Torture Report From 2004 Released by CIA (Help Read Through It)

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA has been forced by the ACLU to release its report on Bush-era interrogation operations written by former CIA Inspector General John Helgerson. Though still heavily redacted, the 2004 study may contain new insights into the closely guarded torture practices under the Bush administration.

The entire report is posted below (download the pdf here). If you find something of note, particularly something that sheds new light on US torture practices in 2004, email us at [e-mail]. If you find something and you're not sure if it has already been reported on, we urge you to start a conversation about it in a comment thread below.

2004 CIA Inspector General Report on Torture -

Comments

[johnjmccarthy]

Tell all the judges and prosecutors that murder and torture is OLD NEWS! Let us look forward and not backward, eh? If that is going to become 'law of the land' then every judge in every court in every state in the USA can decide NOT to prosecute anyone for any crime, because it is OLD NEWS!

Doesn't that mean there is no justice for all? In that case, we can shelve the Pledge of Allegiance.

It is no wonder this country is tearing apart at the political seems with all the 'forward looking' nay sayers that seem to crawl out from the rocks of immunity screaming for more torture so we can prevent another 911.....

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB284/index.htm

Even John Prados will tell you that the CIA continues to flaunt the FOIA on the criminal conduct of it's agency in the PAST, but that would be looking BACKWARD, wouldn't it?

When will we ever learn?

http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id1.html
http://johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com/id48.html

Do you fine citizens who have children graduating from high school want your sons and daughters running down to the local recruiting stations to sign their lives away so you can look FORWARD NOT BACKWARD?

[berrycooda]

Wouldn't you think by now this is old news.
Time to concentrate on the present...­enough to worry about without
spending time dredging up from 5 yrs ago.

At least we don't behead people the way some of ours have been.
All they are doing by keeping this in the news is to give the terrorists
something else to focus on.
Wake up A. G. Concentrate on keeping America safe.

[alexandramadison]

You have to be kidding me. There are more redacted words in this document than there are visible words.

[SurrealPumpkin]

Page 11, Discussion, #25:

(redacted) The statutory basis for CIA's involvement in detentions and interrogations is (redacted) the National Security Act of 1947, as amended [footnote 7] (redacted).

7(U//FOUO) DoJ takes the position that as Commander-in-Chief, the President independently has the Article II constitutional authority to order the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants to gain intelligence information.

The BASIS for the interrogation is top secret? What? Interesting that the footnote wasn't redacted. All the rest of them on the page were.

[SurrealPumpkin]

Page 6, footnote 6

Two weeks training in interrogation techniques?

That's very fast to learn how to torture someone with out killing him and ending the possibility of gaining any information. It takes over a year to get a cosmetology license, no life threatening techniques included!

[Brian Trautman]

America and anyone who believes in transparency and justice should be indebted to the ACLU for legally persisting to get these documents released. Otherwise, Obama may have never released them and an investigation may have never commenced. As Jeremy Scahill has noted, and this is ACLU win is another example, legal processes and lawyers may be are greatest hope of bringing those responsible for war crimes to account.

[EdwardianWords]

Torture shmorture.­..

Now for the real news: Did you all hear about Paris Hilton's new ear rings. They are really cool and shine in the dark! Oh, and that new flavor of Twinkies, with less fat so you can eat more and still keep that bikini line! Have it with a diet Coke! Smile, dance in the street and be really really happy. Youppiiii!

[kindGSL]

Just some background for you, you will love it,

http://www.voxfux.com/features/bush_child_sex_coverup/article_archive.htm

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=182423138094287597

[teepeeyoyo]

Aw look, he's smiling at the little pup.

[Mike Barden]

Like Pogo said: We have met the enemy and he is us.

[John Fudrow]

This just proves how close we came to becoming the evil we believe ourselves to be fighting.

[kindGSL]

Came? No, are.

[Justina]

Colonel Wilkerson, aide to then Secretary of State, Colin Powell, conducted his own investigation of CIA torture practices for Powell. Wilkerson was appalled at what he found, but stated in a recent Keith Olbermann interview, that the vast majority of CIA personnel were equally appalled and either refused to participate or objected. Wilkerson said that "less than one percent" of the CIA took part in the torture program. Was this opposition part of the reason much of the torture operation was farmed out to private contractors, such as Blackwater?

Significantly, he noted that the majority of CIA personnel who opposed the one percent's torture practices would be demoralized if there were no investigation and prosecution of the torturers and those who designed, ordered and tried to legally justify the program.

So, to protect those who try to follow the law in the future, we must prosecute all the higher ups who broke the law with their torture program. To do otherwise would be to foster future illegal intimidation of staff and to demoralize our competent, law-abiding CIA personnel.

[mftn]

Good point. And I would also add that until the likes of Col. Oliver North , Poindexter, Rumsfeld and Cheney ( if laws were found to be broken) are not sentenced and serve without Presidential pardons we will continue to see the boudries pushed.

[TotobiAyokoh23]

"An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates his duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."

-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man

[SurrealPumpkin]

The problem is figuring out when the time to punish has arrived. We're a nation that believes punishment is appropriate as a deterrent. The question then becomes, in America, as we have become, what is appropriate? Sadly, social pressure is no longer a strong enough deterrent, which leaves us with punishment as our only way of saying "Stop!".

[mftn]

I expect VP Cheney and his daughter Liz to start their "spin" on the talk shows in 3...2....1­....

[dems08]

I'll wait for the not redacted, searchable version.

[mhuppman]

The lesson here is do as I say, not as I do.......t­he tact we took in the heat of the moment. Anyone else have a need to see a balance of this document?