CIA Report

[crazy canuck]

I wonder what impact this report will have on the rest of the Five Eyes.

I doubt we'll see many burning New Zealand flags in the streets of the Arab world. 

Is this even related to Five Eyes? My impression is that various European governments (e.g. Poland as quoted above, allegedly some German units in Afghanistan - our intelligence service are sadly not as forthcoming as the CIA with public information ) helped with this, but I haven't heard about Canada, New Zealand or Australia having a role in this.

You are taking a bit of a narrow view here.  First, I am not so dismissive of the risk of a backlash. We are very closely tied to the US and we have already had our own terrorism here.  Second, aside from the potential backlash what I was most interested in is the negative impact such a report might have on continued cooperation amongst the Five Eyes from the point of view of the rest of the five not the other way around.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/09/the-most-gruesome-moments-in-the-cia-torture-report.html

[crazy canuck]

The CIA relied on two outside contractors who were psychologists with experience at the Air Force's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school to help develop, run, and assess the interrogation program. Neither had experience as an interrogator, nor any specialized knowledge of al-Qaeda, counterterrorism or relevant linguistic expertise, the committee found. In 2005, these two psychologists formed a company, and following this the CIA outsourced virtually all aspects of the interrogation program to them. The company was paid more than $80 million by the CIA.

The real problem?

[CountDeMoney]

The CIA relied on two outside contractors who were psychologists with experience at the Air Force's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school to help develop, run, and assess the interrogation program. Neither had experience as an interrogator, nor any specialized knowledge of al-Qaeda, counterterrorism or relevant linguistic expertise, the committee found. In 2005, these two psychologists formed a company, and following this the CIA outsourced virtually all aspects of the interrogation program to them. The company was paid more than $80 million by the CIA.

The real problem?

Darth Cheney's buddies in the private sector needed the cash, man.  It's tough out there.

[Martinus]

So wearing panties as a mask is torture? I thought the torture part was the tickling and teasing while handcuffed to the bed. 

I'm worried about unforeseen consequences - by expanding the definition of torture, we may unwittingly cause BDSM porn to be banned.

[Martinus]

So it seems it's out.

[The Brain]

TL;DR

[Martinus]

CIA's brutal and ineffective use of torture revealed in landmark report

Report released by Senate after four-year, $40m investigation concludes CIA repeatedly lied about brutal techniques in years after 9/11

The CIA's post-9/11 embrace of torture was brutal and ineffective – and the agency repeatedly lied about its usefulness, a milestone report by the Senate intelligence committee released on Tuesday concludes.

After examining 20 case studies, the report found that torture "regularly resulted in fabricated information," said committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, in a statement summarizing the findings.

"During the brutal interrogations the CIA was often unaware the information was fabricated."

The torture that the CIA carried out was even more extreme than what it portrayed to congressional overseers and the George W Bush administration, the committee found. It went beyond techniques already made public through a decade of leaks and lawsuits, which had revealed that agency interrogators subjected detainees to quasi-drowning, staged mock executions, and revved power drills near their heads.

The committee's findings, which the CIA largely rejects, are the result of a four-year, $40m investigation that plunged relations between the spy agency and the Senate committee charged with overseeing it to a historic low.

The investigation that led to the report, and the question of how much of the document would be released and when, has pitted chairwoman Feinstein and her committee allies against the CIA and its White House backers. For 10 months, with the blessing of President Barack Obama, the agency has fought to conceal vast amounts of the report from the public, with an entreaty to Feinstein from secretary of state John Kerry occurring as recently as Friday.

CIA director John Brennan, an Obama confidante, conceded in a Tuesday statement that the program "had shortcomings and that the agency made mistakes" owing from what he described as unpreparedness for a massive interrogation and detentions program.

But Brennan took issue with several of the committee's findings.

"Our review indicates that interrogations of detainees on whom EITs were used did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives. The intelligence gained from the program was critical to our understanding of al-Qaida and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day," Brennan said.

"EITs", or "enhanced interrogation techniques", is the agency's preferred euphemism for torture.

Obama banned CIA torture upon taking office, but the continuing lack of legal consequences for agency torturers has led human rights campaigners to view the Senate report as their last hope for official recognition and accountability for torture.

Though the committee released hundreds of pages of declassified excerpts from the report on Tuesday, the majority of the 6,000-plus page classified version remains secret, disappointing human rights groups that have long pushed for broader transparency. Senator Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat who lost his seat in November, has flirted with reading the whole report into the Senate record, one of the only tactics to compel additional disclosures remaining.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-report-released

[Jacob]

The CIA relied on two outside contractors who were psychologists with experience at the Air Force's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school to help develop, run, and assess the interrogation program. Neither had experience as an interrogator, nor any specialized knowledge of al-Qaeda, counterterrorism or relevant linguistic expertise, the committee found. In 2005, these two psychologists formed a company, and following this the CIA outsourced virtually all aspects of the interrogation program to them. The company was paid more than $80 million by the CIA.

The real problem?

That sounds like a pretty big problem.

[The Brain]

The CIA relied on two outside contractors who were psychologists with experience at the Air Force's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school to help develop, run, and assess the interrogation program. Neither had experience as an interrogator, nor any specialized knowledge of al-Qaeda, counterterrorism or relevant linguistic expertise, the committee found. In 2005, these two psychologists formed a company, and following this the CIA outsourced virtually all aspects of the interrogation program to them. The company was paid more than $80 million by the CIA.

The real problem?

That sounds like a pretty big problem.

How big? As big as the torture problem? Half as big?

[The Minsky Moment]

The CIA relied on two outside contractors who were psychologists with experience at the Air Force's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape school to help develop, run, and assess the interrogation program. Neither had experience as an interrogator, nor any specialized knowledge of al-Qaeda, counterterrorism or relevant linguistic expertise, the committee found. In 2005, these two psychologists formed a company, and following this the CIA outsourced virtually all aspects of the interrogation program to them. The company was paid more than $80 million by the CIA.

The real problem?

That sounds like a pretty big problem.

80 mil contract?  Tip of the iceberg.

[Jacob]

80 mil contract?  Tip of the iceberg.

I was thinking more of the hire-people-with-no-experience-in-interrogation to do interrogation part. I kind of wonder if they had any grounding in ethics or management of interrogators either.

[Brazen]

Enhanced interrogation techniques is my new favourite spook euphemism.

[derspiess]

RACISS

[Jacob]

RACISS

Are you okay?