The Daily Background
| The CIA waterboarded two people 266 times… Do you feel safer?
by Arlen Parsa
This is an embarrassing day for the country, but obviously it’s better this information is out rather than kept secret like the CIA wanted:
C.I.A. interrogators used waterboarding, the near-drowning technique that top Obama administration officials have described as illegal torture, 266 times on two key prisoners from Al Qaeda, far more than had been previously reported.
The C.I.A. officers used waterboarding at least 83 times in August 2002 against Abu Zubaydah, according to a 2005 Justice Department legal memorandum. Abu Zubaydah has been described as a Qaeda operative.
A former C.I.A. officer, John Kiriakou, told ABC News and other news media organizations in 2007 that Abu Zubaydah had undergone waterboarding for only 35 seconds before agreeing to tell everything he knew.
35 seconds… would that have been on the 84th time he was tortured?
Aside from that, there’s really no proof that any of these tactics used against anyone have been effective whatsoever– rather the opposite is often the case. Further, it’s now clear now that they were out that nothing in the memos that Obama had released compromises national security at all; the CIA was simply embarrassed to have their dirty laundry aired out in public, as usual.
Oh, also, a final thought. Go bloggers!
A footnote to another 2005 Justice Department memo released Thursday said waterboarding was used both more frequently and with a greater volume of water than the C.I.A. rules permitted.
The new information on the number of waterboarding episodes came out over the weekend when a number of bloggers, including Marcy Wheeler of the blog emptywheel, discovered it in the May 30, 2005, memo.
The sentences in the memo containing that information appear to have been redacted from some copies but are visible in others. Initial news reports about the memos in The New York Times and other publications did not include the numbers.
While national security is a true concern, you accurately point out that–in this case–the concept seems more of an excuse that the CIA used to cover up their shady activities. It is vital that more trust be established between the American people and their government, and this revealing of the last administration’s hidden torture policies/activities is a call for even more transparency in such dealings. Thankfully, it seems as if that is Obama’s aim as well. I watched an interesting video on some of the controversies over these memos (including the public debate over the national security/transparency) at newsy.com today. It gives a few different news sources/opinions and is worth watching:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/making_sense_of_the_memos/
[…] Secy: There Will Be No Accountability For Torture, Olbermann: “President Obama, You Are Wrong”, The CIA waterboarded two people 266 times… Do you feel safer?, Torture: I’m talking to Yoo, Torture: Obama Is on a Slippery Slope, and This Week In the […]
I belive that waterboarding is awfull includeing other tortures people have in mind i also belive that if somebody didnt want to say anything should be left in prison til they say something but NO TORTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I am 17 years old and i belive that all the military forces are TRASH!!!!!!! AND GOING TO THE DUMPS I PUT SHAME ON THEM AND IF THEIR SO CHRISTIAN AS THEY SAY WHY DO THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HAVE ANY QUESTIONS E-MAIL ME
deliatrask@yahoo.com
WATERBOARDING AND ANY OTHER TORTURE SHOULD BE ILLEGAL OR ANYTHING ELSE THEY HAVE IN MIND
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