« The very specialest blog post: Netroots Nation roundup | Main | But I thought Fudge Haus was a place of joy? »
The CIA’s guide to [Redacted]
By Ned | July 25, 2008
The New York Times has a report today about a declassified memo outlining what the CIA can and can’t do to its prisoners. But good luck figuring any of that out from the actual memo. Kevin Drum has a handy visual aid.
Rest assured, none of it is torture, because none of these techniques are used solely to induce sever pain. Apparently gut-wrenching agony only counts as torture if it’s done out of revenge, instead of, say, to obtain information. Thanks for the info, CIA!
You know guys, the reason people normally want stuff declassified is so that they can have information revealed to them. Not just so it can induce a vague sense of dread.
I would say that the agonizing wait to find out the whole text of the memo is “torture,” but apparently it doesn’t count as torture because the CIA is withholding that information so they may continue to torture others, and not out of pure sadism.
Topics: Civil Liberties, Terrorism |