Sunday, August 23, 2009

Torture Nation




The Big Kahuna of CIA reports is due out Monday after having its release delayed four times. This is supposedly the report that, once filed, put a halt to the Bush torture program. People who have read it report that it will turn stomachs. Much will probably be redacted, but here is a sample of what you can expect to find:

...the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent death."


Emphasis mine.

Again, the question isn't IF we broke the law, the question is how far up did it go.

Imagine if you read this had been done to our girls just freed from N. Korea. How would you feel about it then? Is this any different?

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