"There are some indications that the release of the report could lead to a greater risk that is posed to U.S. facilities and individuals all around the world," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday. "So the administration has taken the prudent steps to ensure that the proper security precautions are in place at U.S. facilities around the globe."
The report's release by the Senate Intelligence Committee sparked a fierce debate in Congress.
Some lawmakers said it's important for the report to be released so the U.S. government will never again use torture as a method of interrogation. Others said it will inflame extremist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere and threaten the lives of U.S. diplomats, military members and other Americans overseas.
The Intelligence Committee is expected to release Tuesday a 500-page summary of a 6,200-page report on the the CIA's use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation, humiliation and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" against al-Qaeda prisoners during the George W. Bush administration.
While the revelations of torture are not new, the report will detail the broad scope of the controversial practices, which took place at secret detention centers in the Middle East and Asia. It also will allege that the CIA tried to hide what they were doing from Congress and the White House. Perhaps most controversial of all, it will conclude that the CIA's tactics failed to gather any useful information to save American lives.
"The president believes that, on principle, it's important to release that report, so that people around the world and people here at home understand exactly what transpired," Earnest said. He added that "something like this should never happen again."
There are of course dire warnings that the release of this report will result in attacks on American soldiers overseas, of course many of those are coming from folks who are about to look really bad when this thing comes out, but in the end I think it is important that Americans come to terms with what we did.
We mistreated people for no other reason than somebody somewhere did not like them and told the CIA that they were a terrorists. Based on such slim evidence we captured and tortured some of these people for many years.
These techniques created far more terrorists than we have ever captured or killed, and it has inspired the formation of groups like ISIS which are now terrorizing people all over the Middle East.
And because we were afraid we turned a blind eye to what was being done in the name of protecting the homeland.
Which by the ways sounds uncomfortably like something that was said in Nazi Germany in the 1940's.
I don't feel it is worth releasing the report if people will get hurt around the world. And after all, it's really bullshit, noone was ever indicted for the torture that will be mentioned in the report. So what is the point. It would carry much more weight if we released the report, condemned the actions, and arrested those who perpetrated those actions. But we know that will never happen.
ReplyDeleteI seriously doubt people are going to be hurt throughout the world. I think it's nothing more than hype from Republicans and the Republican media!
DeleteThank you for signing off on the release of this information, President Obama. Torturing truly goes to the Republican party and President Bush and VP Cheney!
"There are some indications that the release of the report could lead to a greater risk that is posed to U.S. facilities and individuals all around the world," translated means: "If people find out what we did, they'll demand justice for our crimes". What kind of lesson does that teach children?
ReplyDeleteReally.... children? Jesus.
DeleteIt is a grown up ugly world full of hard choices honey.
This is you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2sWSVRrmo
8:33--- I think 7:51 was being sarcastic. (At least, I hope so...)
DeleteHey tea partyers Cruz & Palin-want to earn some real credibility & respect from MILLIONS of Americans & most of the planet? Drop the impeachment nonsense and start a campaign to bring war crimes charges against the Bush/Cheney administration-any of them, all of them!
ReplyDeleteI don't mind that we release the report.
ReplyDeleteWhat I DO mind is the fact that we are still doing the same sh*t like what is said in it. We have not changed, and we will become even worse in the next two years with the Teabaggers at the helm of Congress. We have not taken ANY steps on prosecuting ANY of the guilty, and we will not ever do so. IF anyone gets prosecuted, it will be some lowly fall guys and gals, but the real culprits - the ones who dreamed up this torture and condoned it (i.e. Bush, Cheney et al) will never be held accountable. Remember - when Obama was elected, the first thing out of the gubmint's mouth was that prosecution would be 'off the table' for the former government members.
......and that's what I do not get. WHY? Clinton and Dubya acting like long lost brothers.....it makes absolutely no sense to me and, in my opinion, these are high crimes.
DeleteI thought President Obama stopped the torturing when he became POTUS the first time! He can veto anything the Republicans try to push through - and, he will!
DeleteI am listening to Senator Feinstein reading from the torture report, and this thing is much worse than even I realized.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder members of the Bush Administration did not want this out.
What did you imagine a report on torture would include? It's a pretty bad thing to do to people.
DeleteEverything bad in that report hides MOUNTAINS of bad that were/are covered up.
DeleteCivilian oversight of the military just turns into the old boys club covering for each other.
This cannot help Jeb Bush in any way shape or form.
ReplyDeleteThis IS NOT the report, it is the Executive Summary after it has been scrubbed for years by all the interested and implicated parties.
ReplyDeleteThe Dasht-i-Leili massacre out to be included in this but probably isn't.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasht-i-Leili_massacre
Today I learned there were such things as rectal feeding and rectal hydration.
ReplyDeleteSenate Torture Report: Detainees Subjected To Rectal Feeding (READ)
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/senate-cia-torture-report-realsed
Burn in hell you bastards, but jail first, please....jail, general population. And that is all I want for Christmas.
ReplyDelete"Brave men and women killing innocent civilians in foreign countries", there, fixed it for ya.
ReplyDeleteCheney and Bush - string them up! Torture was authorized by them - Cheney especially!
ReplyDeleteThe best disinfectant is daylight, my only wish is President Obama released this much much sooner, like the day after he got elected. Ditto with Closing Gitmo. And GWBush had the gall to call the CIA "patriots" and those who perpetrated these crimes "heroes"? The report clearly shows that we got no information from "enhanced torturing" than we could have gotten by other means. We kept a pretty close count of American lives lost, Rumsfeld said "every one of them raised their hands and said "pick me". but we have no clue how many innocent lives and entire villiages were wiped off the face of the earth. They weren't "collateral damage", they were human beings who lost their lives.
ReplyDeleteI was flipping channels and some idiot on Fox News said something to the effect "Senator McCain deserves a lot of credit for this release of information, he worked tirelessly because he knows what it's like to be tortured" I had to change the channel quick because I saw McCain's face with that smirk and knew something stupid was about to follow. It's Obama's fault by default, I suppose.
This information (in this format summary) was not available (I'm thinking) on January 20, 2009 or anytime soon there after.
DeleteMaybe this time is about as soon as the report could be 'released' by President Obama's administration?
dowl