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CIA to Close Secret Overseas Prisons, End Security Contracts
WASHINGTON - The CIA is decommissioning the secret overseas prisons where top al Qaida suspects were subjected to interrogation methods, including simulated drowning, that Attorney General Eric Holder, allied governments, the Red Cross and numerous other experts consider torture, the agency said Thursday.
In an e-mail to the agency's work force outlining current interrogation and detention policies, CIA Director Leon Panetta also announced that agreements with the private security firms guarding the so-called black sites will be "promptly terminated," and contractors no longer will be used to conduct interrogations.
Panetta, however, said that CIA officers who were involved in interrogations using "enhanced" methods authorized by the Justice Department during the Bush administration "should not be investigated, let alone punished."
The Justice Department is investigating the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, while the Senate Intelligence Committee has launched an inquiry into the interrogation and detention program authorized by the Bush administration as part of its post-9/11 "war on terrorism."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called for the creation of a truth commission to investigate the Bush administration's detainee policies, but so far the Obama administration has shown little appetite for the idea.
The steps announced by Panetta are consistent with a Jan. 22 executive order in which President Barack Obama directed the CIA to halt the use of its secret overseas detention facilities and use only interrogation procedures authorized by an Army Field Manual.
Panetta's actions follow the leaking of a confidential February 2007 International Committee of the Red Cross report, made public this week by The New York Review of Books, that concluded that descriptions of the interrogation methods provided in interviews by 14 detainees who underwent them "amounted to torture and/or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" under international law.
In his e-mail, a copy of which was released by the CIA, Panetta told his work force that he'd written letters to the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees outlining the agency's "current policy regarding interrogation of captured terrorists."
He said he wrote the letters because of ongoing "media and congressional interest" in the detention and interrogation procedures the CIA used from 2002 until Obama's executive order, as well as questions about the agency's use of contract interrogators.
"No CIA contractors will conduct interrogations," Panetta wrote.
Panetta said his agency's pursuit of al Qaida and allied groups has continued "undiminished" in "strict accord" with Obama's order.
"CIA officers do not tolerate, and will continue to promptly report, any inappropriate behavior or allegations of abuse. That holds true whether a suspect is in the custody of an American partner or foreign liaison service," he continued, adding that the agency hasn't detained any suspects since he became director in February.
The decision to terminate contract interrogators followed expressions of concern by lawmakers about the CIA's use of such personnel, one of whom, David Passaro, was convicted in 2006 of abusing an Afghan detainee in 2003 at a U.S. base in Afghanistan. The detainee later died.
Panetta said the CIA "no longer operates" detention facilities and has developed a plan to "decommission" them that includes terminating the contracts with the private security firms that guard them.
"I have directed our Agency personnel to take charge of the decommissioning process," he wrote. "It is estimated that our taking over site security will result in savings of up to $4 million."
Critics of the Bush administration's detainee policies welcomed Panetta's e-mail.
"I have long fought to ban the use of contractors in interrogations and detention operations," Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. "So, I am very pleased that Mr. Panetta has announced that contractors will no longer conduct interrogations."
The CIA has refused to disclose the locations of its detention facilities. They reportedly are in Afghanistan, Jordan, Poland, Romania and Thailand, and CIA officials have said that they held fewer than 100 suspected terrorists.
Panetta said that the CIA is still allowed to hold terror suspects "on a short-term transitory basis," but that, "We anticipate that we would quickly turn over any person in our custody to U.S. military authorities or to their country of jurisdiction, depending on the situation."
The "enhanced" interrogation methods authorized by the Bush administration starting in 2002 included waterboarding, a procedure that simulates drowning. At least three detainees were subjected to the procedure, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged chief architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
During his confirmation hearing, Holder departed from Bush administration policies by declaring that "waterboarding is torture" and that "no one is above the law."
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28 Comments so far
Show AllI must note that I fully trust the word of the CIA that they will immediately do as this report suggests. I especially trust them as I consider their past actions regarding open and honest information gathering and the exchange of such. I urge all others to do the same.
Now, I have this property I'd love to show you, any low tide will do.
yes the Obama administration has tended to continue Bush policies ongoing and continue to cover up Bush crimes. Oh and I suppose Panetta would have held that only Hitler should have been charged with any crimes, afterall Hitler's right hand men declared his practices to be legal!! They Should have been given awards and bonuses too!
FOOK THINGS ARE SICK!
Certainly you jest sir. Only a fool would believe anything a government agency let out to the press which is managed anyway.
"...I'll be right with you I just have to get my Kool-Aid..."
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
Well, I am perfectly satisfied and reassured that from now on the CIA will behave itself and play nice.
If one can't trust Leon Panetta implicitly, who can one trust? His word ought to be good enough for any patriotic Amerikan!
Why, he's just the sort of chap who gets nominated to blue-ribbon commissions and such; ergo, he is a paragon of integrity and probity.
See how simple it is to sort out these Merry Mixups without a lot of fuss and bother and prosecutions and such? Why convene expensive commissions or appoint pricey independent prosecutors when a few quiet words from a Trustworthy Official can put public qualms and fears to rest?
This report certainly turned MY frown upside-down!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Of course these torturers should not be investigated, it would suggest that the criminals who ordered them to do the torture should be investigated as well. What this is saying in plain language is screw the law and lets just have an anarchist state where everyone can do what they think they should do! If it hurts other people, well, just let those other people retaliate if they are able, if not, so much the better! It's one way to depopulate!
This is good news and bad news. The good news is that Leon Panetta is in charge, and Obama swears he's a good man.
The bad news is that the CIA wouldn't be spoon-feeding the mainstream media stories about closing down overseas torture chambers unless they already had fully functioning operations that are even more devious, gruesome and surreal.
As the not so covert, arm-twisting department for transnational corporate marketeers, the CIA's first responsibility is to purchase, or blackmail foreign leaders, by offering huge bribes, sophisticated weaponry, and/or direct military support (and lastly assassination, or invasion) to keep them in control of their population while the transnational corporations pillage their country's resources and labor force.
The CIA is also responsible for catapulting the propaganda. That is why they now operate more than 250 media outlets around the world, including radio and television stations, newspapers, magazines, book publishing companies, web services, etc. In some third world countries, all media outlets are owned or funded by the CIA (documented in the book "Democracy for the Few," by Michael Parenti) That is also why their operating budget is now estimated at between 1.1 trillion and 1.7 trillion US dollars... between a third and a half of the entire federal budget.
When there is nothing left for them to squeeze out of you, they'll grind you up for the 98 cents worth of minerals in your body, and then start the process anew with your children.
But, don't forget the good news. Leon Panetta is in charge!
No news is good news....Obama also said that Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Bob Gates are all good guys too! He just loves Rham Emmanuel as well.
And I thought there were only the FOUR horsemen of the Apocalypse.
double post
-The CIA is decommissioning the secret overseas prisons ...In an e-mail ...officers who were involved ..."should not be investigated, let alone punished."
First of all…this is another sick joke from the US government. I agree whole-heartedly with the previous posters.
In an email, (this one didn’t get lost with millions of others fantastically, but is instead being broadcast to the media) made public, the CIA is claiming it is closing its secret prisons (the number and location of which have not been disclosed), and recommending that there be no investigation or punishment for what another Obama official has already conceded are war crimes perpetrated by (as yet undisclosed) US officials.
Is this the new improved US government you were all excited about?
How long are your memories? Remember that the former US president has already claimed that “we do not torture”?
Remember that Bush already claimed, once his lies were exposed, that there were no more prisoners left in said prisons?
Remember that subsequent to that the US transferred another dozen prisoners from the secret prisons (how is your math America, if you have zero prisoners and you subtract a dozen, er…that can’t be right?) You can’t have negative prisoners can you?
And now the US is claiming that the secret unnamed prisons run by unknown US officials, public and private, are closing. That’s funny, Bush announced that they were empty years ago…Is it possible that someone is, gasp, lying?
"Is it possible that someone is, gasp, lying?"
_____________________________________________
Lying? LYING?! How DARE you?
Why, you oughta have your mouth washed out with soap!
Oh, that's right... Panetta says we aren't doing that any more.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Panetta, however, said that CIA officers who were involved in interrogations using "enhanced" methods authorized by the Justice Department during the Bush administration "should not be investigated, let alone punished."
Then all those flunkies who went to prison for following orders at Abu Gra??? should be immediately exonerated and released from prison.
What about the ones who have disappeared? The ones that the Red Cross never knew about? The ones who just vanished once they were dropped into these deep, dark, black holes? What about them?
Sorry to say it but the votes don't lie. Human life, like truth, has no value for most Americans
Speaking of Panetta:
Licensed to Kill by Scott Horton
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/04/hbc-90004755
This article ought to be posted at CD.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Panetta, however, said that CIA officers who were involved in interrogations using "enhanced" methods authorized by the Justice Department during the Bush administration "should not be investigated, let alone punished."
Dey wuz just followin' orders, folks. I'm sure Mr. Penetta knows that that didn't wash at the Nuremberg trials.
And regarding Senator Diane Feinstein: "I have long fought to ban the use of contractors in interrogations and detention operations," Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. "So, I am very pleased that Mr. Panetta has announced that contractors will no longer conduct interrogations."
But you just blink your eyes and look at the ceiling, Senator, when Israel torments, tortures, starves, burns, maims and kills Palestinians including lots of little children, so why don't we hear a peep out of you about that instead of your cheery support for the Israeli government and army?
And how about unmanned drones wiping out civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan?
It's all so very slick, sick and insane with hypocrisy of the rankest order trickling down from Obama-lite's Oval Office and from the Congressional bodies.
The stench of our blatant immorality is like garbage left out in the sun rotting away with rats scurrying in and out of the bags. Unfortunately both the garbage bags and the rats seem to have multiplied and are dispersed from Washingon D.C. to Wall Street and all across the land to the Golden Gate Bridge and from the snowy Yukon heading south to the Mississipi Delta and the Florida Keys and all the way to Hawaii.
Yet all kinds of religious ceremonies and celebrations will go on this week and weekend with appropriate posturing and piety expressed for all to see.
What a sham this nation of freedom and justice has become with its convenient, chameleon-like morality, which is a major symptom of sociopathic thinking translated into utterly shameless behavior with the victims being blamed and hence deserving of their punishment.
If the 2007 International Committee of the Red Cross had not had the guts to publish its findings, likely nothing would have changed. But they did, and so now there is an Executive Order countermanding another's Executive Order.
The proof of the sincerity of all of this will be if the top players in the Bush Administration, whether elected officials, appointees, neo-con advisors or military personnel are charged with criminal actions and are brought to justice ASAP.
Only then will the festering boils and spreading infections that are sickening our national life begin to heal. Short of that we will doom ourselves ... simply because that's the way it works.
/cm
Well stated.
And I've noticed that people seem to have muddled the issues of scapegoating and criminal conduct requiring prosecution.
In reaction to the previous criminal maladministration's abominably lame effort to shift blame to "a few bad apples", and protect the higher-ups who formulated the illegal and inhumane policies, some denounce investigating and prosecuting lower-level personnel, e.g. the grunts or security operatives who do the actual homicides and torture and such, AT ALL.
I don't see how it can ever be an either-or without renouncing the Nuremberg principle. Certainly innocent persons should not be framed or persons guilty of some crime(s) be unduly scapegoated. And certainly the ethical approach is to pursue the crimes and wrongdoing vertically up through the chains of command with a readiness to prosecute without fear or favor even the highest-ranking culprits.
It's understood that consideration must be given to the context of the crimes committed by those of lesser rank. Leaving the big fish alone and making a great show of gutting a few little fish is reprehensible.
BUT, I can't agree with those who go further and argue, in effect, that ONLY the top of the chain of command should be brought to justice. You are quite right to observe that Panetta has effectively repudiated Nuremberg's Prime Directive: "following orders", in good faith or otherwise, does not exculpate the accused, and ought NEVER to be asserted or accepted as a defense, post-Nuremberg.
If the Obama administration launched a credible and comprehensive investigation into these matters, with the investigators mandated to follow the evidence as far as they can go, and scrupulously investigate and report their findings without fear or favor, We the People would have a reasonable expectation that the little fish be treated mercifully, and the big fish harshly.
Of course, such investigation will Never Happen. I know it, you know it, and the Amerikan People know it!
Our government is like a dim-witted patient who stops taking antibiotics because they're "feeling better"-- even though the doctor and pharmacist warned them to take ALL the pills, lest the infection not be wiped out, and the most antibiotic-resistant bacteria surge back and re-infect with a vengeance! [Those opposed to using any pharmaceutical products, including antibiotics, must bear with me for the sake of the analogy.]
Obama is still so clean and bright and shiny that folks find it hard to connect him to the new pustules bursting out in Wall Street, Afghanistan/Pakistan/Iraq, Guantanamo and Bagram, and the DOJ.
Maybe we caught something from using a public toilet.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Well, it's GOOD FRIDAY!
I guess the CIA wants to deny they do any crucifictions too. Why not? Who's gonna know? The red cross? Give me a break! It's just shuffling papers and changing some names. The empire strikes back! Any jedi around? Sorry, the CIA already "took care" of them.
Happy fucking Easter!
Notice that this measure--or at least the announcement--was in response to publicity and not to the illegality and immorality of the CIA's conduct. And given that they are professional liars, kidnappers, murderers, torturers, schemers and saboteurs, it's not clear to me why anyone would make the mistake of thinking that anything they say is true.
I trust the CIA about as far I could throw the Pentagon! Those lying SOB's have been pushing their lies for years and the public still buys it. Well, they deserve it then!
Yup. Obama does something Good. And it's good for more slurs and insults fromt the ObamaHaters! He's screwing up a lot, but getting some things right, when you all shrilly condemn the good things he does, it makes you look silly.
Thanks, I'm cracking up! There was an article on CD the other day about Obama and his push to reduce Nuclear Arsenals, hugely important, and Ignored!!! ooohhhh, hard to criticize that, so you all carefully stayed away-
Laugh laugh laughs you do provide me, please, more, please sir, can I have another bowl of your hate-gruel?
To Laughter
Your incredible naivete certainly makes no valid points. Read up on the history of the CIA first before you assume that what folks claim is going to be done there will actually BE done.
You have consistently lauded Obama for statements that find no deeds behind them. Perhaps you want to believe so badly that this satisfies you, but don't expect it to satisfy those with an actual conscience.
Oregoncharles
It would be good for you to make a list so we can understand your point of view. Give us a list of what Obama has done (not said) that makes you feel he is doing a good job.
Here's mine:
1) expanding GW Bush's illegal wiretapping program
2) escalating the wars on "terrorism," killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan (places where blowback is growing as a result of the illegal wars that Obama voted to continue). He has committed war crimes in the few short months he's been in office. That's on record. Obama says, the terrorists "want to harm us!" He is sounding more and more like Bush now that the campaign (high theater) is over.
3) Increased Pentagon spending to levels higher than Bush.
4) Has refused to release the "torture memos" and will kept them secret, as did Bush. Appointed Leon Panetta to Cia who said recently, "no one who took actions based on legal guidance from the Department of Justice at the time should be investigated, let alone punished.” In other words, you won't get into trouble if you torture. It's highly illegal to torture, setting this precedent is dangerous. Obama is breaking the law here.
5) Giving our tax money to banksters with no strings attached, hundreds of billions, while Americans continue to suffer with no healthcare, or are locked into healthcare, profiting giant corporations at the expense of We the People.
6) Remained abosolutely silent when Israel slaughtered 1,500 people in Gaza, 500 of whom were children. Continues to ignore the rights of Gazans. Refuses to recognize their elected leader.
7) Recently sent thousands of tons of weapons to Israel, which will be used against Palestinians again, as always. If you are occupied, under law, you have a right to resist. Palestinians are resisting and being killed mercilessly for it. Occupiers have the obligation to care for the occupied, even when they are legally resisting.
Now it's your turn. Let the good news roll!
There have been so many contradictory stories about CIA and torture that anyone who keeps up must have had their brain turned to windshield wipers. Best thing is to keep in mind: if the CIA lies now there is nothing at all to keep them in check. Nothing. Probably a foundation funded liberal will even call anyone who raises a peep a conspiracy theorist!
Please read JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, or people will remain thinking that the Presidents Chosen by Wolf Blitzer will change everything, and we-- as a species will devlove into quivering lime Jello, and not even cold quiverin
Thank you President Obama.
For what exactly?
Bring America Back !!!!...........don't bet on it, Panetta is an old
Clinton Hack, not exactly swimming in the Truth !!
****This whole Torture and Extraordinary Extradition thing is a Big Distraction !
****Bush and Cheney already plead guilty to that stuff, and they know
they will never account, or be prosecuted for it. Middle American sheeples
say, Yeah--go ahead and waterboard dem dirty terorists !!
***Notice how you dont even think of the Real mother of all Pearl Harbors
anymore====Sept 11, 2001, that how the Neocon war machine justified all their
crimes, but that s what they never want investigated !!! They don't ever want
or intend to plead Guilty to 9/11.
***They've also got the new Prez pretending the ol' Nemesis==that cave-dwelling
boogieman bin Laden is still in Tora Bora plotting against us all !!!! That's how they are justifying Afghan. Crusades to slay the fairytale Dragon !
***Last week when Obama was on Video bowing to Prince Bandar in Saudi Arabia, Team Obama thought bowing was better than the Bush technique of holding hands while walking with the Prince !! There is no indication that either Bush or Obama asked the Prince to confirm that all 18 to 20 9/11 Hijackers had registered residences and drivers licenses from the United Arab Republic. !
No need to confirm it, that's just the facts. Bet you forgot that too,,
about 9/11 !! Didn't start with Torture, it started with the 9/11 Attacks !