Kiriakou writes: "A policy of torture, a policy of holding people
incommunicado in secret prisons, a policy of rendering people to third
countries to undergo even more brutal torture, does nothing but serve as a
recruiting tool for terrorists."
CIA director John Brennan. (photo: Getty)
The Unrepentant Torturers
By John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News
28 April 16
The cadre of former CIA directors needs to get its act together on the
torture issue. Current director John Brennan said recently that no future
CIA director would carry out presidential orders to reconstitute a torture
program. Brennan hasn't had any human rights epiphany. He was, after all,
the deputy executive director of the CIA under George W. Bush, during which
time he did absolutely nothing to stop torture. He said simply that no CIA
officer would carry out such an order because the CIA "needs to endure," and
public opinion may not favor such an action.
As pathetic and roundabout a way as Brennan got to the correct conclusion,
there are still a few diehard former directors who insist that a torture
program is in the national interest, that it's not a violation of U.S. and
international law, and that it actually keeps Americans safe.
Even after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded, using
primary source CIA documents, that torture did not work, that it did not
produce any actionable intelligence, and that it did not save American lives
(or anyone else's, frankly), some former CIA directors still cling to the
fallacy that torture was a necessary program.
Porter Goss, one of George W. Bush's failed CIA directors, who served from
2004-2006, told NBC News that the torture program "saved hundreds, if not
thousands of lives" and "produced intelligence that allowed the U.S., and
its partners, to disrupt attacks, such as 9/11 type attacks planned for the
U.S. west coast and Heathrow Airport." That was a lie.
Former CIA director Michael Hayden, a particularly ineffective leader whose
tenure at the CIA was the subject of specific criticism in the report, chose
to mock the Torture Report's writing style, rather than defend his own
policies at the Agency. He told Politico, "I think the conclusions they drew
were analytically offensive and almost street-like in their language and
conclusions." That's not a very compelling defense of his own program.
George Tenet, who was the principle architect of the torture program and who
came unhinged in a "60 Minutes" segment in 2007, insisting that the CIA had
never tortured anybody, went so far as to publish a book along with former
colleagues, attempting to justify his decision to authorize CIA officers to
commit crimes against humanity. (Sales were anemic.)
Even Jim Woolsey, who was CIA director for the blink of an eye in the first
half of the Clinton administration, somehow felt a need to jump into a
debate in which he had absolutely no stake. He told the UK's BBC Radio 4
that if he had been CIA director after the September 11 attacks, he would
have waterboarded terrorism suspects. "Would I waterboard again Khalid
Sheikh Muhammad, the architect of the 9/11 killings and beheader of over 40
people? Would I waterboard him if I could have a good chance of saving
thousands of Americans or, for that matter, other allied individuals? Yes."
All of these former CIA directors ignore the facts: that torture doesn't
work, that it has not resulted in the collection of any actionable
intelligence, and that it saved no American lives. But they also miss the
most important point. A policy of torture, a policy of holding people
incommunicado in secret prisons, a policy of rendering people to third
countries to undergo even more brutal torture, does nothing but serve as a
recruiting tool for terrorists.
There's no doubt that terrorism is real. It's a threat to every American.
But it's high time that the CIA's directors, past and present, admit that
their own policies are what are helping to fuel it. Torture doesn't prevent
terrorism, it causes it.
________________________________________
John Kiriakou is an Associate Fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies
in Washington DC. He is a former CIA counterterrorism operations officer and
former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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CIA director John Brennan. (photo: Getty)
http://readersupportednews.org/http://readersupportednews.org/
The Unrepentant Torturers
By John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News
28 April 16
he cadre of former CIA directors needs to get its act together on the
torture issue. Current director John Brennan said recently that no future
CIA director would carry out presidential orders to reconstitute a torture
program. Brennan hasn't had any human rights epiphany. He was, after all,
the deputy executive director of the CIA under George W. Bush, during which
time he did absolutely nothing to stop torture. He said simply that no CIA
officer would carry out such an order because the CIA "needs to endure," and
public opinion may not favor such an action.
As pathetic and roundabout a way as Brennan got to the correct conclusion,
there are still a few diehard former directors who insist that a torture
program is in the national interest, that it's not a violation of U.S. and
international law, and that it actually keeps Americans safe.
Even after the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded, using
primary source CIA documents, that torture did not work, that it did not
produce any actionable intelligence, and that it did not save American lives
(or anyone else's, frankly), some former CIA directors still cling to the
fallacy that torture was a necessary program.
Porter Goss, one of George W. Bush's failed CIA directors, who served from
2004-2006, told NBC News that the torture program "saved hundreds, if not
thousands of lives" and "produced intelligence that allowed the U.S., and
its partners, to disrupt attacks, such as 9/11 type attacks planned for the
U.S. west coast and Heathrow Airport." That was a lie.
Former CIA director Michael Hayden, a particularly ineffective leader whose
tenure at the CIA was the subject of specific criticism in the report, chose
to mock the Torture Report's writing style, rather than defend his own
policies at the Agency. He told Politico, "I think the conclusions they drew
were analytically offensive and almost street-like in their language and
conclusions." That's not a very compelling defense of his own program.
George Tenet, who was the principle architect of the torture program and who
came unhinged in a "60 Minutes" segment in 2007, insisting that the CIA had
never tortured anybody, went so far as to publish a book along with former
colleagues, attempting to justify his decision to authorize CIA officers to
commit crimes against humanity. (Sales were anemic.)
Even Jim Woolsey, who was CIA director for the blink of an eye in the first
half of the Clinton administration, somehow felt a need to jump into a
debate in which he had absolutely no stake. He told the UK's BBC Radio 4
that if he had been CIA director after the September 11 attacks, he would
have waterboarded terrorism suspects. "Would I waterboard again Khalid
Sheikh Muhammad, the architect of the 9/11 killings and beheader of over 40
people? Would I waterboard him if I could have a good chance of saving
thousands of Americans or, for that matter, other allied individuals? Yes."
All of these former CIA directors ignore the facts: that torture doesn't
work, that it has not resulted in the collection of any actionable
intelligence, and that it saved no American lives. But they also miss the
most important point. A policy of torture, a policy of holding people
incommunicado in secret prisons, a policy of rendering people to third
countries to undergo even more brutal torture, does nothing but serve as a
recruiting tool for terrorists.
There's no doubt that terrorism is real. It's a threat to every American.
But it's high time that the CIA's directors, past and present, admit that
their own policies are what are helping to fuel it. Torture doesn't prevent
terrorism, it causes it.
John Kiriakou is an Associate Fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies
in Washington DC. He is a former CIA counterterrorism operations officer and
former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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