Tag: CIA Torture Report

A majority of Americans thing torture is justified.  They are split on whether the Torture report should have been released.  And they think Torture prevented attacks.

According to the American people, torture is justified, and it works.

Every demographic has at least a plurality for torture: men and women, young and old, white and non-white.

The only good finding is that a plurality of Democrats believe torture was not justified, though, within the margin of error, they do believe it was helpful.

Before Bush, most Americans were against torture.  The endless drumbeat of propaganda and the need to justify what America does (America is good, therefore America does not do evil), has had its effect.

I will make an ethical judgment: people think torture is justified are bad people. Depraved people.  A society where a majority thinks it is justified is a depraved culture.  (And remember, 51% think it was justified, but 20% don’t have an opinion.  Only about a third of Americans are opposed.)

Just a few quick points:

• It seems HQ wanted more torture than those in the field did, and would insist;
• Torture,  Stirling Newberry once told me, is about sending information “we torture”, not getting it;
• But really, torture can provide any info you want, like that Saddam has WMD;
• It is interesting that the report is so negative.  Maybe the CIA screwed up by spying on Congress and getting caught?

We knew it was happening over 10 years ago. We knew then that it didn’t work in the sense of providing reliable information, and we knew then that the cost of torture in terms of damage to America’s reputation would be huge (and reputation does matter.)

As Bmaz points out at Empty Wheel, a great number of crimes were committed, and not just by the CIA, but by government officials, and they knew at the time torture was illegal.  There’s no chance of them being prosecuted now, but we can hope that some of them will face a court in the future.  Times do change, and those who must protect them to protect themselves will not always be in power.

One day it would be nice to see Bush in the dock.   Cheney, unfortunately, will probably die before then.