Publicly admit the wrongdoings of what government does in the name of its citizens and where it committed any injustices: These are at the core of democracy and the claim to being a nation of laws. It’s about control of the powerful and the covert services; it’s about transparency and credibility. The United States has now done this regarding one of its darker chapters — the methods used in the war on terror following Sept. 11, 2001.
The public release of the Senate report on CIA interrogation practices is not exactly a prime example of controlling power; the release came late and was made available to the public only after overcoming considerable opposition from the intelligence community — and from Republicans, on whose watch the excesses took place and who were thus responsible for the attacks in the first place.
No one expected any surprises in the 524-page report; the allegations were already common knowledge. The American media is highly professional with investigative capabilities Europe envies. They had reported extensively on torture and maltreatment of prisoners for years. The report is an abstract of the 6,200-page Senate investigation report about which the media had also reported but which had not been officially released.
But now it’s official: The CIA waterboarded some terrorist suspects in an attempt to discover whether similar terrorist acts were in the works. The process, which simulates drowning, is considered by most authorities to be torture and as such is forbidden. According to then-President George W. Bush, his Vice President Dick Cheney, and their assorted accomplices, waterboarding was indeed an extreme measure, but nonetheless a legal one. It’s sad that they refuse to admit the illegality of it to this day. The 2008 presidential campaign showed that not all Republicans were that stubborn. Obama’s election opponent, John McCain, was the most credible witness against Bush and co. at the time because McCain had been shot down and captured by the North Vietnamese, where he was himself tortured. Torture doesn’t produce credible information, he said, because torture victims will admit to anything to stop the pain.
Some Parts of the Program — Like Guantanamo — Still Function Today
The CIA and other U.S. agencies have also employed questionable methods on many prisoners — sleep deprivation, immersion in ice water, prisoners shackled in painful positions and otherwise degraded — and then have exaggerated the success of such torture to the public. They also tried to set up an international system of secret prisons and torture centers outside legal control that would be shielded from public knowledge. Under pressure from American human rights organizations, the U.S. Supreme Court has declared many elements of Bush and Cheney’s system unconstitutional. But many parts of it, such as Guantanamo, still operate today.
Even if the report came late and reveals nothing really new, it still functions as a warning and exerts pressure to overcome this legacy. The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Poland to pay damages to affected victims for its support of the CIA program. If there were similar court decisions in America, those that deny the program’s existence would find their denials more difficult.
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