CIA admits to torture memos

[Dionysos]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...111301221.html

After years of denials, the CIA has formally acknowledged the existence of two classified documents governing aggressive interrogation and detention policies for terrorism suspects, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.


But CIA lawyers say the documents -- memos from President Bush and the Justice Department -- are still so sensitive that no portion can be released to the public.
The disclosures by the CIA general counsel's office came in a letter Friday to attorneys for the ACLU. The group had filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York two years ago under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking records related to U.S. interrogation and detention policies.


The lawsuit has resulted in the release of more than 100,000 pages of documents, including some that revealed internal debates over the policies governing prisoners held at the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Many other records have not been released and, in some cases, their existence has been revealed only in media reports.


Friday's letter from John L. McPherson, the CIA's associate general counsel, lists two documents that pertain to the ACLU's records request.


The ACLU describes the first as a "directive" signed by Bush governing CIA interrogation methods or allowing the agency to set up detention facilities outside the United States. McPherson describes it as a "memorandum." In September, Bush confirmed the existence of secret CIA prisons and transferred 14 remaining terrorism suspects from them to Guantanamo Bay.


The second document is an August 2002 legal memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to the CIA general counsel. The ACLU describes it as "specifying interrogation methods that the CIA may use against top al-Qaeda members." (This document is separate from another widely publicized Justice memo, also issued in August 2002, that narrowed the definition of torture. The Justice Department has since rescinded the latter.)


The ACLU relied on media reports to identify and describe the two documents, but the CIA and other agencies had not previously confirmed their existence. McPherson wrote that neither document can be released to the public for reasons of security and attorney-client privilege.


"The documents are withheld in their entirety because there is no meaningful non-exempt information that can be reasonably segregated from the exempt information," McPherson wrote. A spokesman for the CIA declined to comment yesterday.


Amrit Singh, one of the ACLU's attorneys on the case, said the disclosures may make it easier for the group to argue in favor of releasing the documents.
"For more than three years, they've refused to even confirm or deny the existence of these records," Singh said, referring to the group's initial document request in October 2003. "The fact that they're now choosing to do so confirms that their position was unjustified from the start. . . . Now we can begin to actually litigate the release of these documents."

[I AM EL-NINO]

Keep on a torturin I say.
Sharia law wont prohibit it anyways.

[housefish]

Doesn't the ACLU have some NAMBLA rights to look into......

[I AM EL-NINO]

Originally Posted by housefish

Doesn't the ACLU have some NAMBLA rights to look into......

hahahahahaha.
Nice lollz

[Satchel]

They should just take them all to that Deep Dish show.

[Hey Bubu]

Shouldn't be that surprising

* During the Vietnam war the CIA conducted Operation Phoenix, an assassination program. The goal was not only to eliminate those Vietnamese who might oppose the U.S. (which in practice meant most of the population of Vietnam) but also to terrorize the entire population of South Vietnam and to suppress opposition to the occupying U.S. forces. Over 20,000 Vietnamese were murdered, often at random.

* The CIA also recruited a mercenary army in Vietnam (financed by profits from the CIA's heroin smuggling), particularly from among the Hmong villagers, which was used to terrorize the civilian population and to prevent them from assisting the Viet Cong.

* The CIA organized and financed (with the profits from its cocaine smuggling) the activities of the Contras in Nicaragua, who murdered tens of thousands of civilians, and tried to disrupt the economy, in an attempt to destabilize the legitimate Sandinista government. (For this the U.S. was condemned in the World Court for engaging in international terrorism, and it rejected a U.N. security council resolution calling upon it to observe international law.)

* The CIA planned and organized the military coup d'etat in 1973 in Chile which overthrew the legitimately elected government of Salvador Allende (because he would not implement economic policies designed in Washington to favor American corporations doing business in Chile) and brought to power the regime of General Augusto Pinochet; this regime abducted, tortured and killed thousands of Chilean citizens in an attempt to suppress opposition.

* The CIA organized and supported the Turkish government's persecution of its Kurdish minority during the 1990s, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and millions of refuges; the aim being the suppression of Kurdish culture and the elimination of Kurdish demands for a separate state.

* The September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are widely regarded as terrorist acts. There is evidence of CIA involvement. See Michael Ruppert's Suppressed Details of Criminal Insider Trading Lead Directly into the CIA's Highest Ranks.

Further examples could very easily be given (and may be found documented in the many books, magazine articles and web pages about the CIA). Much relevant information will be found in Ralph McGehee's CIA Support of Death Squads, which gives details about the CIA's terrorist activities in over forty countries.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by Porkchop Avenger

Shouldn't be that surprising

* During the Vietnam war the CIA conducted Operation Phoenix, an assassination program. The goal was not only to eliminate those Vietnamese who might oppose the U.S. (which in practice meant most of the population of Vietnam) but also to terrorize the entire population of South Vietnam and to suppress opposition to the occupying U.S. forces. Over 20,000 Vietnamese were murdered, often at random.

1) Assassination was legal tool at the time - I think Reagan EO'd it out
2) the CIA didn't target the whole population.
3) that the CIA "murdered" 20,000 seems a big stretch
4) what purpose does random killing serve with limited resources one would be better off targetting individuals more carefully?

blah blah blah

rabble rabble rabble

[Satchel]

Do that to the Chile one xian

[PETA]

Originally Posted by Satchel

Do that to the Chile one xian

didn't get that far but ok

blah blah blah

rabble rabble rabble



Satchel - there is no doubt that often times our foreign policy has supported brutal strong men in the name of opposing communism - that help ease your mind that I'm not in denial

[Satchel]

yes I feel totally relieved

[PETA]

and knowing that satisfies my reason for living

[joe mac]

Originally Posted by xian

didn't get that far but ok

blah blah blah

rabble rabble rabble



Satchel - there is no doubt that often times our foreign policy has supported brutal strong men in the name of opposing communism - that help ease your mind that I'm not in denial

sorry but allende was not a communist, and he was democratically elected to power

[PETA]

Originally Posted by joe mac

sorry but allende was not a communist, and he was democratically elected to power

And I made no comment one way or the other with regard to Allende - but - to consider him not a communist is to ignore the facts and use a different and more polite name.


this is a description from wiki.... not a defense of the coup

Upon assuming power, Allende began to carry out his platform of implementing socialist programs in Chile, called La vía chilena al socialismo ("the Chilean Way to Socialism"). This included nationalization of large-scale industries (notably copper mining and banking), and government administration of the health care system, educational system, a program of free milk for children, and a greatly expanded plan of land seizure and redistribution (already begun under his predecessor Eduardo Frei Montalva, who had expropriated between one-fifth and one-quarter of all properties liable to takeover [Collier & Sater, 1996]). The Allende government's intention was to seize all holdings of more than eighty basic irrigated hectares [Faundez, 1988]. Allende also intended to improve the socio-economic welfare of Chile's poorest citizens; a key element was to provide employment, either in the new nationalised enterprises or on public works projects.

If it quacks like a duck...

[zcwilly]

* The September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are widely regarded as terrorist acts. There is evidence of CIA involvement. See Michael Ruppert's Suppressed Details of Criminal Insider Trading Lead Directly into the CIA's Highest Ranks.

Keep drinkin that Kool Aid buddy, which far-left website did you find this information at?

[Hey Bubu]

The suppression of intelligence and lack of communication between the offices has been brought up many time by a myriad of news and conspiracy outlets.