Whatever Happened To “We Do Not Torture”?

by dday

John Negroponte, the King of All Salvadoran Death Squads, spills the beans and says the obvious.

Negroponte: I get concerned that we’re too retrospective and tend to look in the rearview mirror too often at things that happened four or even six years ago. We’ve taken steps to address the issue of interrogations, for instance, and waterboarding has not been used in years. It wasn’t used when I was director of national intelligence, nor even for a few years before that. We’ve also taken significant steps to improve Guantanamo. People will tell you now that it is a world-class detention facility. But if you want to highlight and accent the negative, you can resurface these issues constantly to keep them alive. I would rather focus on what we need to do going forward.

It’s an interesting new legal argument. Not guilty by reason of “yeah, we’re guilty, but we fixed it!” I’ll have to consult the Court to see if that holds.

By the way, if you want to know how to responsibly engage in interrogation, you can give this a read.

Piro says no coercive interrogation techniques, like sleep deprivation, heat, cold, loud noises, or water boarding were ever used. “It’s against FBI policy, first. And wouldn’t have really benefited us with someone like Saddam,” Piro says.

Why not?

“I think Saddam clearly had demonstrated over his legacy that he would not respond to threats, to any type of fear-based approach,” Piro explains.

“So how do you crack a guy like that?” Pelley asks.

“Time,” Piro says.

(This interrogation eventually revealed that Saddam didn’t have WMD, was wary of Osama bin Laden and viewed him as a threat. Clearly that was the WRONG kind of intelligence. Maybe they didn’t do enough zip-bam Jack Bauer work on him so they got the wrong answers.)

Negroponte simply revealed what everyone already knew, and it’s not like our country’s been averse to coddling dictators and torturers for years. But there’s something different in reading a public official say, in the most nonchalant matter possible, “Yeah, we tortured, so?” It’s really wounding. It’s one thing to know that your country has betrayed its supposed ideals. It’s quite another to have that betrayal confirmed in the most putrid manner possible.

I have a bit more at my place.

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