Dems and Republicans will be out soon. Documentation that this was not just a Bush/Cheney thing. Even if it was, where was the outrage??
Truth is that funding for these activites were approved by all in the meetings including "air head Pelosi", and all the other fine Democratic liers.
They all have a club."You lie and I will swear to it".
Just see how this quiets down as soon as people realize they might also be charged for "complicity".
Did anyone ever hear objections? no. Did people attend over 30 meetings? yes.
If they knew it was happening, did they lift a finger to stop it? no. And the reason for that is as old as time itself. "Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil". Go along to get along and keep my really good job with all the benefits.
America disgraces itself more every day with all the childish behaviors and lies.
ORIGINAL TEXT:
Republicans, hoping to turn the tables on Democrats who are open to prosecuting Bush-era lawyers for justifying "enhanced" interrogation techniques, are seeking to reveal the names of those lawmakers who were briefed on the tactics as much as seven years ago.
FOX News has learned there were more than 30 meetings and briefings with members of Congress on the subject since 2002.
The first such briefing dealt with the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, the Al Qaeda operations chief who ran the training camps in Afghanistan where the Sept. 11 hijackers were trained. Sources said California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, now the speaker of the House, attended the meeting with then-Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla. (who later became CIA director), and she did not raise any objections.
The briefings were given to the chairmen and ranking members of the intelligence committees in the House and Senate until 2006. That could cover Sen. John Rockefeller, W.Va., and Rep. Jane Harman, Calif., both Democrats, as well as Sen. Pat Roberts, Kan., Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C., Sen. Richard Shelby, Ala., and Rep. Pete Hoekstra, Mich., all Republicans.
Defenders of the interrogation program note that if Congress had wanted to kill the program, all it had to do was withhold funding, which didn't happen.
Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has personally requested from Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair an unclassified list of names of all members of Congress who attended those briefings, complete with dates and locations.The reports of over 30 meetings between Bush and law-makers and all the Dems and... more
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It's gonna be swell on January 20th, won't it? Democracy will be restored, peace will prevail, and cars will run on rainbows and the sweet peal of children's laughter.
Not so fast there, Sparky. There's still that whole suspension of the Bill of Rights thing, plus oodles of other affronts committed in the name of the War on Terror.
Naomi Wolf sees it as the rise of an American fascism, and has cataloged the perils in her book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. She's now back with a film based on that book, directed by Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg (The Trials of Darryl Hunt; The Devil Came on Horseback).
I was able to sit down with Wolf to discuss what havoc Dubya hath wreaked, and what needs to be done to put things right.It's gonna be swell on January 20th, won't it? Democracy will be restored,... more
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From wikileaks
Remember the furor earlier this year surrounding the CIA's destruction of its interrogation videos? Wikileaks has discovered that the US Marine Corps probably also has interrogation videos and may be about to destroy them. On September 9, 2008, the Marines issued the following restricted Marine Corps Administrative order, or MRCADMIN:
The order tasks the Marines to speed up or continue with previous destruction arrangements for interrogation related videos and records. This would be a politically controversial decision that would motivate, but of course not justify, a FOUO marking. Such a decision might follow the rationale of the CIA, which destroyed its own interrogation videos, claiming that were they to leak, international outrage towards the United States and CIA interrogators might result. However it has been widely speculated that the CIA wanted to hide evidence that could be used in a prosecution or other legal action against its personnel.
The order tasks the Marines to slow down, or stop the destruction of interrogation related videos and records. By no means a controversial decision — so why the FOUO marking restricting it from the public?
Both scenarios suggest the Marine Corps is currently holding interrogation videos. Although the order seems aimed at videos endemic to the Marine Corps, it is possible that some are from the other services or organizations such as the CIA or DIA. The Marine Corps has its own intelligence division known as the MCIA, or "Marine Corps Intelligence Activity"[2], which often shares information with the rest of the US intelligence community.
Wikileaks applied for the MRCADMIN document under the Freedom of Information Act on Friday. By statute the Marine Corps has 20 days to respond, however the Act is widely flouted and in practice such requests typically take months or years. Perhaps a sympathetic marine would like to send it our way?From wikileaks
Remember the furor earlier this year surrounding the CIA's... more
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The same logic that allowed the government to use and test LSD as a weapon and lead to the testing and use of sodium pentathol is being applied in the harsh light of day today in regards to torturing of prisoners. The same logic that allowed the government to use and test LSD as a weapon and lead... more
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