Over the weekend I went to see the Bourne Ulitmatum with my son. It is a terrifically entertaining movie with amazing special effects. The plot revolves around a rogue group within the CIA that has run amok with illegal activities, such as assassinations, torture, kidnapping etc. The main character - Jason Bourne - suffers from amnesia after being subjected to pyschological therapy by the CIA which essentially obliterated his real identity. Pure Hollywood escapist entertainment, right?
Actually, these activities really are being done in real life, as part of the "War on Terror". And not by a rogue group within the CIA, but by the CIA itself under orders from senior officials within the Bush administration. I urge eveyone to read this article in the current issue of The New Yorker; it is a great piece of investigative journalism by Jane Mayer. Mayer interviewed many sources, including the International Red Cross, about the fate of detainees in the secret CIA "Black Sites". What she learned is very disturbing indeed, and much worse that anything that Hollywood could dream up.
Mayer has detailed an explicit descriptions of the torture of these detainees. The torture begins with the "take down" of the suspect:
A former member of a C.I.A. transport team has described the “takeout” of prisoners as a carefully choreographed twenty-minute routine, during which a suspect was hog-tied, stripped naked, photographed, hooded, sedated with anal suppositories, placed in diapers, and transported by plane to a secret location.
A person involved in the Council of Europe inquiry, referring to cavity searches and the frequent use of suppositories during the takeout of detainees, likened the treatment to “sodomy.”
Once in prison, the detainess were hung by their arms for long periods of time:
According to sources familiar with interrogation techniques, the hanging position is designed, in part, to prevent detainees from being able to sleep. The former C.I.A. officer, who is knowledgeable about the interrogation program, explained that “sleep deprivation works. Your electrolyte balance changes. You lose all balance and ability to think rationally. Stuff comes out.” Sleep deprivation has been recognized as an effective form of coercion since the Middle Ages, when it was called tormentum insomniae. It was also recognized for decades in the United States as an illegal form of torture. An American Bar Association report, published in 1930, which was cited in a later U.S. Supreme Court decision, said, “It has been known since 1500 at least that deprivation of sleep is the most effective torture and certain to produce any confession desired.”
Nearly all of the prisoners were subjected to waterboarding - simulated drowning - a practice condemned as torture under international law. Mayer describes in detail how extreme heat, extreme cold, constant loud noise for days at a time, humiliation, etc. were used over and over again by the CIA. By the way, the CIA officers knew that what they were doing was illegal, so most have retained legal counsel to fight the indictments that will come. Of course, their defense is: they were only following orders. Indeed, they were. And on that score Mayer writes:
One of the sources said that the Red Cross described the agency's detention and interrogation methods as tantamount to torture, and declared that American officials responsible for the abusive treatment could have committed serious crimes.
The source said the report warned that these officials may have committed "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions, and may have violated the U.S. Torture Act, which Congress passed in 1994. The conclusions of the Red Cross, which is known for its credibility and caution, could have potentially devastating legal ramifications.
The truth about the crimes committed by the Bush/Cheney administration in the name of the American people will eventually come out. The legacy will be court actions that will continue into the next decade.
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