What the previous administration did:
A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector
general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged
mock executions as part of the agency's post-9/11 program to detain and
question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned.
According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and
one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee,
suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with
a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation.
According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked
not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's
interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he
was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and
held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving
[information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the
use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent
death."
The report also says, according to the
sources, that a mock execution was staged in a room next to a detainee,
during which a gunshot was fired in an effort to make the suspect
believe that another prisoner had been killed. The inspector general's
report alludes to more than one mock execution.
The response from the inmates of The Korner: the current administration is wicked and bad.
Let's see now. Deficit projections are once again on the rise as
Obama's approval rating falls. Health care reform is faltering,
climate change legislation is stalled, and David Axlerod is under fire
for his conflicts of interest. Seems like a good time to change the
subject. Contents of the CIA inspector general's report on harsh
interrogation methods have already leaked, so it won't do the trick. If I were a betting man, I'd expect something else to drop Monday or Tuesday.
I'm kinda sure that the Obama people aren't behind the leaks, and aren't at all thrilled about the CIA IG report, either, as that's going to make the crazy left go all crazy with their crazy ideas about how people who broke the law ought to be prosecuted -- and that's just so déclassé.
I wish the Obama people were cynical and crafty like this, though: if the moral and legal concepts of "torture is bad" aren't enough to provide the nation some accountability and justice, I'd be perfectly fine with cold political calculation getting the job done.
And hell, it would even probably work. A genuine, comprehensive investigation of the Bush torture regime, one with prosecutorial teeth, sure would be an excellent "distraction." I'd personally very much enjoy watching it unfold -- it'd make for great TV! Somebody email Rahm, stat, & tell him we have a cunning plan.
Of course the problem is that, again, it's pretty clear this administration isn't actually interested in such an investigation -- at least partly out of fear that they'd be accused of doing it simply for cold political reasons. And you sure can see how well that's working out for them.
