Trevor Timm
December 10, 2014 The Guardian
(posted by Duane Campbell)
The revelations in the
Senate Committee's Torture Report make it the most disturbing scandal in recent
U.S. history. The number of different crimes committed by the CIA and
documented by Senator Dianne Feinstein’s committee is truly extraordinary. But,
for the Obama Administration, the CIA torture scandal can't end fast enough.
But torture is a war crime and the architects must be held accountable to
ensure this rampant criminality never happens again.
Every one expected the
Senate’s CIA torture report to be shocking. But I’m not sure anyone – except
maybe the torturers and the tortured – was really prepared for the depravity
and sheer lack of humanity laid out in the 580 pages released on Tuesday
morning in Washington. It is, in many ways and in the starkness of all those
footnotes, the most disturbing scandal in recent American history.
The amount of different
crimes committed by the CIA and documented by Senator Dianne Feinstein’s
committee is truly extraordinary. Not only does the report detail the
systematic torture of dozens of detainees – which included sexual assault, rape
and homicide – but the amount of times the CIA allegedly obstructed justice,
committed perjury and made false statements is hard to even count. The breaking
of laws almost catches up with the breaking of bones, minds and bodies. (By the
way, the Washington Post has helpfully put together a graphic with all
of former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden’s lies to Congress – the
documented ones, at least – should the Justice Department like to press perjury
charges anytime soon.) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/cia-interrogation-report/hayden-testimony/
But while it’s doubtful an
Obama administration that still somehow stands by the CIA has the guts to
uphold the law at this point, as Bloomberg’s Josh Rogin and Eli Lake reported,
the report’s “real impact could be felt in courtrooms across the globe in the
months and years to come”.
This is the actual reason why the CIA fought so hard for so many months
to have all of the names of countries participating in American torture get
redacted. The agency wasn’t worried about “serious damage” to its agents or
partners – it’s worried about the architects and perpetrators of torture
getting arrested abroad.
Read the entire post. From Portside.
http://portside.org/2014-12-13/senate-torture-report-who-will-be-held-responsible
[Trevor Timm is a Guardian US columnist and
executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit that
supports and defends journalism dedicated to transparency and accountability.
Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorTimm]
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