from SLATE: >The [Washington] Post fronts word, via a late-breaking Newsweek scoop, of a >long-concealed CIA report that found that agency interrogators staged mock >executions using a handgun and an electric drill in an attempt to frighten a >captured al-Qaida commander into giving up information. A redacted version of >the report is due to be published Monday, following a lawsuit brought by the >ACLU. The report is also believed to list a number of other incidents in which >CIA and contracted interrogators overstepped their authority, in some cases >violating international bans on cruel and inhumane treatment.
didn't the Tsar's goons do this sort of thing? > The CIA also remained under scrutiny yesterday for its reliance on private > contractors, following the disclosure that the agency had used hirelings from > Blackwater USA [a.k.a. Xe] for elements of an assassination program; the Post > notes that lawmakers this week criticized the use of private companies for > "inherently governmental" activities like intelligence work. The NYT reports > that despite publicly breaking with Blackwater, the State Department > continues to pay the company more than $400 million to transport and guard > diplomats in war zones and to train security forces at its base in North > Carolina; the WSJ focuses on Afghanistan, where contractors now significantly > outnumber military personnel despite the Obama administration's efforts to > reduce the Pentagon's reliance on hired help.< shouldn't torture be an "inherently governmental" activity, too? -- Jim Devine / "All science would be superfluous if the form of appearance of things directly coincided with their essence." -- KM _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
