Washington Post: CIA interrogations verging on inhumane

Ha'aretz ^ | Last update - 08:08 26/12/2002 | Reuters

[Cinnamon Girl]

WASHINGTON - CIA interrogators have been using "stress and duress" techniques on captured enemies in Afghanistan that blur the line between legal and inhumane, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The Post described a cluster of metal shipping containers it said constituted a secret CIA interrogation center at Bagram Air Base, headquarters of U.S. forces hunting al Qaeda operatives and commanders of the ousted Taliban militia.

Captives who refused to cooperate were sometimes kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-painted goggles, the Post said, citing intelligence specialists said to be familiar with CIA interrogation methods.

At times they were held in awkward, painful positions and deprived of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights - subject to what are known as "stress and duress" techniques, the report said.

Those who cooperated were rewarded with "creature comforts" as well as feigned friendship, respect, cultural sensitivity and, in some cases, money, from their interrogators, it said.

On the other hand, some who did not cooperate were turned over - "rendered," in official parlance - to foreign intelligence services whose practice of torture has been documented by the U.S. government and human rights organizations, the Post said.

"In the multifaceted global war on terrorism waged by the Bush administration, one of the most opaque - yet vital - fronts is the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects," the paper said.

U.S. officials have said little publicly about the captives' names, numbers or whereabouts, and virtually nothing about interrogation methods.

But the Post said it had gained insights thanks to interviews with several former intelligence officials and 10 current U.S. national security officials - including several people who said they had witnessed the handling of prisoners.

"The picture that emerges is of a brass-knuckled quest for information, often in concert with allies of dubious human rights reputation, in which the traditional lines between right and wrong, legal and inhumane, are evolving and blurred," the Post reported.

The U.S. government publicly denounces the use of torture. But each of the current national security officials interviewed for the article defended the use of violence against captives as just and necessary, the Post said.

"They expressed confidence that the American public would back their view," it added. The CIA had no comment on the article, Mark Mansfield, a spokesman, said late on Wednesday night.

The off-limits patch of ground at Bagram was described by the Post as one of a number of secret detention centers overseas where U.S. due process does not apply, where the CIA undertakes or manages the interrogation of suspected terrorists. Another was reported to be Diego Garcia, a British-owned island in the Indian Ocean.

According to U.S. officials, nearly 3,000 suspected al Qaeda members and their supporters have been detained worldwide since Sept. 11, 2001. About 625 are at the U.S. military's confinement facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Some officials estimated that fewer than 100 captives had been rendered to third countries. Thousands had been arrested and held with U.S. assistance in countries known for brutal treatment of prisoners, the officials were quoted as saying.

[ampat]

I guess Bob Woodward is reading minds again.

[Stultis]

[shocked, horrified, morally outraged] "Verging"? Why only "verging"!?!

[Poohbah]

CIA interrogators have been using "stress and duress" techniques on captured enemies in Afghanistan that blur the line between legal and inhumane, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Playing Barry Manilow's Copacabana 24 hours a day in the guy's cell is probably a violation of international covenants against torture.

[FreeTheHostages]

Nice letter. I would only add: "P.S. This article was written in part by Bob Woodward. He's a liar."

[FreeTheHostages]

So what does the Post think we should being doing .. talk nice to them in hopes they will be nice to us??

Bob Woodward helped to write this article. Bob Woodward wants to win "scoops" and kudos by inventing news. The very idea that it's news that our CIA boys are being tough in interrogation is laughable.

As to our boys leaving the room and having deniability about what happens when non-US interrogators interrogate -- why would we care? What's wrong with that? I kinda like the idea.

Bob Woodward never has and never will write one piece about all the human rights that are completely eliminated in the District of Columbia by a 30 percent homicide "closure" rate by our inept DC homicide detectives. Basically you can kill in the nation's capital and never get caught. There's a human rights story for you. The Post hasn't the slightest interest in that one due to its political spin.

[FreeTheHostages]

This does not sound like torture to me. It does, however, sound like the ComPost is doing its best to gin-up a horrorshow where the most pedestrian of detention and restraint methods are being employed.

Very good analysis.

[FreeTheHostages]

Then again, the story does carry Woodward's signature prose style, which I like to call "fictional reporting."

Applause, applause.

[dighton]

(Biggles produces a plastic-coated dish-drying rack. Ximinez looks at it and clenches his teeth in an effort not to lose control. He hums heavily to cover his anger)

[ExpandNATO]

On what grounds do we consider ourselves better than "them" if this highground is abandoned?

On grounds of our behavior toward the innocent. They consider the innocent targets, we try to protect the innocent, ours and those caught between us and the Islamists.

Just in case you were wondering their combatants are not innocents.

And another question, why the hell are you fascinated by the splinter in your own eye and blind to the forests in those of your enemies? As an aside, this psychological complex is not new, it was extremely prevalent during the Cold War and very virulent during Vietnam.

[Grampa Dave]

Typical Washington Compost article of deceit.

The Compost has never been for the good people. For decades they will lie, fabricate and distort reality for their agendas to protect the bad guys.

[Grampa Dave]

You posted, Let's see: The article is based on UNNAMED sources.

Whenever the maggot infested mediots of the Compost, NY Slimes, Slime, News Weak and LA Slimes want to creat a drug induced fantasy on print to advance their agenda, they use the old The article is based on UNNAMED sources.

Remember when their old drunk, Woodward, recently claimed to know what Condy Rice was thinking while she watch TV news while Woodward was laying drunk on the floor of his pad in his fictional book about President Bush?

[smoking camels]

PEACENIK alert!

[smoking camels]

you are delusional... go back to DU

[rs79bm]

Washington Post: CIA interrogations verging on inhumane

Washington Post: CIA Prisoners original intentions verging on inhumane.

The Washington Post fails to mention that if it wasn't for the United States, the prisoners more than likely would already be dead. Nice little omission on the Post's part.

[smoking camels]

gimme a friggin break!

[FreeTheHostages]

CNN reports, for what it's worth:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Responding to a Washington Post newspaper article that called interrogation by the CIA of Taliban and al Qaeda detainees a "brass-knuckled quest for information," U.S. officials said Thursday the report contained "many inaccuracies."

The officials declined to offer specifics, but stressed that the purpose of the interrogations is to try to prevent terrorist attacks that could kill hundreds or thousands of Americans.

The Thursday Washington Post article describes a secret CIA interrogation center at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, Afghanistan, where it says "those who refuse to cooperate" are sometimes "kept standing for hours, in black hoods, or spray-painted goggles" and are at times "deprived of sleep, with a 24-hour bombardment of lights"-- techniques the newspaper says are known as "stress and duress."

The newspaper quoted an unnamed official who "has supervised the capture and transfer of accused terrorists" as saying "If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job."

In the past, U.S. officials have told CNN that prisoners at Bagram are under the control of the U.S. military, not the CIA.

The newspaper notes -- and officials have in the past confirmed to CNN -- that U.S. officials at times threaten prisoners that they will be handed over to a Mideast country friendly to the United States, such as Egypt, Jordan or Saudi Arabia -- nations that prisoners fear may torture them.

Officials in the past have also confirmed to CNN that the United States has handed some prisoners over to such nations.

The Post says some of the nations the prisoners are "rendered" to are documented by international human rights groups to have tortured prisoners.

In the past, U.S. officials have told CNN that while the CIA and the U.S. military do not torture prisoners, methods used "are not always genteel." A senior official said prisoners may "no longer know if it is day or night" and can be fed false information to try to get them to talk.

Officials say, however, that the U.S. view is that besides being illegal under international law, torture does not work, since it tends to produce unreliable information from prisoners who want the pain to stop.

The Post report says that, according to U.S. officials, "nearly 3,000 suspected al Qaeda members and their supporters have been detained worldwide" since the September 11 attacks, including about 625 at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "Some officials estimated that fewer than 100 captives have been rendered to third countries," the Post reported.

[FreeTheHostages]

ping to post directly about: CNN reports US officials refute Washington Post story.

Don't you love it when the Post and CNN fight?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

["The picture that emerges is of a brass-knuckled quest for information, often in concert with allies of dubious human rights reputation, in which the traditional lines between right and wrong, legal and inhumane, are evolving and blurred," the Post reported. ]

And the problem with this is?

Just like the terrorists blur the distinction between civilian and military targets. They deserve no rest or quarter. Hound them, hunt them day and night until they are all found, tortured for information, and then obliterated. That's all.

[luvtheconstitution]

Your new name for Carter can be taken two ways. That's hysterical.