Friday, February 8, 2013

Hints about the Classified Review of US Torture

Senate hearings on the confirmation of John Brennan as CIA director produced some tantalizing hints about the Senate's classified review of "enhanced interrogation." The LA Times:
Brennan also said he had revised his earlier view that what the CIA called "enhanced interrogation techniques," including nudity and stress positions, at now-shuttered secret prisons around the globe had produced valuable intelligence. He said a 300-page summary of a recently completed 6,000-page classified report by committee Democrats was "rather damning."

If confirmed as CIA chief, Brennan promised to find out "what went wrong in the system, where there were systemic failures, where there was mismanagement in the system." He added it would be "one of my highest priorities."

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) said the interrogation program was "corrupted by personnel with pecuniary conflicts of interest." He did not elaborate.

The CIA has yet to formally respond to the report and it's unclear if some portions will be made public. 
The most disappointing thing about Obama's presidency has been his insistence of maintaining Bush's crazy policies about secrecy. I understand the desire to keep operations secret, but it boggles my mind that anybody thinks it is ok for a Democratic government to keep secret its justifications for keeping things secret, especially when those involve its interpretation of the Constitution.

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