„Als ich das positive Ergebnis bekommen habe, habe ich gesagt, dass ich mit meiner Lebensgefährtin zusammen in der Wohnung wohne. Daraufhin ist sie angerufen und gefragt worden, wann sie den letzten Kontakt mit mir gehabt hat. Sie hat gesagt, dadurch, dass wir zusammen leben, heute in der Früh.“
Daily Archives: 26. Dezember 2020
After CODEPINK Campaign & pressure from others, Torture Defender Mike Morell Bows Out for CIA. Now, we must ask the tough questions of #AvrilHaines, challenge her nomination & put the #drone program on trial!
Open Letter to President-Elect Biden & U.S. Senate from Torture Victims and their Advocates Opposed to Mike Morell for CIA and Avril Haines for National Intelligence.
(21.12.2020)
Morell has no place in a Biden-Harris administration. His nomination would send a chilling message to torture survivors and other victims of grave injustice that the United States government, including the Biden administration, does not uphold its own stated principles. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) from the Senate Intelligence Committee has said about Morell: “No torture apologist can be confirmed as CIA director. It’s a nonstarter.” We agree and urge the President-elect not to nominate Morell.
We also oppose Avril Haines, another toture apologist, as Director of National Intelligence. Since she has already been nominated, we ask Senators to oppose her confirmation.
No, Joe, Don’t Roll out the Red Carpet for Torture Enablers
(24.12.2020)
It was painful enough to live through the U.S invasion of Iraq that caused untold devastation and human misery for no justifiable reason.
Now we are again reminded of the grim Bush legacy with President-elect Biden’s nomination of Avril Haines for Director of National Intelligence.
CIA: Die Stille nach dem Folterbericht
(12.12.2014)
Viele US-Amerikaner scheinen abgestumpft, vielleicht sogar verroht, zu sein, dass Gräueltaten sie nicht mehr bewegen. Selbst der schamlos freche Auftritt des früheren Vizepräsidenten im Fernsehen, in dem Dick Cheney belegte, dass er ein Schreibtischtäter ist, der Reue nicht kennt, vermochte nicht mehr für Aufregung zu sorgen. Kein Wunder übrigens: Die Mehrheit der Amerikaner, so sagen Umfragen, findet Folter gar nicht so schlimm.
Das hat die Angst vermocht, die das Land nach den Terroranschlägen vom 11. September 2001 gepackt hat und bis heute in ihrem Griff hält.
Torture Report Puts Presidential Hopefuls in Quiet Mode
(Dec. 10, 2014)
Most of the possible presidential candidates have not plunged into Washington’s debate over the Senate Intelligence Committee’s withering report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s brutal interrogation tactics — and some are ducking questions entirely, illustrating the delicate politics of national security. (…)
For Mrs. Clinton, the challenge is different: She must balance her desire to be seen as tough on national security against pressure from her party’s liberal wing to not only condemn the gruesome tactics but punish those involved.
Torture report‘s hidden fiasco: How Mark Udall revealed a little-noticed smoking gun
(December 11, 2014)
„The Panetta Review further describes how detainees provided intelligence prior to the use of torture against them. It describes how the CIA – contrary to its own representations – often tortured detainees before trying any other approach. It describes how the CIA tortured detainees even when less coercive methods were yielding intelligence. The Panetta Review further identifies cases in which the CIA used coercive techniques when it had no basis for determining whether a detainee had critical intelligence at all. In other words, CIA personnel tortured detainees to confirm they didn’t have intelligence – not because they thought they did.“
REPORT of the SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE STUDY of the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY’S DETENTION AND INTERROGATION PROGRAM
The Committee makes the following findings and conclusions:
#1: The CIA‘s use of its enhanced interrogation techniques was not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees.
(…)
#2: The CIA‘s justification for the use of its enhanced interrogation techniques rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness.
(…)
#3: The interrogations of CIA detainees were brutal and far worse than the CIA represented to policymakers and others. (…)
At least five CIA detainees were subjected to „rectal rehydration“ or rectal feeding without documented medical necessity. The CIA placed detainees in ice water „baths.“ The CIA led several detainees to believe they would never be allowed to leave CIA custody alive, suggesting to one detainee that he would only leave in a coffin-shaped box. One interrogator told another detainee that he would never go to court, because „we can never let the world know what I have done to you.“ CIA officers also threatened at least three detainees with harm to their families— to include threats to harm the children of a detainee, threats to sexually abuse the mother of a detainee, and a threat to „cut [a detainee‘s] mother‘s throat.“
#4: The conditions of confinement for CIA detainees were harsher than the CIA had represented to policymakers and others.
Conditions at CIA detention sites were poor, and were especially bleak early in the program. CIA detainees at the COBALT detention facility were kept in complete darkness and constantly shackled in isolated cells with loud noise or music and only a bucket to use for human waste.10 Lack of heat at the facility likely contributed to the death of a detainee. The chief of interrogations described COBALT as a „dungeon.“11 Another senior CIA officer stated that COBALT was itself an enhanced interrogation technique.“ At times, the detainees at COBALT were walked around naked or were shackled with their hands above their heads for extended periods of time. Other times, the detainees at COBALT were subjected to what was described as a „rough takedown,“ in which approximately five CIA officers would scream at a detainee, drag him outside of his cell, cut his clothes off, and secure him with Mylar tape. The detainee would then be hooded and dragged up and down a long corridor while being slapped and punched.
„We Tortured Some Folks“: CIA Lied To Congress, Senate Torture Report Reveals
(Dec 09, 2014)
The drilldown from Bloomberg:
– CIA provided inaccurate information about effectiveness and scope of interrogations of suspected terrorists, and mismanaged a program that was far more brutal than represented, according to 6-year investigation by Democrats on Senate Intelligence Cmte.
– Interrogation techniques weren’t effective, didn’t produce key information that led to killing of Osama bin Laden and were significantly different from procedures authorized by Justice Dept, report says
– CIA provided inaccurate information to White House, Congress, DOJ, CIA Inspector General, media and the public
– “This document examines the CIA’s secret overseas detention of at least 119 individuals and the use of coercive interrogation techniques – in some cases amounting to torture,” Senate Intelligence Cmte Chairman Dianne Feinstein says in statement
Meet Biden‘s pick to lead the US intelligence community
Haines is expected to withstand scrutiny during the Senate confirmation process for her role in the drone program, as well as her approval of a CIA review board decision in 2015 not to discipline agency personnel for intruding in computers used by the Senate Intelligence Committee when it was investigating the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program. Haines was also part of the team that redacted the committee’s report on the program.