US Senate report on CIA interrogration/torture

[Silent Hunter]

Even the unclassified version is full of redactions

A couple of initial thoughts from this:
* I'm surprised that it was only 119 and only one actual death.
* The CIA appears to have engaged in a spot of hidden activity that would be incredible for a spy novel.
* If this was just what the CIA did, then the stuff done by other countries must have been worse.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Any thoughts of the CIA lying to the White House then are already under attack, even by Dubya, but the most vocal is, of course

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/world/dismissing-senate-report-cheney-defends-cia-interrogations.html?_r=0#

[Tender Branson]

So, will someone please round up all the Bush regime figures and finally put them in a plane to The Hague for trial ?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

So, will someone please round up all the Bush regime figures and finally put them in a plane to The Hague for trial ?

Would it be clever to try and do exactly that around May 2016? Give the Republicans in office a choice between defending war criminals wanted by the UN, or throwing Cheney (and a few others) under the bus?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Yeah, people need to go to jail for this.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

So, will someone please round up all the Bush regime figures and finally put them in a plane to The Hague for trial ?

Would it be clever to try and do exactly that around May 2016? Give the Republicans in office a choice between defending war criminals wanted by the UN, or throwing Cheney (and a few others) under the bus?

There is absolutely zero chance that Republicans do not make that an argument about American sovereignty and win the public discussion handily. If Obama wanted to try something like this, he would be much smarter to have Lynch file domestic charges.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Obama's CIA Director apparently didn't get the talking points memo..........

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/10/world/senate-intelligence-committee-cia-torture-report.html?emc=edit_na_20141209&nlid=23627335&_r=0#

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Yeah, people need to go to jail for this.

I agree, but no charges will even be brought.

[Cassius]

Any thoughts of the CIA lying to the White House then are already under attack, even by Dubya, but the most vocal is, of course

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/world/dismissing-senate-report-cheney-defends-cia-interrogations.html?_r=0#

Cheney's actually making perfect sense...

[Beet]

This report is not terribly surprising.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

So, will someone please round up all the Bush regime figures and finally put them in a plane to The Hague for trial ?

Why not have a trial in the US?

[ag]

So, will someone please round up all the Bush regime figures and finally put them in a plane to The Hague for trial ?

Why not have a trial in the US?

Exactly. US court system is more than adequate to try those involved.  And these were, it seems, very serious crimes under the US law. So, as long as there are prosecutors out there who are willing to indict, there is no need to go the Hague.

[Mr. Morden]

The NYT has a good debunking of all the supposed times that terrorist plots were foiled via information gleaned from torture:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/08/world/does-torture-work-the-cias-claims-and-what-the-committee-found.html?_r=0

[Linus Van Pelt]

This is very much worth reading, and more important than much of the trivial crap that dominates partisan politics.

[Sol]

The CIA is a terrorist organization. Nothing new here.

[user12345]

Sadly, I'm not surprised by any of this.

[ag]

There have to be prosecutions after this. There is simply no way that this can be ignored. If it is, the US is in grave trouble.

[publicunofficial]

The CIA needs to be cleansed. Prosecute who you can, fire the rest.

[Türkisblau]

I yearn for the day that the Christian Right actually acts the way they preach.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

One day the crimes of every spook agency will be revealed; and indeed the need for foreign intelligence bureaus will vanish; but until then we can prosecute as many of these bastards as possible, whether in Washington or the Hague (including Rice, Yoo, Hayden, Cheney, Rusmfeld, Gonzales etc.)

(I hope the UK follows suit in revealing our shameful role in this travesty)

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

There have to be prosecutions after this. There is simply no way that this can be ignored. If it is, the US is in grave trouble.

Holder has said, no prosecutions.

[pbrower2a]

Democrats hold too few other cards for the 2016 elections other than the potential unpopularity of Republican incumbents... GOP defenses of Dubya, Cheney, et al may make some incumbents vulnerable to political cat-calls.

Republicans almost never denounced the crimes when they had the chance. They get to pay even if they don't call for grinding the poor into Big Cat food at the zoo.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Mark Udall is a FF of truly epic proportions:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/sen-mark-udall-bashing-cia-reveals-classified-findings-on-interrogation-program-20141210

[Tender Branson]

James Elmer Mitchell, a former Air Force psychologist credited with teaching the CIA how to torture war on terror detainees in the 2000s, is the subject of an on-camera interview with VICE correspondent Kaj Larsen.

This isn't the first time Dr. Mitchell has been profiled. We first heard about him in a 2005 New Yorker article, the New York Times, and the Guardian have explored the role he and Dr. Bruce Jessen played in designing the CIA's “Enhanced Interrogation Program.”

But VICE got him on camera for a sitdown interview for the first time. When you watch it, remember: the contracting firm this man ran with Jessen is said to have received more than $80 million from the CIA to teach the CIA how to torture people. And some of that torture included anal rape, freezing people to death, and shoving hummus and nuts up men's asses.

Oh, and taxpayers covered $5 million in legal fees to then cover Mitchell and Jessen's own asses.

http://boingboing.net/2014/12/10/meet-james-mitchell-cias-po.html

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

There have to be prosecutions after this. There is simply no way that this can be ignored. If it is, the US is in grave trouble.

The US is already in big trouble. This is just a sign. Torture, police violence, Mortgage scandals, and I'm sure many more I'm forgetting. Everyone has always joked about the problems with the legal system, but its less of a joke and more "this thing doesn't work right".