Long suppressed CIA report to be released on Monday.

A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged mock executions as part of the agency's post-9/11 program to detain and question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned.

According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent death."

The report also says, according to the sources, that a mock execution was staged in a room next to a detainee, during which a gunshot was fired in an effort to make the suspect believe that another prisoner had been killed. The inspector general's report alludes to more than one mock execution.

Do you remember when the United States of America was the gold standard for humane treatment of its prisoners? Well if you do then you have undoubtedly received your education about America at war from John Wayne movies. We have never been quite that squeaky clean.

Don't forget we were the country that rounded up its own citizens and placed them into internment camps during World War 2 because they spoke Japanese, and since we did not understand them that was proof positive that they were spies. Okay well SOME of them did not even speak Japanese. But they LOOKED Japanese, and in a time of war that is good enough for the United States of America. Love it, or by God, leave it.

So anyhow we have not been exactly perfect. But compared to most of the other nations in the world we look pretty damn good. Until now that is.

What the Bush administration did in our name has damaged our reputation for generations to come.

Here is Rachel Maddow's take on the report:

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(BTW clicking the title will take you to the Michael Isikoff Newsweek story that Rachel references.)


This is just the latest piece of evidence that demonstrates the criminality of the Bush administration and the lawlessness that prevailed during their reign.

We have already seen how they ignored good intelligence in favor of the bad to convince Americans to go into an illegal war.

We have seen how they used Terror Alerts to scare Americans into voting for George Bush.

And we now know that they used the U.S. Attorneys office to target Democrats for prosecution on trumped up voter fraud cases for their political gain.

I am sorry, what am I missing here? Is there not enough evidence to launch a full and comprehensive investigation against that criminal regime? What laws did they NOT break, or attempt to break?

I am tired of hearing how hard it will be, or how many scabs it will tear off, or how it will split the country in two. (In case you have not noticed, the country is already split in two.) Those excuses ultimately do not matter. What matters is that our country was treated like an innocent Sorority girl at her first college party. It was lied to, manipulated, verbally abused, horribly violated, stripped of its dignity, and left on the floor of some fraternity surrounded by empty bottles of Jagermiester.

In order for America to reclaim its virtue it MUST bring those that abused it to justice. If we cannot even manage to do that then we certainly do not deserve to call ourselves the greatest country in the world.