Study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program released

[Hospes fori]

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.

#4: The conditions of confinement for CIA detainees were harsher than the CIA had represented to policymakers and others.

#5: The CIA repeatedly provided inaccurate information to the Department of Justice, impeding a proper legal analysis of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.

#6: The CIA has actively avoided or impeded congressional oversight of the program.

#7: The CIA impeded effective White House oversight and decision-making.

#8: The CIA's operation and management of the program complicated, and in some cases impeded, the national security missions of other Executive Branch agencies.

#9: The CIA impeded oversight by the CIA's Office of Inspector General.

#10: The CIA coordinated the release of classified information to the media, including inaccurate information concerning the effectiveness of the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques.

#11: The CIA was unprepared as it began operating its Detention and Interrogation Program more than six months after being granted detention authorities.

#12: The CIA's management and operation of its Detention and Interrogation Program was deeply flawed throughout the program's duration, particularly so in 2002 and early 2003.

#13: Two contract psychologists devised the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques and played a central role in the operation, assessments, and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program. By 2005, the CIA had overwhelmingly outsourced operations related to the program.

#14: The CIA detainees were subjected to coercive interrogation techniques that had not been approved by the Department of Justice or had not been authorized by CIA Headquarters.

#15: The CIA did not conduct a comprehensive or accurate accounting of the number of individuals it detained, and held individuals who did not meet the legal standard for detention. The CIA's claims about the number of detainees held and subjected to its enhanced interrogation techniques were inaccurate.

#16: The CIA failed to adequately evaluate the effectiveness of its enhanced interrogation techniques.

#17: The CIA rarely reprimanded or held personnel accountable for serious and significant violations, inappropriate activities, and systemic and individual management failures.

#18: The CIA marginalized and ignored numerous internal critiques, criticisms, and objections concerning the operation and management of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program.

#19: The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program was inherently unsustainable and had effectively ended by 2006 due to unauthorized press disclosures, reduced cooperation from other nations, and legal and oversight concerns.

#20: The CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program damaged the United States' standing in the world, and resulted in other significant monetary and non-monetary costs.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

[Dodes]

What is most concerning is that the CIA has, and most likely still is in some aspect or another, functioning outside of the US government's direction. An intelligence agency that has gone unchecked in accumulating power without checks or balances in a country with deteriorating democratic aspects and a growing police-state is a recipe for disaster. I hate to sound like a doom-sayer, but I believe that the conditions are appearing and being cultivated in the United States that are similar to historic conditions that led to collapses of republics and/or era(s) of prosperity.

Also a better title would have been "Enhanced Interrogation or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the CIA", but thanks for setting up a thread as I was too lazy to, and do not deserve any right to the title name.

 

[Vermillion_Hawk]

They can try to do whatever the hell they want on the side but intelligence agencies in America still need the federal government's budget (unless they sell drugs to America's youth...), which is why the majority of their time is spent not on side projects to eliminate the freedom of Americans but rather appeasing whichever ideology is currently in the White House to jockey for extra budget allotment.

 

[Almalexia]

I hate to sound like a doom-sayer, but I believe that the conditions are appearing and being cultivated in the United States that are similar to historic conditions that led to collapses of republics and/or era(s) of prosperity.

Well its not like everyone expects the United States, or at least its current form of government, to last forever... right?

隐藏

I mean come on everything collapses eventually it is kind of ridiculous to assume just because it is a democracy that it is some miracle solution that continues on indefinitely.

 

[Vermillion_Hawk]

I doubt the United States would ever become some sort of centralized non-democratic or totalitarian state, you'd have political fragmentation before it ever got to that point thanks to the ridiculous amount of autonomy states get. Worst case scenario is a Balkanized America with a variety of anything between democratically-elected regimes to military juntas running states. But even that is a ridiculous scenario, because if anything the EU or even China would intervene before America broke down - the world needs their economy. With that in mind, the political scene in America will not change so radically as to eliminate democracy, at least while that state of affairs is maintained.

 

[Almalexia]

Not to say that democracy, or at least some incarnation of it, would necessarily fall out in the collapse. Merely that the continuity of it would be broken: a reset of sorts, you could say, though for better or for worse is really anyone's guess.

 

[Wellenbrecher]

lol 'murika

On a more serious note:
The other side of the argument as presented by former members of the CIA can be found HERE. The URL speaks for itself

tl;dr:
"We only did what we were told." Heard that before ad nauseam in school...

 

[Kobrag]

Don't read the comments on the Daily Mail articles of this reveal...
For your sanity's sake.


And yeah...it's like they got every violent sexual deviant in the military and CIA to watch these people.


Also, John McCain, you be awesome. One of the few republicans to voice this as disgusting...which is rather strange considering the pro 'family values' crowd in there.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

He was tortured in Vietnam for two years(?) and has life long physical debilitations because of it.

 

[Kobrag]

Yeah, but politics tends to erode principles.
As displayed by the majority of the US political center at this point.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

Not all of them it appears.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

Some CIA member being interviewed by the BBC made a point of saying "it saved american lives....british too!" After mentioning an alleged attack on the canary wharf building and London airport (which are some of the most secure locations in the UK since the IRA campaigns). Let's ignore the fact that the UK's been all but abandoned as a terrorist target since 7/7, and the people who try are completely incompetent.

Ninja'd 4 times because my browser decided to delay posting by 5 hours.

 

[Mage246]

"All but abandoned as a terrorist target"? Wow, that's just delusional.

 

[Úlfheðinn]

Some waterboarding will bring him back to the right sight of history.

 

[Sir Saladin]

I wish they would quit arguing about whether torture is effective or not. Even if it were 100% effective it shouldn't be done. I wouldn't mind if the "if it's legal it's O.K." argument would go away too.

 

[Úlfheðinn]

But Sal, it's all about bureaucratic efficiency now.

All that matters is:
a) is it cheap
b) does it produce results

If it happens to violate the laws of the land or the Constitution it's not a problem.

It's kind of hilarious how right C. Wright Mills was about the military, corporations and bureaucrats slowly taking over control of the US. Well, correction, it would be hilarious if it wasn't so depressing. Best of all none of those people can be voted out of power.

 

[The Bowman]

But Sal, it's all about bureaucratic efficiency now.

All that matters is:
a) is it cheap
b) does it produce results

If it happens to violate the laws of the land or the Constitution it's not a problem.

It's kind of hilarious how right C. Wright Mills was about the military, corporations and bureaucrats slowly taking over control of the US. Well, correction, it would be hilarious if it wasn't so depressing. Best of all none of those people can be voted out of power.

In your opinion, Stalin was right. I see where we are going to.

 

[Úlfheðinn]

Hmm?

To clarify, half my post was intended to be sarcastic and the latter part references C. Wright Mills, a conflict theorist (sociologist) who was very critical of the developments of modern American politics/society.

 

[Jhessail]

Not really surprising at all, though the extent of it is and how desperately many cling to the false idea that torture brings results.

 

[Kobrag]

Even the Nazi's acknowledged that.