‘We Could Have Done This the Right Way’

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  • Posted By: Hunny @ 04/26/2009 4:20:49 PM

    I'm an old lady who remembers when the term "torture" was defined in terms of pulling out toenails and fingernails, flaying (cutting strips off a detainee's body), removing eyes, genitalia and other body parts, performing surgery without anesthesia, and many other similarly charming procedures. As a recovered Republican, who voted for both Bushes (may God have mercy on my soul) and now views Cheny and his ilk as way beyond the outside of hubristic, cowardly, smugly vile, and cruel, I have to admit that if the last administration were into real-deal torture, what's surfaced so far under the direction of Cheny's little cabal, is sort of lame by comparison. It's feels to me almost an insult to those who did not survive the Holocaust to use the same term "torture" to label both Cheny's squalid ugliness with the savagery and grotesque evil perpetrated by our 20th century enemies.

    • Posted By: Yoshi99 @ 04/26/2009 8:01:46 PM

      While you may view it as "sort of lame," we have a long history in this country of viewing it otherwise. We have prosecuted the people who have waterboarded our servicemembers, and we have even prosecuted Americans who have waterboarded others. In other words, until recently, this conduct was considered criminal.

  • Posted By: matunos @ 04/26/2009 5:47:47 PM

    This is why I think blanket amnesty for the agents like James Mitchell who were allegedly involved in torture is the wrong move- even if it means a shake up at CIA. Some of these guys were not just doing what they thought was best for the country, they were psychopaths who used the excuse to conduct their own sadistic psychological experiments on other humans. They need to be purged from whatever offices they hold, and preferably brought before a court or at least a public commission to answer for their actions.

    As this story indicates, they most likely damaged intelligence gathering with their techniques, so they didn't even get that part right, setting aside for the moment the question of their humanity.

    Those participants who were actually deceived into thinking they were doing what had to be done to save lives might find some clemency, but others need to be made to face the music or these abuses will continue, whether or not the sitting president authorizes them.

    Thanks are due to Mr. Soufan, and hopefully others like him will step forward and explain to the general public that torture is not needed, is not beneficial, and is anathema to American values.

    • Posted By: mac101 @ 04/26/2009 6:43:39 PM

      Mr. Mitchell and others like him may well be psychopaths, but the ultimate responsibility lies with their superiors who allowed them, and encouraged them, to behave as described.

      Rather than repeat the debacle of Abu Gharib, where the subordinates were singled out and punished but the officers got off scot-free, Obama is saying that the front line men at the CIA will not be punished, but has left the door open for prosecutions at the top.

      This is how responsible leaders behave - the ones with the most power also have the most accountability. This means that, like Lucy, our public servants Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Gonzalez and Rice have some 'splaining to do.

      Mitchell and his colleagues need to be removed from active duty.

      • Posted By: Yoshi99 @ 04/26/2009 7:57:52 PM

        The way I read the article, Mitchell was not on active-duty -- he was a contractor, hired by the CIA. Given the distinction between the employer/employee relationship and one in which independent contractors are used, I think there's a more compelling reason to seek prosecution of Mitchell. He wasn't acting under anyone's orders ... he was just there to make a buck.

  • Posted By: mot.stephane @ 04/26/2009 7:53:30 PM

    intelligence is not about collecting lies under fear but about using your own intelligence.

    the Bush administration insulted intelligence, democracy and justice.

  • Posted By: colbill @ 04/26/2009 6:04:27 PM

    What is a "CIA contractor?" To think we would outsource the interrogation of key suspects. That's taking privatization a bit far isn't? May be we can close the CIA down and turn the whole mess over to a private company. There's no government involvement that way. Gee, everyone would have full deniability then.

  • Posted By: HeavyHitter @ 04/26/2009 5:24:45 PM

    Thank you for coming forward, Mr. Soufan. We need more Americans like you.

  • Posted By: JoyceLH @ 04/26/2009 5:10:15 PM

    Hunny, the techniques you call 'lame' have always been torture. Back when torture was legal in England, in the Star Chamber days, waterboarding was the most severe form of torture, worse than thumbscrews and the rack. These 'lame' techniques are the same techniques that the North Vietnamese used to force our POWs to falsely confess to war crimes. Not too long ago, Prince George's County Maryland managed to get FOUR innocent men in four separate cases to confess to murder using nothing but the 'lame' technique of sleep deprivation. The real murderers were eventually uncovered by other means, but the police had stopped looking for them, sure they'd solved the cases. While one man sat in jail for seven months awaiting trial for the murder of his wife, the real murderer went on to commit six more rapes. Nations that claim not to torture are not going to do all these grotesque mutilations that are the only things you apparently consider 'real' torture, because they need to be able to pretend it never happened. But it's torture all the same, and it gets you false confessions. And nations that torture never stop at torturing foreigners, eventually the techniques migrate to use against their own citizens. After all, if it doesn't leave marks, how can it be torture? We need to stop this right now if we want to remain the nation that we like to think we are. And the only way to do that is to ensure that American torturers are brought to justice.

  • Posted By: gonzo510 @ 04/26/2009 4:37:49 PM

    Creating more enemies is not the way to getting information, let alone winning trust and respect of the rest of the region. Torture is torture - My full support and apologies to Ali Soufan and hope that he and the rest of the world realizes that most Americans are ashamed of this episode in our history and want to prevent it from happening ever again. Shame on Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the legal team that condoned, excused and encouraged this disgusting behavior. Their hubris and "bring it on" mentality is why they ignored the 9/11 warnings and then used it as an excuse to torture people to create the link for them to invade Iraq. The real terrorists were running our government. Their fear mongering, lying, and torturing needs to be investigated, exposed for what is is and punished. We are America - we do not torture or stoop the low depths of the jihadists.

  • Posted By: abadreview @ 04/26/2009 4:10:05 PM

    Torture is a war crime. Time to start prosecuting people!!!! AMERICA DOES NOT TORTURE....PERIOD.

  • Posted By: akatz @ 04/26/2009 3:27:14 PM

    This is what's wrong with the American mainstream media: they are incontrovertible cowards.

    The authors of this article continue to call what went on: harsh interrogation tec hniques.

    Harsh, indeed. Throughout most of the Western world, including most americans, these repulsive acts are simply sadism. They are torture.

    Do you really think euphemisms do anything but continue the lies and evasions of the criminal perpetrators of these acts?'


    Torture, Newsweek, it's "torture". Stop pussyfooting around it as though taking a stance might taint your objectivity.

  • Posted By: vmjee @ 04/26/2009 3:02:39 PM

    Expediency and a complete repudiation of anything that seems like decent humane values has been the driving force of an arrogant Cheney and the simpilistic Bush. America has found out what happens when these men without a conscience or souls put a nation's ethics and values on a sliding scale. Dick Cheney can claim he's a patriot, yet he had neither the cojones nor the appetite to fight for his own country when called. The man is just a mean junkyard dog too used to power and entitlement. Thank goodness for thiis FBI agent...he couldn't take the lying anymore. If many of these alleged terrorists are not so much allies of the cause because of a strong belief, but rather poor young men looking for something to believe in, why not show them Americans are Tough, but FAIR......The expert in the culture was shunted aside because some knuckleheads were into ego rather than smart strategy. I think we probably have the making of another Watergate with even more egregious, barbaric behavior. Gonzales did a lot of the dirty work and then his friends at the White House dropped him like the hot potato he is. Cheney is pure unadulterated evil smartly packaged as a patriot...would somebody unwrap the flag around this felon and let the world see this pretender to the throne. He did believe he was the President and given his statements of late, still does.

  • Posted By: KYJurisDoctor @ 04/26/2009 2:32:27 PM

    People being bullied or in this case tortured will tell the blly or torturer what they want to hear in order to escape the bully or torture. One does not need to be Albert Einstein to figure out that much! OsiSpeaks[dot]com

  • Posted By: RememberOurPast @ 04/25/2009 6:04:53 PM

    It sounds like James Mitchell should be the person put on trial. He should also be barred from practicing psychology and censured by the APA. He is one sick person who could easily be compared to Josef Mengele.

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