CIA interrogation abuses detailed anew

This is truly insane, and all you liberal Dems who are gleefully looking forward to bringing down the 'evil Bush/Cheney empire',
Holder should be careful, he could very well be up for review of his decisions after a new president is elected.
Be careful what you wish for. Obama and his thugs bringing down this great country during their administration will be open for review by the next regime. And with any luck that will be after one term.
And who is running this country? Didn't Obama say he wanted this put behind the country and move on? So much for his employees listening to the boss. But then who is listening to the Boss? Pelosi? Reid? Frank? He is the puppet of the Democractic machine. Or is that the Emperor and his new clothes?

Oh man, this is as bad as I thought it was...

I want the BushCo Republican war criminals and torturers who gave the go ahead for this pathetic stain on our nations image to be put on trial ASAP!

Who cares? These were not friends of ours getting interrogated. To hell with them anyway.

"We could get your mother in here," Really? Is that the best our CIA has to offer. Who cares about what they said to detainees during interrogation so long as the CIA did not torture them. Police play these kind of mind games all the time during interrogation. They are lucky that they weren't picked up by the Chicago PD.

Posted by: Erin | August 24, 2009 5:28 PM

You couldn't be more wrong. Every administration should have to consider if their actions are lawful, and what the consequences of unlawful acts might be. Giving the government blanket inmmunity does not make us safer. I want the government thinking twice, or even three times before they do something that is possibly illegal, like torture. I don't want the government to be able to ignore the law at a whim as you do. If Holder does something illegal in office, I fully want it investigated, and if the evidence warrants it, I want him prosecuted and convicted. If officers of the CIA violated the law, the same applies.

This is truly insane, and all you liberal Dems who are gleefully looking forward to bringing down the 'evil Bush/Cheney empire',
Holder should be careful, he could very well be up for review of his decisions after a new president is elected.
Be careful what you wish for. Obama and his thugs bringing down this great country during their administration
Posted by: Erin | August 24, 2009 5:28 PM
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Yes, because we all know that the only time a special prosecuter should be brought in is when the Repugs want to waste tax payer money on investigating a Dem President for a bj?

War crimes, torture....eh, who cares..right, "Erin"?

Isn't this a diversion from the healthcare debate? Americans don't want "Obama's reform" so what better way to turn down the heat a little bit than to divert the attention to another topic. Typical smoke and mirrors from the new administration.

Smoke-screen! Smoke-screen!

Forget about the obama polocies that are leading this country to ruin and let's go back in time and do the Bush/Cheney/Interrogation/Gitmo argument again.

Yea, let's do that because obama is in deep trouble and his poll numbers are going South.... Get on board all you lefty loon drones, it's time for the obama (I'm on vacation with the elitists) circus...

Paulo

This is terrible!!!!

They actually said bad words to the terrorists!

Oh, the Horror! Oh, the Humanity!

You know what Erin? I want the Obama administration to be held liable for any illegal activity--particularly war crimes like the ones committed by the previous administration. No one is above the law. If they break it, they should also be prosecuted.

Maybe a few convictions will make the Republicans understand that the next time they're in charge.

Erin, FYI: The Department of Justice does not answer to the President. The purpose of the DoJ is to uphold the law and the Constitution, not do the bidding of the President: http://www.usdoj.gov/02organizations/

Holder is rightly opening an investigation to see if laws were broken. Sometimes the truth hurts but our nation's moral authority is at stake.

Yeah, Erin, that would be terrible is Holder were held accountable for something bad he does in office, some years from now.

Awful. Can't have that. AG and all appointed officials should have carte blanch to do whatever they please, so long as they promise it's hero work in the interest of national security.

You remind me of the Clinton era insider Jamie Gorelick who was on a panel on CSpan before the election last year, where the question whether there should be a Truth Commission.

She was against it.

Then it came out that she was one of the officers of Fannie Mac who was being paid $millions to "oversee" their activities.....

Right, Erin. We don't need to hold any of these people accountable.

Otherwise they might be inhibited from doing what they feel needs to be done....

The BushCo torture interrogations were at best pure fishing operations. They had absolutely no way of knowing whether a detainee was able to answer the questions they were asking, and so assumed that the detainee was uncooperative when they asked a question that the detainee did not know the answer to - and chose to torture further.

All of these right-wing Bushie goons deserve to be serving some serious prison time.

The far right will be foaming at the mouth over Holder's decision to release the info. In order for America to move ahead - we have to acknowledge what BushCo did in our name. Remove the stain, indeed........

This guy, zero, is a screwed-up college kid. He's a screwed-up Ivy League college graduate who loves running around playing rich guy, who happens to be a far-left-wing radical who knows better than anybody else and is doing everything he can to tear down this country and remake it in his own image. YUCK.

The existence of Radical Islam necessitates far more intense interrogation than what has been suggested to have occured and far more advanced covert operations here and abroad.
There is currently frighteningly little that we can do to thwart a group from driving near the U.S. Capitol in a van during a State of the Union Address and wiping out virtually the entire gov't with a nuke smuggled in beneath CIA and FBI visibility if fools like Holder around - and naive fools like the effing stupid libs posting here. Suspected terrorists must be milked for all the intel that they have and then trashed. That's the world they have created and you childlike idealists had best wake up and realize it.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that a van would be driven into Midtown Manhattan at the same time as in D.C. and the 50 states would fall into chaos, permanently. It is not as far-fetched as you libs think. Stop your bleeding hearts and figure things out. The only thing Bush did wrong was going into Iraq and not Iran. We should have actually have allied ourselves with Saddam in doing so.

Gee willikers. No wonder they sawed off our heads with a dull blade. You left our the loud music!

We had it coming.

this is truly amazing, dems are descending into new lows. i don't care if we water boarded few terorrists, i don't care if we had a drill running while a terorrist was blindfolded what i care for is that american lives were spared. unemployment is in double digits, deficit at 9 trillion, homes foreclosed, economy is tanking and all obama cares for is investigating cia interrogations. this will damage our intelligence, the bright side of it is that the next republican president, senate and congress wil investigate obama, axelrod, emanuel, pelosi, reid, frank, durbin, dodd and holder of course.

I heard our soldiers were also killing the enemy. With guns!

Publish the names of the US soldiers and their home addresses. We must deliver them to the Al Qaeda freedom fighters.

There are people out there willing to do what ever it takes to keep our nation safe. Unfortunately, the President is not among them.

He dishonors those that risked their lives so that we might be safe. But then again, honor is not one of his strong points.

This make no sense. The CIA makes empty threats to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad - the mastermind of 9/11 in which 3,000 innocent people were killed, and who likely had information related to future terror attacks - and people are up in arms about this? Has the world gone insane? Can anyone rationally explain to me what exactly is wrong with these interrogation techniques? I have to believe the opposition to these techniques is driven by a combination of insanity and pure partisanship. I can't imagine a rational explanation.

There is no excuse for torture or for failure to investigate and prosecute torture, but we'll hear that excuse used by the Reich Wing shills to justify the horrors that were inflicted.

Bush wanted to be a war-time President for the political power that gave him. It doesn't give him or his gang a free pass to violate our laws, our Constitution, or our treaties. And war should never, ever be used for political reasons. That's the real reason to prosecute Bush and his cronies for the Iraq invasion and occupation.

It's about time that something happens to hold people accountable. Hopefully, the underlings will expose those who gave the orders.

How are prisoner treated in the Middle East, tortured, beheaded, etc. The rules are not the same on the playing field.

Erin, you are truly clueless with the other wingnuts. Did anyone hold Bush, Sr. or Reagan responsible for war crimes? This is not an automatic occurrence. It happens when people do illegal things like things approved during the Bush administration. To Mr. bad Words to terrorist- let me threaten your family and see if call it merely "bad words". You are even more clueless.

Wait...I thought we had a CRITICAL health care problem that needs fixing NOW. Why are we worrying about this?

This is pure politics. Where is the investigation of Truman for dropping the A-Bomb?

This guy, zero, is a screwed-up college kid. He's a screwed-up Ivy League college graduate who loves running around playing rich guy, who happens to be a far-left-wing radical

Posted by: JAC | August 24, 2009 6:41 PM
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I agree, Bush was a joke and he and his right-wing lunatic fringe minions and cheeleaders destroyed our countries reputation nearly beyond repair.
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http://www.alternet.org/story/19055
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http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/watchdog/blog/cheerleader_bush.jpg

Listen to all of the tough-talking chickenhawk Wingnuts on here - Waaaaaah!

They're all just like their hero Seany Hannity - they talk tough but when they get called out on their BS they run and hide.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/hannity-waterboard-offer-_n_192578.html

Reading the report, it is clear that it is the terrorists who are claiming abuse.

Wow, of course, we have to trust people who want to murder thousand of Americans because they are so truthful at all times.

A terrorist would never lie. That is what Attorney General Holder believes. Terrorists are more honest than government employees. Well, I guess I could agree with that, as long as we include Obama and Holder in the list of government employees. . . .

Ah, let's see. We've gone 8 years without another terrorist attack after the WTC. Does anyone think that interrogations had nothing to do with that fact? Does anyone think that the Al Queda terrorists suddenly became choir boys and didn't plan or try any more attacks? Now, without interrogation and with Obama-Holder prosecuting the people who stopped the attacks while worrying about fair treatment for the killers, we can only hope that
the Al Queda choir will sing only love songs. So much for "preserving and protecting" the United States.

Nothing less than Darth Cheney's & Don Rumsfeld's heads on a platter will suffice! (garnish with heads of John Yoo, Alberto Gonzales, John Ashcroft, George W. Bush, David Addington, et. al.). The Geneva Conventions cookbook explicitly prohibits less!

WHY DIDN'T ANYONE!!!!
Prosecute F.D.R. for holding 100- thousand plus, truly innocent, Japanese American citizenes in internment camps during W.W.II!

Oooops...forgot, he's a democrat president...can't go there.
Besides...this is an an obama smoke and mirror campaign to defuse his tumbling poll numbers while on vacation with the rich and snobby democrat elite, while people are losing their jobs and homes all over the country because of his failed leadership....how's that hope and change working out for you???

Paulo

Hey, didn't these guys kill a whole lot of people in NYC by flying airplanes into the building? Have they done it since?...and oh yeah, were any of these prisoners starved, beaten, permanently maimed or did we just talk dirty to them. Holder is a joke and isn't doing a very good job of protecting us by launching this investigation.

These f..king bas..rds flew planes into the world trade center killing 3000+ people and you're upset because we threatened them with harm to their mothers? Holder is either stupid as heck or a political hack. Either way it's "water over the bridge" and has no positive impact on any of us except to further divide the political poles and weaken our national security. Way to go US Govt...you're making me proud, NOT.

I thought right-wingers were opposed to moral relativism? I guess only when it suits their purposes.

Obama's airing this out is very bad for the country. Do people truly believe that terrorists are going to give information if we say "please"? Maybe we should appoint the Scottish defense minister to run the CIA from here on out.

To date, people, 3 "terror suspects" have been waterboarded. 3. If waterboarding is against the law we need to prosecute a lot of Navy Seal instructors since they waterboard Navy Seal candidates EVERY DAY as part of their survival training. Let's go after Pelosi and all the Dems who were briefed on EXACTLY what was happening and they acquiesced. This is a fact. Go check your facts people. Careful what you ask for.

Bush 41 kept USA safe from attack for 7 years post-atrocity, *despite* the attempts of the Dems and the NY Times to disarm America at every turn, including the NYT recently publishing names and PHOTOS of the interrogaters.

God help us. This will not make us safer. It will turn the CIA into a bunch of puppies afraid to do anything for fear of getting wacked with the newspaper.

Our enemies are watching. Count on it. This is CHANGE we needed!

The next CHANGE we can hope for is Dems losing 15-20 seats, maybe more, in 2010, in the House. THEN we'll see how well our new pres can reach across the aisle !

Why are you holding that needle in your ear?
To stop elephants from stampeding Downtown.
Why their aren't any elephants stampeding Downtown?!
See--it works!!!

Why are you holding that needle in your ear?
To stop elephants from stampeding Downtown.
Why there aren't any elephants stampeding Downtown?!
See--it works!!!

Kill them all! And then kill them again! I mean all those dems and repugs. Those two terrorist organizations are torturing America.

Kill them all! And then kill them again! I mean all those dems and repugs. Those two terrorist organizations are torturing America.

Yeah, Shrub Jr and Darth kept us 'safe'....if you don't count that time they ignored the memo that said: "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE INSIDE US!"

Bush ignores memo stating "Bin Laden Determined to strike inside US".
http://theworstpresidentever.blogspot.com/2009/05/bush-ignored-911-warnings.html

The draft-dodging BushCo Republican chickenhawks have no credibility left, none, zero, zip, nada!

I hope you hacks, Mr. Silva, in the press are happy when you make the country safer because you sure aren't helping this country with this garbage. If it were up to me you'd be out of a job if not far worse for thinking it's ok to undermine our security.

Yes, because we all know that the only time a special prosecuter should be brought in is when the Repugs want to waste tax payer money on investigating a Dem President for a bj?

War crimes, torture....eh, who cares..right, "Erin"?

Posted by: Lacy | August 24, 2009 6:02 PM

All Clinton had to do is say yep I did that with her. Instead he decided to LIE UNDER OATH.

in order for the healing to really begin, we need to earnestly discuss reparations for terrorists.

After everyone has new cars, universal healthcare, green energy, and government jobs, let's ram thru ACLU sanctioned payments to terrorists and their families. It's the only way we'll learn. We all need to sacrifice.

The day the Islamic terrorist Mohammed Jawad is freed to return to his family, the Obama regime announces show trials against those loyal Americans who tried to protect America from Islamic terrorism. The spectre of the mastermind of 911 having his head ducked under water repels Obama and Holder far more than the images of thousands of innocent Americans slaughtered at their work places. This goes beyond incompetence, hyperpartisanship, and naivte. It apears Obama actually WANTS to leave America naked and unprotected before her mortal enemies. There is no other logical explanation.

To all the posters who think the interrogations were too harsh: when (not if) the next attack occurs, I hope you are smack dab at ground zero.

Okay, so the GW invaded Iraq becuase he wanted to rid SH of his WMD... which didn't really exist, which he knew didn't really exist... and lied to Congress and the rest of the world... its not a crime is it? Is it? Oh yes... it is.

Just becuase GW and his puppet masters kidnapped and had tortured a few hundred folks doesn't make them criminals does it? Does it? Ummmm.... yes it does.

Dogs, drills, waterboarding, electrocution, etc. All's fair in love and war... right? Right? No, not really.

At the end of the day you have to hold the higher moral ground.

The next dozen year should be pretty interesting for the GWB crew.

muslim terrorists are your friend. Barry O. said so, so it must be true.

Posted by: Fritz Palmdale | August 24, 2009 9:46 PM

The only thing that kept us safe were the natural tightnening of restrictions at airports and the closing off access to the cockpit. Not one single piece of info obtained from a detained terrorist prevented any attack. Regardless of the lies Bush/Cheney wants to tell us.

We cannot proclaim any moral authority and then disregard any semblence of morality (as the Bush administration did) just to get info. The terrorists won during the Bush administration. Not only did they attack the country under his watch (even after he knew they were planning something), but they also got the most unintelligent, barbaric commander in chief we've ever had to destroy all the principles that make the US strong.

We are supposed to be better than the terrorists. But Bush and his cronies decided to sink just as low as they are.

This is ridiculous. Our people in the intelligence community were busting their balls to try and keep us safe and now Holder is going after them. Holder should be tried for treason as he is giving aid and comfort to our enemy in an active war. Obama should be impeached as a co-conspirator.

What's with all the wingnuts!!? Oh, I know, you can't walk and talk at the same time, but give it a try. Let's discuss the legal violations that may have occurred during the Bush&Cheney fringe's, rain of error, and we can still begin a discussion about our national healthcare !! I say begin, because, with you wingnuts, your shrill shilling and your screaming screeds, we can't begin the debate !! Your foolishness is interfering with our constitutional rights. You are trying to drown out citizen's right to assemble and speech. That is nothing new, though, you tried the same tactics with the union organizers, back in the early days of the labor movement, and you failed miserably there, too !! I know it is hard to put away failed tactics, when that is all you have to offer our country. So, give it a try, let's walk and talk and discuss America's future without you wingnuts being undemocratic. I just know you can do it, just give it a try !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

If the torturers had any examples of gems of intelligence they extracted with their electrodes, bodyslams, dislocated shoulders, "accidental" deaths due to not being able to revive someone from a "simulated" drowning, they would have trotted them out by now.

Instead all we get from the perpetrators is: "trust us , it worked".

Waterboard, Baby, Waterboard! And, don't stop until these terrorists get it! It is the main function of this government to defend the American people, not the radical terrorists!

This is ridiculous. Our people in the intelligence community were busting their balls to try and keep us safe and now Holder is going after them.

Posted by: Bill | August 25, 2009 9:21 AM

If they broke a law, YES!!! Bush is the one giving aid and comfort by giving into their hatred, and using the same terrorism as he claimed to be above. Nothing gave the terrorists greater aid than how Bush handled things.

This goes beyond incompetence, hyperpartisanship, and naivte. It apears Obama actually WANTS to leave America naked and unprotected before her mortal enemies. There is no other logical explanation.

Posted by: John P | August 25, 2009 1:09 AM

You know who are the mortal enemies of America? You, and all those who support thge use of torture. You will destroy everything the US is supposed to stand for. You will destroy the respect for the rights and dignity of every human being that has been the core of the American ideal from our founding. You will destroy America from within. You will turn it into simply another power where might makes right and that attempts to rule the world with an iron fist. You will make America as evil as our enemies. You will make the US morally indistiguishable from the Soviet Union, Saddam's Iraq and North Vietnam. You are the enemy.

Torture, you're right.

But at least these folk are consistent:

the lower economic classes in US are viewed by them with the same contempt they show to the "presumed guilty" prisoners who are tortured.

They, the entrepreneurial class, should be able to conduct their businesses any way they please.

Let the dumb buyers beware.

Similarly with health care:

in the richest country in the world, "health care is a privilege, not a right".

Similarly with financial regulation:

"Free market must not be disturbed. What we've been experiencing is just a market correction."

So predictable.

"Helgerson, however, said in an e-mailed comment on Monday that he undertook the study in part because many CIA employees involved in or aware of the program "expressed to me personally their feelings that what the Agency was doing was fundamentally inconsistent with long-established US Government policy and with American values, and was based on strained legal reasoning."

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/08/cia_interrogation_abuses_detai.html#comments

This report only exists beacuse there were people in the CIA who recognized that the interogation techniques violated American principals and had the courage to speak out against them and to challenge the Bush Adnministration's approval of torture. The CIA doesn't want to be a torture agency. CIA agents don't want to torture. It is only the morally bankrupt Bush Administation and their barbaric amoral followers on boards like this who support these techniques.

Hey, let's have these CIA interrogators sit on the Health Care "death squads". Start with Crazy Dick, followed by Rush, Hannity, Bill-O, Creepy Glenn and so on...

The pro terroist civil rights clan believe that "America is better than the terrorists" I agree. Our interrogators should never cut off someones head with a dull knife. They should use an American made Craftsman Skill saw. I say if we develop a policy to take no Islamic scum prisoners. Then interrogators can be reassigned to important things like interviewing victims of slavery to assess their reparation settlements.

And, don't stop until these terrorists get it! It is the main function of this government to defend the American people, not the radical terrorists!

Posted by: Warene Fletcher | August 25, 2009 10:57 AM

But not at the expense of principles we've held for over 230 years. It has been proven time and time again that, as the saying goes, "you catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

Kindness, compassion and love will always win over an enemy, while brutality and torture only make their hearts harder. And makes the US less safe.

Liberals cannot define torture. If you had your way you and celebs would be fighting alongside the terrorists. You are, in fact, by questioning and protesting every move made to make the country safe in unprecedented times. You can't defend a nation. You are useful idiots, mildly entertaining at best but dangerously naive at worst. Dogs barking, loud music, denying the Koran, verbal threats...You think parents spanking their children is cruel and unusual. You are incapable of defining anything as you have a skewed sense of perspective. You mirror Hollywood and the coastal elite, yet you see no problem in that. America doesn't need you.

And Don, stop using so many exclamation points in your posts. There is no need to shout - we can all hear your "screaming screeds." Only use them when you have something important to say; in other words, never.

Posted by: Mike | August 25, 2009 3:04 PM

As I said: The radical right are hate filled barbarians who would destroy eveything this country stands for and who are morally indistiguishable from the terrorists.

You see, Repuglicans have been all about dumbing down America, lowering educational opportunities, squeezing things out of curriculum, and, in particular,
American History.

Perfect example of A Party of Her Own.

Party Own thinks America is dumbed down enough not to remember even WW II.

America did not torture in WW II.

America did not abuse prisoners of war in WW II.

Roosevelt and Marshall won WW II.

That was rather an important win.

She doesn't seem to realize that.