Editorial: CIA betrayed American values
Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Dec. 9, 2014, San Jose Mercury News.
The CIA betrayed American values in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It knew torture was immoral, illegal and nearly always counterproductive as an interrogation tool. Yet acting upon the direction of then President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney — and at times breaking even their trust — the CIA violated the Geneva Conventions dramatically lowered America’s standing as a nation of principle.
The Senate Intelligence Committee report released Tuesday describes outrages that confirm what most Americans already believed. At least the U.S. Senate had the courage to expose the crimes that were committed in this nation’s panicked attempt to win the war on terrorism. We can only hope this exposure helps return us to the moral high ground.
This is the blackest mark on the United States’ moral standing since it interned Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Yeah cause Obama, Bush and Cheney are a wonderful example of american values.
Good try by releasing this Democrat hit piece “report” to cover the biggest fraud in history, Bummer-Care, and Goober’s testimony in Congress. Three terrorists were water-boarded in total and how many of our people have been savagely killed? These techniques were widely used in WWII, a war that this country couldn’t fight with pathetic leadership today. This was a blatant smoke and mirror operation as ordered from Insane Hussein for distraction. It didn’t work.
No sympathy for terrorists!! N O N E!! If they don’t like our methods, they can stop terrorizing our country at any time. Their choice, our pleasure.
Justice, Gaspen
Sieg Heil!
You realize if we act like them, we become them. I don’t blame Bush. He was just a puppet for his daddy and Dick. All political BS aside, if you don’t know that torture is wrong, wrong, wrong, then something is missing in your moral makeup.
Yet in 2006, Bush said, “I want to be absolutely clear with our people and the world: The United States does not torture. It’s against our laws, and it’s against our values. I have not authorized it, and I will not authorize it.”
Obfuscate all you wish, but the topic is torture as relates to the Bush administration, and the findings of an investigation. Indeed, this form of torture was used in WWII, by our enemies. And we held them at trial to answer for their crimes.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney told the New York Times that claims that the CIA was out of bounds or that the interrogation program was a rogue operations were “a bunch of hooey.”
“The program was authorized. The agency did not want to proceed without authorization, and it was also reviewed legally by the Justice Department before they undertook the program,” Cheney said.
The report was from a bipartisan intelligence committee in the Senate, not from “Democrats”. Mr. Bush claims that he did not authorize torture, Mr. Cheney says that torture was authorized (and reviewed by the Justice Department).
I find those two statements to be conflicting.
Regardless of the efficiency of the methods, it was and still is, against our laws, depending on who you talk to. There is no implication of “sympathy” for terrorists in this discussion, at all. Simply because a methodology is effective does not equate to it being legal or “right”. There have been many “solutions” that, while effective, are not morally or legally acceptable in our society. Some of these “solutions” to perceived problems were used by the Germans in WWII, but we found their “solutions” to be unacceptable. The question is not whether these methods worked or not, it is whether they are acceptable in our society or not.
@Haddi and Dumbfounded-I agree with you both.
Haddi: you are welcome to your opinion. I have always believed that you don’t fight terrorists with warm and fuzzy buzz words. You HAVE to have a superior mindset and superior fire power. You would perhaps have us take a straw to a gunfight??
We are NOT acting like them AT ALL. They are bringing this on so as far as I believe we should unleash anything on them. How else do you squash insects? You might choose honey. I choose Black Flag insect spray.
Please tell me what YOU think on how we should deal with TERRORISTS? My morals are perfectly in place. Please tell us. I would like to know what your plans would be.
It’s against our laws, and it’s against our values. I have not authorized it, and I will not authorize it”
That sounds familiar. I’m sure I heard it somewhere……oh yes, the lies dribbling out of your current presidents mouth. Not siding with Bush, just an observation.
The CIA had approval from the White House, Congress, Justice Dept, everybody. The people who are screeching in indignation now were well aware of what was going on. Why were the principle characters not interviewed???
This whole thing is a sham and a distraction. I’m not for torture, but is droning innocents any better?
Please.
Water-Boarding, used during WWII and post 911, is not torture and never has been. Murdering innocent people alive on video with their head being cut off is torture. These liberals trying to define torture have no idea what it is and who is the enemy that should be blown off the face of the earth. They need to think about what protecting a nation’s citizens is and how it is protected by a strong defense just like Israel uses along with secure borders, travel restrictions, visa enforcement, and not allowing anyone in from certain areas of the world or granting visas to these same areas that are known to harbor terrorists.
If the report had not been prepared by a totally unbiased and politically unmotivated group of senators, then I would be somewhat concerned the report is preconceived and prejudicial.
Why would a group of bolshevik America haters not do their best to investigate and then write an even handed tome?
Don’t you just love Feinstein?
My plan? Use our intelligence (brain power), hard work and dedication to moral values to beat the bad guys. Torture is a shortcut that injures not only the tortured but the torturer.
If we act like them, we become them.
Or have we already?
What is funny is the “Brave-Whacko-Barako” uses drones to fire on people hitting who knows what and unknown numbers of guilty or innocent and that way there are no prisoners and no intelligence gained. He fights terrorist wars using computer screens from thousands of miles away while leaving our homeland border/visa security wide open.
OK Haddi: Enjoy that pipe dream and let us know how it works for you. Hopefully you are smart enough to stay away from them because trust me…they will take your morals and cut your head OFF with them. What do you plan, have a sit down chat and battle of wits?
Supporting torture and defending war crimes is just so Awesome!
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fox-host-cia-torture-america-awesome
Off to the Hague with the entire bush/Cheney neo-con criminals.
It’s getting hard to tell the which side has more extremists. Between the jihadists over there and the Armageddonists over here the human race is imploding.
Great observation.
‘He fights terrorist wars using computer screens from thousands of miles away while leaving our homeland border/visa security wide open.’
When was ICS disbanded? When did the surveillance programs along the border stop? Did they sell the fence for scrap?
Oh wait, that is just hollow, hyperbolic partisan parroting from justass. Are all conservative this rabid and out of touch?
You should fear jihadists, not those of us here and on America’s side. They hate us and will kill us for simply being someone they are not. Have you not seen the news???? Lib or conservative, it doesn’t matter with them. They will kill either one, simply because. These insects are a cancer like none other we have seen. The only way to cut it out is to destroy it.
Gaspen,
I guess you are right. The best way to deal with humans that have different opinions is to kill them. THEY are the ones in the wrong after all.
Just remember, if one of YOUR relatives is unlucky enough to be captured in a war and subsequently tortured, it’s not personal, just a little tit for tat. That will make it okay.
I do hope you get the sarcasm you sociopath. Look up the definition before you protest.
Mr. Fish, ever watch the show Border Wars? It is a good start for those who have no idea about the current border invasion and drug cartel operation area. After watching it 99% will see it for what it is. Then there are the trainloads of people from Central America walking in all last summer after someone told them to try it. There is also the wide open Rio Grande River as an open border where people come across. The border is partly open and the old fences are easily climbed over with home made ladders and there is now a stampede to get in for amnesty by people from all over the world including the Middle East, and these are all people with no proof of clean records and no criminal background checks and who knows what their intent is. This is all major trouble waiting to happen.
The ideas of what is and is not torture presented in these comments are somewhat confused. There is sufficient evidence of the status of waterboarding as torture available on the internet, if one were inclined to seek information. The attempts at turning this article and subsequent commentary into a discussion of immigration are comical in light of claims that the report on torture is somehow a distraction.
The idea that there is some political motivation to this report is interesting, but irrelevant. Either the actions were correct or they were not correct. The evidence that was provided in the report is as relevant as the evidence from any other legislative investigations that have taken place in our history. And there have been plenty of those recently. Some that have proved to be valid, and others that have proved to be without merit. One must question why some investigations are noteworthy to some while others are decried as being unworthy by others, one must also acknowledge that there are politics involved. Why not simply question and discuss the evidence rather than label the report as “partisan”? Is there any truth to the evidence or is it false? If the content of an investigation can be ignored simply because someone labels them as “political”, then there is no point to having them at all as there will always be naysayers.
I have yet to see any rational attempt to argue the contents of the clearly bipartisan report.
Haddi: All my relatives are much smarter than that. They will never place themselves in a country of the likes. Enjoy your idealistic reasoning. What would you have us do? It’s not just about opinions….everyone has them. Do you SERIOUSLY think we need to counsel or be warm and fuzzy with ISIS??????????????? SERIOUSLY????
WE on this blog…you and me, have different opinions. I’m fine with being able to agree that we disagree. I can (believe it or not) respect that. But these animals are a different threat!!
@Gaspen-here’s the thing: While I I can critique the jihadists over there-it’s not effective-not because I don’t want it to be…I do, but because I am not IN THEIR SYSTEM. I don’t vote in their elections, I don’t contribute to their campaigns. While I disagree with their methods with all my heart, they are not doing things in the name of my country, my religion(such as it is) MY NAME is not connected to what they do in ANY way, shape or form.-except in the twisted minds the faux-idiots who post here labeling me a commie, socialist lib-ER-ALL…heck even that doesn’t apply because THEY are none of those(neither am I, for that matter-except for the liberal part, and I do lean towards what in Western Europe are called ‘social democrats’). Torturers are extremists, religious fanatics, war-mongers, brainwashed in the name of their god or their ideology. As are many of the posters on this site, who happen to represent what is to me some of the ugliest aspects of what ‘an American’ is. And that, my friend, I feel an obligation to critique, as an American. I don’t want ANY government or military supporting torture, rape, murder of innocents, and just because others do it doesn’t mean we should. Especially if we want to call ourselves morally and intellectually superior.
The mere fact that we are re-hashing 12 year old hash is proof that this utterly one-sided, totally slanted, 40 million dollar exercise in liberal situational ethics was nothing more than a “wag-the-dog” distraction by desperate Dummycraps who are terrified of the “intellectual idiot” Dr. Gruber making any more gaffes by accidentally stating the truth.
Haddi: If you have the huevos, watch this. It is what those insects will do to people who have different opinions. There are also Cartel members your president is letting into our country.
bestgore.com (then click on beheadings) WARNING…as graphic as you can imagine…..or more.
Hmmm: Well intended.
I never thought of you other than a liberal, which I have stated I am fine with our different views of things. WE are lucky to have that option; others don’t. Their heads are cut off because of their religion, or simply being of Western culture. I care more than you will ever know about our nation but I simply CANNOT feel bad if an ISIS or the like is tortured. “An eye for an eye” comes to mind. I’m sure I read that somewhere. Not saying that’s always the answer but….
Eye for an eye indeed. From of the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi. Here’s a thing…when US military or corporation(they are considered people in some courts) render atrocities upon a person, that person wants revenge. It creates a vicious cycle. Just how far do we go with this?
Somewhere along the way this country has lost track of the concept of ‘justice’ as a guiding principle. Instead of doing what is right, we do what is profitable. I think, and believe, that that is the crux of most of the problems humans-and the world for which we are responsible, face.
“For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love – this is an old rule”. I read that somewhere.
I can’t love ISIS. Therefore I hate them. Who doesn’t?!! I can “tolerate” people I do not agree with. How could you possible ask me or anyone to tolerate terrorists?!
We’re not talking about the damn corporate people. I’m with you on that, but terrorists need to be exterminated!!!! End of story. Cut them out like cancer. That is where I stand.
I am not asking you-or anyone else to go give them a hug. i’m talking about baseline philosophy. Protect ourselves? Absolutely! Protect Corporate interests that wantonly pollute and get away with murder NO! Please don’t deliberately misrepresent my point.
Would you become the same type of monster you claim to hate? Would you allow our soldiers to murder and rape the wives and children of murderers and rapists? What stories do they tell their families? These are HARD questions, and I’m not claiming to know the right answer-hell I’m not even sure there IS a right answer. But I think they are necessary questions to ask.
Now, you stated ‘an eye for an eye’…which also means ‘a life for a life’. One for one, right? (again, not sure I agree with the premise, but) I’m curious as to your thought’s on it.
Gaspen,
Are we at war with terrorists? You bet! Not a country or state, terrorists. They don’t wear uniforms (then again, neither did Charlie), so it’s kinda hard to tell who the real bad guys are unless you gather intelligence. You do not get good intelligence by torturing someone who has not even had the slightest opportunity to be turned by a trained professional. Not only amature hour, it also degrades everyone associated with it. In this case, the leaders of our country need to be held responsible. Fair trial by the U. N. sounds about right. Not just the former ones like Bush and Cheney, the new ones as well.
If not, then WE, ALL OF US, are the bullies on the block to be feared and hated. WE will have earned it.
PS This is NOT the country I grew up in! And I grew up right HERE!
Who are you kidding? You are either very young or don’t watching the news. You act like you never heard of the methods they we using to get information out of the people held in getmo to prevent us from further attacks. This is not new. If you look further you will probably find out what they saved us from.
I wonder how much of this would be happening if we hadn’t invaded Iraq because of those (nonexistent) WMD?
Drone strikes killing women, children and other innocent people in Pakistan and Afghanistan aren’t helping either. How would we react if the same things were happening right here? Would we fight back with whatever we had? All this chaos–in turn–makes it possible for terrorists like ISIS to take their toll.
All in the name of many gods and religious dogma. Everyone has their own interpitation of why this madness exists. I believe it is mostly power and greed that drives all the lunitics around the world. Sure do wish PEACE would prevail and that humanity would get a clue. Unfortunatly, I dont feel very optimistic.
The whole thing is about oil installations, pipelines and oil contracts.
In the war zones, doctors are seeing birth defects caused by the radioactive materials and other chemicals in weapons. These poisons are pervasive as they blow around in the wind and wind up everywhere.
Many of the defects have no name as they have never been seen before. The photos are horrific.
Did you know your government is sending 100 tanks to eastern Europe to “protect” them against Russian aggression?? How aggressive is that of US?? Our government is completely insane. We’re waging war against half the earth.
Our president, the one who has a Nobel Peace Prize, can’t blame this on Bush.
Justice? Handle seems to be a contradiction unto itself. Anyone who claims waterboarding and other techniques of torture not being torture should undergo each and everyone of them personally themselves before passing judgement. All presumed guilty parties who condoned and authorized these acts of atrocity should stand before the world court and be tried as we as Americans have requested others to be brought forward to answer for their presumed crimes against humanity.
‘ We’re waging war against half the earth.’
no we aren’t.
we are only waging war on 3000 years of the earth. that is only 1/7th of the earth. its called math.