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Or, “Dianne Feinstein is an emotional idiot”.
I was busy dogsitting and traveling when the news broke about the Senate Intelligence Committee voting to declassify part of its 6,300-page report on how the CIA's torture program went beyond its authority and was so useless for gathering intelligence that the CIA had to lie to Congress so they could keep doing it.
Still, I’m not sure what I can say about it that I haven’t said about US torture practices before. And most of what I could add has already been covered by Techdirt (i.e. the SIC should release the whole report, and if they don't someone should leak it) and, of course, Jon Stewart.
There’s also that dumb comment from former VSA/CIA director Michael Hayden that Dianne Feinstein is being all emo about this “torture” stuff (you know – dames, am I right guys?). Hey, I’d be all emo too if the CIA was hacking my email. Which is ironic, since Feinstein didn’t have a problem with the NSA’s Surveillancepalooza program –
But I digress.
Basically what it amounts to is (1) America did authorize and carry out torture, (2) the only result it produced was making America look bad, (3) the CIA knew that but did it anyway, (4) the main architects and players involved have no regrets at all, (5) they will never, ever go to jail for it or receive any punishment of any kind, and that’s because (6) at the end of the day, most people either supported it, or didn't care as long as it happened to Muslims, or didn’t consider it torture (if you compare it to the Spanish Inquisition), or believed the “few bad apples” explanation, or whatever, it’s practically ancient history.
I mean, really, the only people who think the torture program was wrong – in fact, the only people who even call it torture in the first place – are the same relatively small of people who objected to it back when it was actually happening, along with the Gitmo gulag and secret renditions, etc. No one listened then. I doubt they’ll listen now.
And while I do think it’s s good idea to release the full report and get everything on the record, I’m not sure it will serve as a wake-up call/deterrent to reviving such programs the next time a Bush/Cheney-like admin comes along. Creatures like Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and George W Bush managed to convince themselves (and the majority of the country) that torture is not torture if Americans do it, and that it’s justified in the name of national security. And as you’ll notice above, in hindsight they’d do it all again in a minute.
And if they don’t, someone else will. It can easily happen again under the right circumstances. And knowledge of previous events probably won’t stop it from happening again. “But this time it’s different,” they’ll say.
And the majority of voters will believe them.
Hit ‘em where it hurts,
This is dF
I was busy dogsitting and traveling when the news broke about the Senate Intelligence Committee voting to declassify part of its 6,300-page report on how the CIA's torture program went beyond its authority and was so useless for gathering intelligence that the CIA had to lie to Congress so they could keep doing it.
Still, I’m not sure what I can say about it that I haven’t said about US torture practices before. And most of what I could add has already been covered by Techdirt (i.e. the SIC should release the whole report, and if they don't someone should leak it) and, of course, Jon Stewart.
There’s also that dumb comment from former VSA/CIA director Michael Hayden that Dianne Feinstein is being all emo about this “torture” stuff (you know – dames, am I right guys?). Hey, I’d be all emo too if the CIA was hacking my email. Which is ironic, since Feinstein didn’t have a problem with the NSA’s Surveillancepalooza program –
But I digress.
Basically what it amounts to is (1) America did authorize and carry out torture, (2) the only result it produced was making America look bad, (3) the CIA knew that but did it anyway, (4) the main architects and players involved have no regrets at all, (5) they will never, ever go to jail for it or receive any punishment of any kind, and that’s because (6) at the end of the day, most people either supported it, or didn't care as long as it happened to Muslims, or didn’t consider it torture (if you compare it to the Spanish Inquisition), or believed the “few bad apples” explanation, or whatever, it’s practically ancient history.
I mean, really, the only people who think the torture program was wrong – in fact, the only people who even call it torture in the first place – are the same relatively small of people who objected to it back when it was actually happening, along with the Gitmo gulag and secret renditions, etc. No one listened then. I doubt they’ll listen now.
And while I do think it’s s good idea to release the full report and get everything on the record, I’m not sure it will serve as a wake-up call/deterrent to reviving such programs the next time a Bush/Cheney-like admin comes along. Creatures like Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and George W Bush managed to convince themselves (and the majority of the country) that torture is not torture if Americans do it, and that it’s justified in the name of national security. And as you’ll notice above, in hindsight they’d do it all again in a minute.
And if they don’t, someone else will. It can easily happen again under the right circumstances. And knowledge of previous events probably won’t stop it from happening again. “But this time it’s different,” they’ll say.
And the majority of voters will believe them.
Hit ‘em where it hurts,
This is dF
