CIA

CIA Document Warned Drone Assassination Program Might Backfire

December 19, 2014 WikiLeaks, www.wikileaks.org Educate! CIA, Drones, Torture

WikiLeaks today, Thursday 18 December, publishes a review by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of its "High Value Target" (HVT) assassination programme. The report weighs the pros and cons of killing "insurgent" leaders in assassination plots. After the report was prepared, US drone strike killings rose to an all-time high. The report acknowledges that the effect of assassinating insurgent groups' leaders is sometimes lessened by organizations' command structure and succession planning. This is said to be a problem both in relation to al-Qa'ida in Iraq and to the Taliban. Assassinations by drone strike escalated to an all-time high a year after the CIA report was written.

Health Professionals’ Central Role In The CIA Torture Program

December 18, 2014 Allen Keller, MD, Sarah Dougherty, JD, MPH, Scott A. Allen, MD, FACP, Stephen Soldz, PhD, Steven Reisner, PhD, Vincent Iacopino, MD, PhD, Widney Brown, Nathaniel A. Raymond, PHR research ethics advisor, and Megan Granski, Bellevue/ NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, www.physiciansforhumanrights.org Organize! CIA, Health Care, Torture

This analysis by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) report’s executive summary builds on years of investigation and research documenting the systematic use of torture by the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks. A detailed review of the 500-page SSCI executive summary was conducted by a team of PHR experts. The torture report’s executive summary describes in detail the acts and omissions of CIA health professionals who violated their professional ethics, undermined the critical bond of trust between patients and doctors, and broke the law. Based on PHR’s detailed review of the SSCI summary, health professionals who participated in the CIA torture program violated core ethical principles common to all healing professions, including the following obligations. . .

Torture Turned US Government Into A Criminal Enterprise

December 16, 2014 Rebecca Gordon, www.tomdispatch.com Educate! CIA, Congress, Human Rights, Law, Torture

So now we can finally consider the partial release of the long-awaited report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the gruesome CIA interrogation methods used during the Bush administration’s “Global War on Terror.” But here’s one important thing to keep in mind: this report addresses only the past practices of a single agency. Its narrow focus encourages us to believe that, whatever the CIA may have once done, that whole sorry torture chapter is now behind us. In other words, the moment we get to read it, it’s already time to turn the page. So be shocked, be disgusted, be appalled, but don’t be fooled. The Senate torture report, so many years and obstacles in the making, should only be the starting point for a discussion, not the final word on U.S. torture. Here’s why.

ACLU Head’s ‘Pardon Bush’ Op-Ed Sparks Controversy

December 10, 2014 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Educate! CIA, Obama, Torture

In preparation for the much-anticipated release of the Senate's summary report on CIA torture, the head of one of the country's leading rights groups on Monday proposed a controversial solution to ensure that such crimes are never committed by the American government again: pardon President Bush and those who tortured. Published in the New York Times op-ed pages, ACLU executive director Anthony Romeroargues that an executive pardon by President Obama "may be the only way to establish, once and for all, that torture is illegal." Romero, as head of one of the organizations that has lead the fight to disclose the United States' illegal torture campaign and demand accountability for those involved, acknowledges that prosecution of those responsible for the systemic abuses in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks would be "preferable."

Senate Report Says Torture Of Little Use In CIA Hunt For Bin Laden

December 10, 2014 Ben Mathis-Lilley, www.slate.com Educate! Bin Laden, CIA, Human Rights, Law, Senate, Torture

The question of whether torture helped the United States locate Osama Bin Laden has been debated since almost immediately after the news broke on May 2, 2011 that the al-Qaida leader had been killed, especially after the hit 2012 film Zero Dark Thirty portrayed "enhanced interrogation" as the first step in finding Bin Laden's Pakistan hideout. The Senate torture report released today addresses the issue specifically, arguing at length that the CIA's past statements on the question have been misleading and that the "vast majority" of the information used to find Bin Laden was not obtained through torture. In all, the Senate's account jibes with earlier reports about Bin Laden's capture written by observers critical of the idea that torture was essential to the operation.

White House Delaying Torture Report, Waiting For Republican Chair

November 21, 2014 Ali Watkins, Ryan Grim, Sabrina Siddiqui and Michael McAuliff, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! CIA, Congress, Politics, Torture

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, waited for the immigration discussion to end and then pulled out a prepared speech that she read for five or six minutes, making the case for the release of the damning portrayal of America's post-9/11 torture program. "It was a vigorous, vigorous and open debate -- one of the best and most thorough discussions I've been a part of while here," said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who served as intelligence committee chair before Feinstein, was furious after the meeting, and accused the administration of deliberately stalling the report.

The APA Executive/CIA Torture Program

November 18, 2014 Alan Gilbert, www.democratic-individuality.blogspot.com Educate! CIA, Psychology, Torture

The description in James Risen's New York Times article yesterday - below - of the desperate meeting of the psychologist/torturers in the US 'intelligence" apparatus with the leadership of the APA following the released photographs about Abu Ghraib and trying to hide the obvious is hilarious - these are the keystone cops of "intelligence" - though the light this meeting casts on a kind of pseudo-neutral, "value-free" "professionalism" in the social sciences (political science as well) which serves the Pentagon and the CIA is anything but. With regard to a decent life for human beings, social science is never "value free" (see my Democratic Individuality, ch. 1). Minimally, writers on society, including would-be "scientists," need to seek the truth. Being value neutral between truth and error or ideology or knowing falsehood is self-refuting and despite any serious accomplishments in research, laughable.

Chomsky: America Is the World’s Leading Terrorist Nation

November 4, 2014 Noam Chomsky, www.inthesetimes.com Educate! CIA, Cuba, ISIS, Noam Chomsky, Syria, Terrorism, usa

“It's official: The U.S. is the world's leading terrorist state, and proud of it.” That should have been the headline for the lead story in the New York Times on October 15, which was more politely titled “CIA Study of Covert Aid Fueled Skepticism About Helping Syrian Rebels.” The article reports on a CIA review of recent U.S. covert operations to determine their effectiveness. The White House concluded that unfortunately successes were so rare that some rethinking of the policy was in order. The article quoted President Barack Obama as saying that he had asked the CIA to conduct the review to find cases of “financing and supplying arms to an insurgency in a country that actually worked out well. And they couldn't come up with much.” So Obama has some reluctance about continuing such efforts.

CIA Monitored The Destruction Of Gary Webb

September 27, 2014 Ryan Devereaux, ww.firstlook.org Educate! CIA, Media

Eighteen years after it was published, “Dark Alliance,” the San Jose Mercury News’s bombshell investigation into links between the cocaine trade, Nicaragua’s Contra rebels, and African American neighborhoods in California, remains one of the most explosive and controversial exposés in American journalism. On September 18, the agency released a trove of documents spanning three decades of secret government operations. Culled from the agency’s in-house journal, Studies in Intelligence, the materials include a previously unreleased six-page article titled “Managing a Nightmare: CIA Public Affairs and the Drug Conspiracy Story.” Looking back on the weeks immediately following the publication of “Dark Alliance,” the document offers a unique window into the CIA’s internal reaction to what it called “a genuine public relations crisis” while revealing just how little the agency ultimately had to do to swiftly extinguish the public outcry.

Can The Senate Oversee The CIA?

September 13, 2014 Ali Watkins, www.mcclatchydc.com Educate! CIA, Law, Surveillance

WASHINGTON — Tensions between the CIA and its congressional overseers erupted anew this week when CIA Director John Brennan refused to tell lawmakers who authorized intrusions into computers used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to compile a damning report on the spy agency’s interrogation program. The confrontation, which took place during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, came as the sides continue to spar over the report’s public release, providing further proof of the unprecedented deterioration in relations between the CIA and Capitol Hill. After the meeting, several senators were so incensed at Brennan that they confirmed the row and all but accused the nation’s top spy of defying Congress. “I’m concerned there’s disrespect towards the Congress,” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who also serves as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told McClatchy. “I think it’s arrogant, I think it’s unacceptable.”

US Torture Was Worse Than We Were Told

September 9, 2014 Peter Foster, www.telegraph.co.uk Educate! CIA, militarism, Torture

Exclusive: As the US Senate prepares to release a report documenting US torture programme after 9/11, Telegraph reveals new details about the scope of CIA excesses The CIA brought top al-Qaeda suspects close “to the point of death” by drowning them in water-filled baths during interrogation sessions in the years that followed the September 11 attacks, a security source has told The Telegraph. The description of the torture meted out to at least two leading al-Qaeda suspects, including the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, far exceeds the conventional understanding of waterboarding, or “simulated drowning” so far admitted by the CIA. “They weren’t just pouring water over their heads or over a cloth,” said the source who has first-hand knowledge of the period. “They were holding them under water until the point of death, with a doctor present to make sure they did not go too far. This was real torture.” The account of extreme CIA interrogation comes as the US Senate prepares to publish a declassified version of its so-called Torture Report – a 3,600-page report document based on a review of several million classified CIA documents.

L.A. Times Reporter Cleared Stories With CIA Before Publication

September 5, 2014 Ken Silverstein, www.firstlook.org Educate! California, CIA, Journalism

A prominent national security reporter for the Los Angeles Times routinely submitted drafts and detailed summaries of his stories to CIA press handlers prior to publication, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. Email exchanges between CIA public affairs officers and Ken Dilanian, now an Associated Press intelligence reporter who previously covered the CIA for the Times, show that Dilanian enjoyed a closely collaborative relationship with the agency, explicitly promising positive news coverage and sometimes sending the press office entire story drafts for review prior to publication. In at least one instance, the CIA’s reaction appears to have led to significant changes in the story that was eventually published in the Times. “I’m working on a story about congressional oversight of drone strikes that can present a good opportunity for you guys,” Dilanian wrote in one email to a CIA press officer, explaining that what he intended to report would be “reassuring to the public” about CIA drone strikes. In another, after a series of back-and-forth emails about a pending story on CIA operations in Yemen, he sent a full draft of an unpublished report along with the subject line, “does this look better?” In another, he directly asks the flack: “You wouldn’t put out disinformation on this, would you?”

John Brennan Must Go

August 22, 2014 Brave New Films, www.youtube.com Petitions and Online Actions Barack Obama, CIA, Surveillance, Torture

A Short Film by Brave New Films on the Lies of John Brennan Not only did Brennan obstruct justice and spy on the Senate Committee, which was tasked to oversee the agency’s use of torture, but he also claimed that there has been no civilian casualties caused by United States drones. Brennan’s statements have been proven false through the media and through the Inspector General. President Obama MUST Fire Him. John Brennan’s lies do more than just tarnish his name, his lies tarnish an entire agency which is steeped in secrecy. If the American people are to believe that these are the only fabrications he has made, we’re sadly mistaken. Brennan’s lies send the message that the CIA is an untouchable agency and not accountable to anyone. We remain concerned that Brennan will do whatever it takes to protect his best interest. We must reign in Brennan’s rouge leadership. It's time for CIA Director John Brennan to go. TELL OBAMA TO FIRE HIM!

How America Does Latin American Coups Now

August 10, 2014 Maurice Lemoine, www.alternet.org Educate! CIA, coup, Democracy, Ecuador

There is plenty of room for subtle psy-ops, including those where the participants don’t know they are participating, to manipulate or destabilise governments, or create negative images of them abroad. These go well beyond necessary criticism of policies. The much-used term “populism” belittles the sometimes considerable social advances made in the target countries, and their achievements in reducing poverty and redistributing wealth; these sovereign choices are called “irresponsible” and “incompatible with democracy.” Before the attempted coup against Chávez in Venezuela in 2002, public opinion was bombarded with rowdy headlines in El Nacional and El Universal — “Taliban in the National Assembly,” “Black October,” “Terrorists in Government” — and calls to overthrow the president.

CIA Must Tell The Truth About My Rendition At Age 12

August 10, 2014 Khadija al-Saadi, www.gawker.com Educate! CIA, Libya, Rendition

My family is doing its best now to move on from everything that happened to us. I am at university studying the humanities. My brother Anas, aged 9 when we were rendered, is studying engineering. My brother Mustapha, aged 11 when we were rendered, is studying to be a doctor. Writers, engineers, doctors. We are the future of our country, and the future of this region. That future, though, needs to be based on a full admission of what has taken place in the past. No one has ever explained to me who was to blame for what happened to my family. This is why I am so determined now to demand that President Obama reveals the whole truth in the Senate report into the CIA rendition programme. I am 23 now, and braver, and I want to see my name—and the names of all the other victims—in black and white in an official report.

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