Cue Senatorial poutrage. ‘They lied to us” Now for the tale of the scorpion and the tortoise.

Posted by: Ben | Dec 9 2014 17:36 utc | 3

They have redacted the countries or so called Black Sites but we know that some “democratic” European countries, new members or prospective members of the EU are there – Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Kosovo , Bosnia, Macedonia and Italy ( the CIA judged in absentia )

To encourage governments to clandestinely host CIA detention sites, or to increase support for existing sites, the CIA provided millions of dollars in cash payments to foreign government officials

Posted by: Yul | Dec 9 2014 17:57 utc | 5

I believe the WH / CIA even redacted the pseudonyms used to identify the individuals involved within the report. You can’t even get an idea of the number of individuals involved by seeing how often their fake names come up.
Also a few years ago the CIA destroyed all videotaped record of the actual torture sessions, ignoring orders expressly stating they needed to keep the material.

Posted by: WG | Dec 9 2014 20:07 utc | 7

The CIA is evil incarnate and needs to be disbanded. Barack Obama is under the thumb of the CIA. All subsequent presidents will be as well, now that the criminal operation has wrapped its tentacles so completely around the office.
The CIA wages war all the time, tells no one what it is doing, and has done so since its founding. There are two parts to the CIA, on paper : intelligence gathering and criminal actions. The first is just a fake cover for the other, the ‘i’ in CIA. The second, the CA, is the black heart of the organization, its raison d’être, and the hole in Uncle Sam’s arm where all the money goes.
I don’t know how it can come about but the CIA, the NSA must be ‘put down’. Both are incompatible with democracy and antithetic to the rule of law. They are making over the USA in their image. If they cannot be eliminated it will be sad testimony to the transformation’s ultimate realization.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 9 2014 20:50 utc | 9

Sadly, this will go away on the next false flag event, coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
Posted by: Cynthia | Dec 9, 2014 4:40:37 PM | 10
Yep.

Posted by: jo6pac | Dec 9 2014 22:20 utc | 11

CIA are amateurs. Russian police from Stavropol just forced a ballpen into a 21-years old suspect’s eye and further into brain. They explained that he did that himself. Anonymous cops confirm it’s standard practice, it’s just this time “something went wrong”.

Posted by: Ulster | Dec 9 2014 23:23 utc | 13

@13 – How ridiculous. “Hey guys, I know you’re referencing a 1600 page CIA torture report, but here’s a YouTube link!”
I mean, we know you’re a complete shill but jeez. Have some self-respect.
__________
The Rise of German Imperialism and the Phony “Russian Threat”
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2016

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 10 2014 0:07 utc | 15

With respect, I disagree with our host’s interpretation of this news.
This Senate document of 6.000 pages, released into the public record, is greatly significance. I am surprised it was released. It must create a cumulative impact as time passes; and I believe that one reason for the disclosure, from the nod that Senator Feinstein gave it, as chairman of the intelligence committee , is in one respect to defend the Senate from the overreach of the CIA. And let’s remember that the Agency challenged the Senate’s authority not long ago,–going so far as to hack the Senate’s computers,–in order to remove evidence which Senate staff had gathered, in pursuit of this investigation of torture. For very practical political reasons they could not capitulate, or succumb to the threat, and the meaning of such a sinister act carried out by an intelligence agency, which by law is subordinate to Senate authority.
Clearly, to not publish this document, would be to admit that the Senate had been cowed into silence by the very spooks who had committed a felony against that chamber, a higher, constitutional authority.
I believe the consequences of having conceded and enumerated and identified the practice of torture, and placing this document in the public record, will have gathering repercussions. Because of the diligent and praiseworthy efforts of the alternative press, done years ago, these crimes cannot in the fullness of time, be fobbed off as a rogue activity inside an intelligence community–as happened with the Iran-Contra affair–when Reagan was in the White House.
On the contrary, the chain of responsibility goes straight to the legal minds (and we know who they are) in G. W. Bush’s Justice Department, who characterized these particular war crimes as instruments legally permissible. And we have the statements of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, which are fully incriminating, and would likely convince any fair-minded jury of their guilt, on the occasion of their trial.
None of us can say with any certainty, that the former President and Vice-President will ever have to face their day in court; but the release of this Senate document, as it details the sordid facts about a disgraceful series of crimes, must cast a mighty long shadow over the remaining years of Bush and Cheney. The same shadow lingers upon the loathsome attorneys who facilitated their heinous crimes.
May the sleep of these men be discomforted, and their dreams made unpleasant, because of the prolonged legal shadow, or possibly because of the tireless determination of prosecutors.

Posted by: Copeland | Dec 10 2014 2:20 utc | 17

@17 copeland. thanks for sharing your perspective which is very insightful. i would include the push pull of dems verses republicans as well.. i really enjoyed reading your post from december 1st on your website as well. thanks.

Posted by: james | Dec 10 2014 2:41 utc | 19

The torture is far more widespread then is generally discussed. I heard law professor Scott Horton state in an interview once that thousands of people have been tortured to death by the U.S. That is not the picture we are usually given. We need to be clear about the scope of what is taking place. I hope this report will do this.

Posted by: Edward | Dec 10 2014 3:27 utc | 21

From b’s outline…
“The report is also limited to the CIA and does not include the military which, as we know, also used torture and killed people in “interrogations”.[1]
The U.S. is bound by law to prosecute all of them from top to bottom but it is unlikely to happen.[2]
Only one person from the CIA went to prison over the torture program. This not for committing torture but for revealing it.”[3]
[1] & [2] tend to expose the International Criminal Court as a fake judicial panel every bit as corrupt, prejudiced and subservient to Power as the US judicial system.
At least the ICC’s name confirms that it is inhabited by Criminals eager to do what they’re told, to whomsoever they’re told to do it (by US/UK and the rest of the Incredible Shrinking pseudo International Community).
[3] tells us everything we need to know about what and who Yankee Justice is designed to protect.
Copeland | Dec 9, 2014 9:20:46 PM @ 17 makes some very good points. This is going to resonate in all kinds of inconvenient ways. If nothing else it will wake up millions more people worldwide to the fact that if you’re not anti-American, the day is fast approaching when you’re going to need a VERY GOOD EXCUSE.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 10 2014 3:50 utc | 23

@19
Thanks james for your kind words.
@20
catlady,
I don’t know for a fact about the 6,000 pages; but I would be astounded if the body of the report, in redacted form, is not released. I don’t see them going to the expense, time, and trouble, to bottle up the body of the research. What is astonishing to me is the tone that certain CIA spokesmen have taken with the Senate. How arrogant and highhanded these fellows have become. There are strong indications, and a good case to be made, that this Agency is guilty of tampering with evidence, destroying video evidence of torture, and stealing evidence or deleting files from the Senate’s computers. As an educated guess, I would think the Senate would be wise make the whole document available to the public. For their own peace of mind and security.
I hope this turns out to be the case.

Posted by: Copeland | Dec 10 2014 4:10 utc | 25

The DOJ has already said they won’t be pursuing charges against individuals named in the report. And has been stated before, we many never know the true scope of these crimes.
This is the real difference between America and other countries. Other places never reveal the ways they abuse their prisoners, nor do they punish them. The USA has these things revealed, THEN refuse to punish anyone.

Posted by: Almand | Dec 10 2014 4:16 utc | 27

rufus @28:
I also fear that it’s only a matter of time before the CIA pushes back against the Senate, and generally goes on the offensive. The Intel Community and the mainstream media have historically had a more or less cozy relationship (including Hollywood). It will certainly be interesting to see how this power struggle plays out.

Posted by: Almand | Dec 10 2014 4:39 utc | 29

This torture was permitted, with a wink and a nod, from the very top, to the very bottom. IMO, anyone who thinks differently is delusional. A few bad apples, oh please!

Posted by: ben | Dec 10 2014 4:55 utc | 31

@28/29-
Ugh, it’s disconcerting the amount of hack work propaganda gets churned out every year. I could be pessimistic and say the seventies was really the beginning of the end and blame Warren Beatty and Reds for putting the last nail in the coffin, but that would be sentimental. You’re right it goes back a ways- I like the story of Dulles and Animal Farm:
“The trade press reported that de Rochemont financed Animal Farm with the frozen British box-office receipts from his racial ‘passing’ drama Lost Boundaries; in fact, Animal Farm was almost entirely underwritten by the CIA. De Rochemont hired Halas and Batchelor (they were less expensive and, given their experience making wartime propaganda cartoons, politically more reliable than American animators) in late 1951; well before that, his ‘investors’ had furnished him with detailed dissections of his team’s proposed treatment. Animal Farm was scheduled for completion in spring 1953, but the ambitious production, which made use of full cell animation, was delayed for more than a year, in part because of extensive discussion and continual revisions. Among other things, the investors pushed for a more aggressively ‘political’ voice-over narration and were concerned that Snowball (the pig who figures as Trotsky) would be perceived by audiences as too sympathetic.
Most problematic, however, was Orwell’s pessimistic ending, in which the pigs become indistinguishable from their human former masters. No matter how often the movie’s screenplay was altered, it always concluded with a successful farmyard uprising in which the oppressed animals overthrew the dictatorial pigs. The Animal Farm project had been initiated when Harry Truman was president; Dwight Eisenhower took office in January 1953, with John Foster Dulles as his secretary of state and Allen Dulles heading the CIA. Leab notes that Animal Farm’s mandated ending complemented the new Dulles policy, which – abandoning Truman’s aim of containing Communism – planned a ‘roll back’, at least in Eastern Europe. As one of the script’s many advisors put it, Animal Farm’s ending should be one where the animals ‘get mad, ask for help from the outside, which they get, and which results in their (the Russian people) with the help of the free nations overthrowing their oppressors’.”
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n13/j-hoberman/short-cuts

Posted by: Nana2007 | Dec 10 2014 5:56 utc | 33

The CIA spied upon the comittee (headed by Diane Feinstein) that composed this report. This angered Feinstein and made her more determined to publish the report.

Posted by: Willy2 | Dec 10 2014 8:03 utc | 35

@16 I thought this is what you guys have been doing here for the last half year. I post HRW, AI and OSCE reports on Donbass – you respond with rogue translations of some Russian blogs?
Also it’s interesting to see you seriously discussing an US Senate report while you have rejected any reports by US administration in the past as “CIA sponsored” etc. Why this torture report is reliable, but previous reports calling for military support for Ukraine were not reliable?
By the way, as we’re on the topic of arms: Russian arms delivery for Boko Haram was just arrested in Nigeria.

Posted by: Ulster | Dec 10 2014 9:02 utc | 37

Copeland
The 6000 pages wont be released to public, its just the shorter censured version that have been released.

Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 10 2014 9:21 utc | 39

If America is still torturing, which I don’t dispute by the way, then why didn’t China detain and arrest Obama during his recent visit since he is a Human Rights abuser and therefore a criminal? Is China not committed to Human Rights? Is China afraid? Or does China not give a shit about Human Rights?

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Dec 10 2014 11:49 utc | 41

Hi Ben
Sick isn’t it? Yes, human experimentation is what’s not mentioned in all the newsiness? The Human experimentation aspect of the torture program- which was alluded to as early as 2009- Doctors monitoring how the torture was affecting the innocent humans- studying it. In hopes of what? It’s simply MKULTRA/DELTA etc continued on- That horror show never went away.
What is sickening is the way this is being spun no doubt with the assistance of the usual PR firms?
The US is a good guy for releasing this and does so at great risk (another terror attack 9/11 9/11 9/11) but since we are just so great we have to make the sacrifice, though we could be the victims yet again- Sickening stuff really

Posted by: Penny | Dec 10 2014 12:09 utc | 43

@17
‘ Clearly, to not publish this document, would be to admit that the Senate had been cowed into silence by the very spooks who had committed a felony against that chamber, a higher, constitutional authority. ‘
Have they published the report? I don’t think so. I think they redacted 90% of the report and then re-redacted that again. And that’s what everyone is reading.
There is no evidence of anyone’s culpability here. It’s the usual 15 minutes of ‘oh, how horrible’ … and then its over.
If the senate were ‘heroic’ … even if they were just still warm … one of them, the poseur Udall for instance … would have dumped the full report into the Congressional Record. That’s not even original. Mike Gravel did it 43 years ago.
No, the problem is that doing so … looking out for the nation’s interest instead of his own … would have disappeared the pot of gold on the other side of the revolving door.
There are no men and women among the American political class … have you had a look at the video of Sahra Wagenknecht reading Ms. Merkel the riot act in the German Parliament that was posted in thread 30? Nothing like that in America, just slugs and trails of slime.
I want to be hopeful as much as you do, Copeland. But hope in the American political class is misplaced. My hope is in the poor people of Ferguson, Detroit, of all the cities who have slipped and fallen once too often in the slime, and are working to regain control of their lives themselves.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 10 2014 12:23 utc | 45

If those countries where torture takes place
attract public dissatisfaction/opposition against things such as torture,
then why is it that we never hear about such public dissatisfaction/opposition.
( i know, its a bit of a rhetorical question because there is no actual public oppsition. whatever opposition you do see is only there for “show” purposes mainly)
Dont countries such as Italy,Canada,Germany,Greece etc have such a thing called Democracy,thru which people can voice their opposition.
Or have these countries “privatised” their political systems to unnamed private foreigners.
Is “Democracy,”, “Rule of law”, due process, accountability etc all dead?
After all Greeks,Romans and others were the inventors of these things.
( i only refer to actions done on behalf of foreign organisations such as CIA, US Government, and any other foreign organisation, i suppose that torture that takes place on behalf of your own Government would be perfectly legitimate, sadly)

Posted by: chris m | Dec 10 2014 12:42 utc | 47

@42

There is no greatness in being only marginally more humane than a psychopathic, sadistic megalomaniac like Putin who is hell-bent on nuking the planet.

Crock of shit.

Posted by: MRW | Dec 10 2014 13:29 utc | 49

@17 Copeland
I can see your angle, it was important that the report was released in light of the tampering by the CIA.
But, we will never know to what degree the CIA tampering led to an untoward censorship either. Similar to the “rectal re-hydration” being viewed as a way to leverage total control over the prisoner, wasn’t the hacking of senate computers a way for the CIA to exert total control? They have perfected the panopticon concept. Who knows, maybe the report initially was going to name names, or the redaction pen wasn’t going to be used so heavily.
The hacking was such a flagrant and egregious violation of any sense of the law, you almost wonder if they wanted to get caught in order to send the message. Similarly, torture itself doesn’t have the desired effect unless the outside world knows you are using it. The people in custody are already off the battlefield and on their way to becoming innocuous non-persons, the object is to make someone considering joining a cause to consider it a bit harder. I would argue this was the point of the hacking. The intended effect seems to have manifested itself in a report that acts more of as a tonic than a disinfectant.

Posted by: IhaveLittleToAdd | Dec 10 2014 14:04 utc | 51

https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/never-again/

Posted by: KMF | Dec 10 2014 16:25 utc | 53

While You’re Being Distracted With The MSM Torture Narrative, The 1,618 page 2015 NDAA Will Be Voted on in the Senate …
http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/2ouukp/while_youre_being_distracted_with_the_msm_torture/
Oh, and on torture, don’t forget the boiled bodies in the old USSR.
http://youtu.be/ZOTgwG6Wdnw

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 10 2014 20:06 utc | 55

Every time I post here, I bitch. But, this is spot on, b.
I wonder how much Germany assisted in “extraordinary renditions”?

Posted by: slothrop | Dec 10 2014 20:23 utc | 57

The map of all the countries who were complicit – actively or passively – with CIA’s torture program includes most of the countries who speak loudest and most sanctimoniously about human rights. Add to this all the other countries (Russia, China, India, South American countries, …. ) who also use torture in some form, and I come to the conclusion that there is not a single country today where some form of torture (physical as well as mental) is not at least tolerated under some specific conditions.

Posted by: ktwop | Dec 10 2014 21:03 utc | 59

ben @ 58
I have my second part up so come over and check it out
and tell me what you think- definite human experimentation went on

Posted by: Penny | Dec 10 2014 23:30 utc | 61

in re 37
FYI, the latest details. Curiously, the page linked to says nothing about Boko Haram. Only that a Russian-owned plane with arms bound for Chad has been detained on 6 Dec. Russia has supplied weapons to the gov’t. since at least 2001, according to Wikipedia (see army of chad and the foreign operators of t-55 tanks), so why would this be at all suspicious?
The latest report, 8 Dec. Nigerian govt. releases Chad-bound Russian plane detained in Kano in Premium Times (online since 2011, so no doubt right up there with TNR, I’m sure) states that the cargo aboard the plane, chartered by the French military, was being redeployed within the region by French peacekeepers. The aircraft made an unscheduled landing in Nigeria due to what the article describes as “technical problems.” Local security in Kano, in the north, apparently has a history of detaining aircraft.

This is the third time since 2009 that planes loaded with arms would be arrested in Kano, our correspondent says.
The detained planes were later released after investigations.
The destination of the latest aircraft has however raised concerns amid increasing worries in Nigeria over Chad’s alleged role in the Boko Haram insurgency plaguing Nigeria’s northeast.

This bit at the tail of the pc. is all I see about Boko Haram.
Ponder if you would, my fellow Barflies what this might mean about the intent and honesty of our distinguished poster, who thoughtfully provided the link on the 10th.
I wonder — maybe it was just a scam by some local security types — Russia, France, the UN, perhaps financially enabled the expeditious handling of the investigation. The article makes it clear that local authorities, in view of the nationality of the plane, undertook the investigation.
Thanks for allowing me to wander off thread. We now return you to your regularly unscheduled postings, already in progress.

Posted by: rufus magister | Dec 11 2014 1:13 utc | 63

@63 rufus.. you have to give it up for number 2 bullshite artist ulster.. he runs a close 2nd to cold..

Posted by: james | Dec 11 2014 2:01 utc | 65

for what it is worth, the black and tan should not get a Christmas bonus, his disinformation is poorly produced and so sloppy that the very links he provides contradict his accusation.
if anyone is paying for that I would like to get into that racket as well.

Posted by: dan of steele | Dec 11 2014 3:17 utc | 67

Billmon posted a great series of tweet about the parallels between the Torture Report/ Wall St. Bailouts: the curtain coming up and everyone briefly seeing the true ugliness of the system before they try VERY hard to make us forget.
I can guarantee however that the rest of the world will not forget. I wonder what the reaction will be next time the US tries to come down on another country for human rights abuses? Perhaps laughter?

Posted by: Almand | Dec 11 2014 9:39 utc | 69

@james: Kiev, and also Saddam, Pinochet, the Contras, Mobuto, Bin Laden, Suharto, Marcos, Musharaf, and all the way back to Uncle Adolf… the list goes on and on. Like you said, it’s something we all knew, and have known for a very long time but damned if it doesn’t keep happening. The Guardian did a story about Amnesty and HRW did come out today demanding prosecutions. At least they have some sense of shame, it seems.

Posted by: Almand | Dec 11 2014 23:25 utc | 71

Via counterpuch (I think) an older article by Alfred McCoy : How to Read the Senate Report on CIA Torture

Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2015 3:09 utc | 73