Report: CIA Threatened Detainees With Weapons

www.voanews.com...

By VOA News
22 August 2009


U.S. officials say a CIA report says intelligence officials threatened terrorist suspects with guns and in at least one case, with a power drill to try to get them to talk.

Monday, a long-secret report by the CIA's internal investigator will be released, making public the details of the CIA's controversial interrogation techniques during former President George W. Bush's administration.

Sources who have seen the report say CIA interrogators brandished a gun at one prisoner, Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, the man accused of masterminding an attack on the USS Cole.

They also held a power drill near his body, turning it on and off.

In another case, a gunshot was fired in a room next door, to make one suspect believe another detainee had been executed.

According to U.S. law, threatening a prisoner with "imminent death" is torture and illegal.

Sources who have seen the report say it suggests that the harsh techniques did not lead to useful information.

A spokesman for the CIA said the report has been scrutinized by the U.S. Justice Department, who decided "when and if to pursue prosecution." He added, "that's how the system is supposed to work."

The investigation was completed in 2004, but it has been kept secret. The American Civil Liberties Union fought for the results to be made public.

The high standards the US hold's are not so high after all.... but we knew of the torture in Guantanamo with the water-boarding, but I did not expect this form of torture with guns and drills to be CIA treatment. I would expect this more from the Iranian Islamic regime. Were raping prisoners even sanctioned by the Bush regime...., I mean administration?! Only more investigations and reports will tell.....

[edit on 22-8-2009 by john124]

reply to post by john124


I have been waterboarded and I had rather be waterboarded than have my head sliced off with a knife.

I am glad some of this crowd wasn't around during WWII, then we would be speaking German (If some of us were here at all) right now.

Good grief.

Originally posted by mabus325
reply to post by john124

 

I have been waterboarded and I had rather be waterboarded than have my head sliced off with a knife.

I am glad some of this crowd wasn't around during WWII, then we would be speaking German (If some of us were here at all) right now.

Good grief.

Who's saying either is acceptable? - neither waterboarding, threatening to drill somebody's brain out, shoot them, or cut their head off is acceptable!

Shall we behave like the terrorists and criminals just because they behave like that.

Combat in a war situation is different to a captured enemy combatent, especially if he is tied to a chair in a CIA prison.

These kinds of reckless actions are what breeds the next generation of terrorists. It's not as though there are positive outcomes from torture, it doesn't even provide accurate confessions. If it did, I could accept anything can be acceptable in war situations, but this is not a conventional war against a country like Nazi germany, and there are no positive outcomes from using torture.

We didn't shoot captured German soldiers on sight, and we should respect the Geneva convention in all circumstances. If they escape or evade capture then you have the right to eliminate them if they are your enemy. I'm not suggesting we don't kill all the taliban because that's a war situation and if they refuse to surrender and lay-down arms, then we should bomb them all to hell.

But to cowardly threaten somebody probably who is tied to a chair is pathetic and cowardly. I'm sure you can see the difference, and that's exactly the kind of routine cowardly actions that the Iranian regime carry out.

We have to separate ourselves from the criminals, otherwise we're no better.

You have to be more cleverer than this to win wars against terrorism, as you can make the situation worse when this information gets out. It's not like conventional warfare where brute force wins most of the time. You have to be clever and make sure you're not creating more potential terrorists than those you are eliminating. Kind of defeats the purpose of the war in the first place!

It's not about who's too soft to smack a muslim prisoner, or who think's he's hard enough to tie one to a chair and smack him around.... because it still makes you a thug just like the terrorist. And ordinary muslims won't see you as any different!

What happened to the war to gain the hearts and minds of people from muslim country's? Or are we going to just let this turn into a war against Islam and murder all of them to keep ourselves safe? Noting that there are 1.6 billion of them out of 6.7 billion people.


[edit on 22-8-2009 by john124]

Thankfully, there are still some in this country that understand the purpose of holding higher morals and values than the person they are fighting. In another thread relating to this topic, I presented US law, and was basically told I was an idiot. That the USA can do anything it wants.

Thank you OP for standing behind our country moral obligations.

Originally posted by mabus325
reply to post by john124

 

I have been waterboarded and I had rather be waterboarded than have my head sliced off with a knife.



Good grief.

I too have been waterboarded and I can tell you that being waterboarded under controlled conditions, when your buddies stop when you say uncle is a whole lot different than under POW conditions.

If I waterboarded you, I could make you confess to murdering and eating your children or anything I wanted.

Good grief indeed!




[edit on 22-8-2009 by whaaa]