That, in five words, describes the CIA in 2003, according to the Times report on the release of the Senate report on torture. It's not as though these words apply only to an agency gone rogue in 2003. The CIA was as bad or worse in the 1970's. But now, looking back on the Bush era, we can easily discern in the background that shadowy image of Dick Cheney who was renowned for the influence he had within the federal bureaucracy and all its agencies.
The agency had evidently forgotten its own conclusion back in 1989, that “inhumane physical or psychological techniques are counterproductive because they do not produce intelligence and will probably result in false answers,” the report says. The Democratic Senate staff members who studied the post-9/11 program came up with an identical assessment: that waterboarding, wall-slamming, nudity, cold and other ill treatment produced little information of value in preventing terrorism.
The report spends little time condemning torture on moral or legal grounds. Instead, it addresses mainly a practical question: Did torture accomplish anything of value? Looking at case after case, the report answers with an unqualified no. ...NYT
If the views of some, something "of value" had been found, that would act as justification for torture?
In the wake of Fruitvale, Ferguson, Staten Island and more, it's hard not to conclude that the split within America is a moral split between the bullies and the courageous. The bully side, notably the Bush administration and its followers, believed they could justify the use of torture because it would lead them to a capture of Osama Bin Laden.
But torture did not lead to Bin Laden. A well-planned search -- overseen by the current administration -- along with raid performed by a highly trained and gutsy Naval Seals is what finally led to the capture of Bin Laden.
In the end, dysfunction, disorganization, incompetence, greed, and deception -- bullying -- have also led to the America we have become. The CIA is simply one tool we have misused.
In the report’s foreword, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, said that she “could understand the C.I.A.'s impulse to consider the use of every possible tool to gather intelligence and remove terrorists from the battlefield, and C.I.A. was encouraged by political leaders and the public to do whatever it could to prevent another attack.”
“Nevertheless,” she continued, “such pressure, fear and expectation of further terrorist plots do not justify, temper or excuse improper actions taken by individuals or organizations in the name of national security. The major lesson of this report is that regardless of the pressures and the need to act, the intelligence community’s actions must always reflect who we are as a nation, and adhere to our laws and standards.” ...NYT
