CIA Torture Reports
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/12/07/369262235/congress-clashes-over-release-of-cia-torture-report
We've talked a bit about this in class but I would like to offer my view on the subject. A few weeks ago the senate, particularly Dianne Feinstein, released a report of the CIA using advanced interrogation methods, torture, on over a hundred prisoners. Different methods included water boarding, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, confinement, and others. Different government leaders fought against release of the report arguing that we've had this discussion and put an end to the torture, that this will endanger our troops around the world because this will only aggravates terrorists, and even that the methods worked. If you want to see some entertaining arguments for that side watch the fox news people talk about it and how "awesome" America is. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw70wFszZDQ Dianne Feinstein along with others wanted this released because the public needs to know about what their government has done. Not to mention the violation of international treaties and laws that we signed about the illegality of torture. Many people have spoken up about it but there is a general attitude of putting this away by many politicians and CIA officials
What has been going on at the CIA prisons where these tortures have been taking place is highly illegal and should not be the way our nation is represented. In my opinion these tortures should have, first of all, never taken place but the report of these should have been released a while back. America is awesome but we have made several mistakes and as painful and embarrassing as they may be we have to accept them and take responsibility so we can be the better nation that we desire to be.
This whole thing is just made more embarrassing by the fact that many of those international anti-torture treaties were spearheaded by the US.
ReplyDelete-Liam Brookhart
For a nation that has been an example to so many others....I'm disappointed.
ReplyDeleteWhen 9/11 happened, we went to war. And I understand that. And then we wreaked havoc in Afghanistan and denounced their torture tactics and their brutality....it just makes our opinion less valuable to everyone else.
This was obviously a big mistake that we made and now we need to face the consequences It is a good thing that these reports came out so that the people could know what was happening. I think the information would have came out eventually and it was better sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeletea question I want to ask is how else would we get information. Not saying the torture is the end all be all but really though, it gets results. These guys won't give info up really easily. Are there any other ways that information is effectively extracted?
ReplyDeleteI heard a report from somewhere that these enhanced interrogation methods actually weren't more effective or more successful than other tactics. If someone was beating me I would hate them so much and wouldn't want to help them at all.
DeleteAmerica is awesome, but we cannot be hypocrites. We cannot call out other countries if we are doing the same thing. Isn't this cruel and unusual punishment?
ReplyDelete