We need to get a few things straight. In the Haspel story, some news outlets including @NPR are referring to the CIA's "waterboarding program." This is inaccurate. Waterboarding was just one of the torture techniques the CIA used. They also included... /1
- Beatings
- Sleep deprivation
- Extreme cold
- Mock executions
- Stress positions, which are designed to create excruciating pain
Reducing it all to waterboarding, as awful as that is, obscures what was actually done at black sites like the one Gina Haspel ran. /2
- Sleep deprivation
- Extreme cold
- Mock executions
- Stress positions, which are designed to create excruciating pain
Reducing it all to waterboarding, as awful as that is, obscures what was actually done at black sites like the one Gina Haspel ran. /2
In some cases detainees were completely compliant, but had no information on forthcoming attacks. This was taken as proof that they were holding out and needed to be tortured. When the torture failed to produce such information... /3
...that was taken as further proof not that perhaps they actually had no information on future attacks, but that they were still holding out and needed to be tortured more. /4
In short, the program reached levels of cruelty and depravity that were absolutely unspeakable. It is critical to note that some people in the CIA protested or quit because their conscience would not allow them to be involved any longer. Gina Haspel was not among them. /5
Instead, Haspel supported the program and advocated that videotapes showing the torture be destroyed so that its true nature could be concealed from lawmakers and the public. /6
Like all defenders of the torture program, Haspel will almost certainly attempt to sanitize it with euphemisms like "enhanced interrogation" to obscure what it actually was. That should not be allowed, nor.../7
...should she be allowed to simply state that she has no intention of restarting the torture program. That's tantamount to a criminal saying they have no intention of committing their crime again. /8
And it was a crime, even if no one has been or will be punished for it. The torture program violated U.S. law and international treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory. /9
We're going to hear a lot about how Gina Haspel is an accomplished and highly qualified professional. I'm sure she is. But she faced the moral test of a lifetime when her agency began a horrific torture program, and she failed miserably. /end
