JVLV.NET: PUTIN AND SENATE CIA "TORTURE" REPORT: "YOU HAVE TO TREAT THEM HUMANLY" by Jiri and Leni Valenta, 12/12/20/14

After  Ferguson, the  Senate  report on the CIA use of “torture” in  interrogating terrorists, is likely producing more glee in the Kremlin.  KGB old-timers expect that like the famous Pike Repot in the mid-1970’s, it will be injurious to the CIA´s organizational mission.  Some legislators are demanding  CIA Director John Brennan´s resignation.  . But Putin and the Russian press should be careful about criticizing the U.S.  Former NSA Condoleezza Rice recalls a meeting with Putin, in which, feigning concern for inmates of Guantanamo,he stated, “You have to treat them humanly.”  Wrote Condi, “I could hardly keep down my dinner thinking of what the KGB officer had undoubtedly done to people vastly more innocent than residents of Guantanamo.”

Kremlin’s Washington watchers would also notice that  the presentation of the damaging report on the CIA, organized by the White House and Senator Dianne Feinstein  (D), occurred on the same day as  the televised, Obamacare testimony of the new Dr. Strangelove,  Professor Jonathan Gruber. The testimony of this co-conspirator in the big lies about Orwellian Obamacare is hugely damaging to the Democratic Party.  A newsworthy distraction was necessary and  the Senate report surely provided it.

Putin himself, an old KGB operator, would likely agree with the three former CIA Directors, George Tenet, Mikhail Hayden and Porter Goss, who rebutted the Senate report, arguing that, “The Senate Intelligence Committee fails to recognize the CIA was not acting alone.  There were extensive consultations with the National  Security advisor, Deputy NSA, White House Counsel and Justice Department.”  As General Hayden noted, the President approved the program, as did key legislators in the Intelligence committees of both houses.  The Attorney General “deemed it legal.”  Hayden also pointed to the report as an “unrelenting, prosecutorial document” by senators, who did not interview a single witness-- interrogators, case officers and chiefs of  stations.

Surely the Kremlin has already concluded that the report and its rebuttal by the new GOP majority leaders and the CIA, is opening a new fault line in the great divide of the Washington establishment.   Amidst  calls for punishing,  and threats of revenge by the head choppers, some like former Vice President, Dick Cheney, have  adamantly stood their ground.  “We were right!” they affirm, disagreeing with our national war hero, Senator John McCain, that torture techniques do not work and provide only fabricated information.  They assert  that, in the face of possible nuclear holocaust, the methods have proved  both effective and necessary. 

Former NSA Condoleezza Rice has written that,  “Abu Zubaydah, a senior Al Qaida affiliate, created the Al Qaida manual on resisting interrogation tactics," but that his capture and the use of such techniques led to the capture of  Khhalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM).”   In fact, there is nothing to indicate that she really disagreed with how information from him was obtained.   Moreover, her memoir illustrates that George Tenet regularly reported to her about capturing and interrogating prominent terrorists.  Why is she so quiet now? 

The testimonies of outrage against the torture as well as the passionate defense of it by some, show that there is confusion at a high level of government over what is legal and in accordance with American principles as well as whether torture even is effective.  One admires Senator McCain for speaking to the immorality of torture, but many doubt his premise that it is always ineffective.    Does the fact that terrorists do not fall within the purview of the Geneva Convention  mean that torture is any more acceptable?   Is torture acceptable if it saves thousands of lives?  Can other methods of interrogation be used? How do you balance policy with risk?

What Putin should appreciate, however, is that this kind of ruthless self-examination is going on in America, a country which is not infallible, but which seeks to live up to its principles. It would never happen in Russia!  The key in U.S. foreign policy is not to repeat the mistake of the  past  -- in the mid -70’s-- when the repeated blame game  undermined our national security as the Russian´s, together with Cuba, invaded Angola and Ethiopia and thereafter, alone,  Afghanistan.   (Of course, Russia should recall that America recouped and helped to defeat Soviet interventionism.)

 The investigation of the CIA on interrogation tactics, and the resultant  loss of morale and élan,  could once again be detrimental to our efforts to preserve the independence of the Ukraine as well as our war against ISIS.  Does President Obama realize that his own administration can be accused of pursuing illegal drone attacks with collateral damage?  Is that why he´s keeping quiet?   Agreeing with Senator McCain that torture is morally unacceptable,  we do caution that balance is necessary and that  excesses in investigation could be as detrimental as they were in the mid-1970’s.