But we knew that. We’re back to square one: many Americans knew their government was lying and we were right. The question is: will confirmation that we acted brutally and lawlessly affect the system in any way? Probably not. We torture; we will continue to torture. We are beyond the law and that’s where we want to stay.
The classified study, prepared by the Senate select committee on intelligence, concluded that the CIA’s interrogations, secret detentions and outsourced torture sessions were “brutal, and far worse than the agency communicated to policymakers.”
More suspected terrorists underwent the agency’s post-9/11 treatment, which largely lasted from 2002 to 2006, than the CIA has publicly admitted, according to the report’s findings, which were first reported by McClatchy. Last week, committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein of California stated that the Senate investigated the cases of 100 detainees – dozens more than previously known to have gone through the CIA’s so-called “interrogation, detention and rendition” programs.
In addition to misleading policymakers, the Senate report charges the CIA with selectively and leaking classified and inaccurate information to journalists in order to portray the program in a positive light. …TheGuardian
Let’s be clear about this: the policy was a George W. Bush policy. He is responsible. He’s not the nice guy who kept getting mangled by liberals on one side and a wholly unscrupulous vice president on the other. He was president. He accepted the responsibility. He did it. We did it.
And we need to find out just how far back (and forward) the lies went. We also need to acknowledge just how many Americans are brutal enough to want to continue using torture — which is known to be ineffective as an intelligence-gathering device — because they just plain like the power. We need to face just how much latitude we give to brutality in our culture, whether we’re talking about our taste in TV or the children who are mowed down by showers of bullets, or our use of legal maneuvers to provide leeway for those who carry weapons.
Our habit of covering the bloodied ground with photos and flowers and teddy bears — in lieu of stopping the violence– is obscene.
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
Image via shutterstock.com