Reporter Says CIA Report Revelations Coming Monday Will Be ‘Pretty Explosive’

[Hissyspit]

CIA report to reveal agency conducted mock executions

BY MURIEL KANE

Published: August 22, 2009
Updated 1 day ago

Update (at bottom):

The long-delayed release of a CIA inspector general’s report has been scooped by Newsweek, which obtained details from one source who has read a draft of the report and another who was briefed on its contents.

A version of the report with newly declassified details is expected to be released on Monday.

According to Newsweek’s sources, the report will reveal that the CIA interrogators of suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri brandished a gun in front of him in an attempt to make him believe he was going to be shot — thus violating a federal law against threatening a detainee with “imminent death” — and also threatened him with a power drill.

In other cases, mock executions were staged, including one case in which a gun was fired in an adjoining room to make a suspect believe another prisoner had been shot.

- snip -

Attorney General Eric Holder is also expected to announce his decision on a possible investigation into the use of torture under the Bush administration. A group of Republican senators has already sent Holder a letter warning that any investigation “could have a number of serious consequences, not just for the honorable members of the intelligence community, but also for the security of all Americans.”

Update: Reporter says revelations coming Monday will be ‘pretty explosive’

Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff, appearing on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show on Friday night, explained that revelations from the CIA Inspector General’s report will be “pretty explosive,” even though the public version will be significantly redacted.

“About half of the report, I’m told, will still be redacted,” he said. “But, what’s in the half that’s going to be publicly released is going to be pretty explosive.”

VIDEO HERE: Jeremy Scahill on The Rachel Maddow Show: 'Blackwater Exposed... Child Prostitution, Wife Swapping, Murder?'

AND HERE: Jeremy Scahill on Democracy Now: 'CIA Hired Private Military Firm Blackwater for Secret Assassination Program 1 of 2'

AND HERE: Jeremy Scahill on Democracy Now: 'CIA Hired Private Military Firm Blackwater for Secret Assassination Program 2 of 2'

[bobthedrummer]

1. K&R + The National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book 127

The Interrogation Documents: Debating U.S. Policy and Methods
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB127/index.htm

These crimes were not investigated by the criminals in the Bush administration's politicized DoJ.

[Hissyspit]

8. Oops. First link is from Friday night's Real Time w/ Bill Maher, not Rachel Maddow Show.

My bad.

[Fuzz]

2. It will be dismissed as old news.

:(

[subcomhd]

5. "In ten years or so we'll leak the truth

but by then it's only so much paper."

Dead Kennedys
The Owl

[doc03]

3. Sorry but I don't think the average

American is going to have much sympathy for the bomber of the USS Cole.

[bobthedrummer]

6. Unlike the USS Liberty's attackers...

[BanzaiBonnie]

4. Not investigating could have serious consequences

For the rest of history

[Igel]

11. Please.

In the grand scheme of things, all American history is quite unimportant.

In the grand scheme of American history, this incident is quite unimportant.

Only to Americans focused either on American moral purity (esp. the moral purity of political opponents), absolute enforcement of the law, or scoring partisan points is this a truly big deal. For the rest of us, if the implicit threats were covered by statute then they should be prosecuted, if the AG believes that there's sufficient evidence that's admissible in court, but it's not a huge deal.

Unless, of course, you think that because we don't investigate this incident thoroughly Obama's administration will not just have a few such token incidents, but will implement it on a massive scale. Or perhaps the next administration will generalize it, or maybe your local city council will require it of their police department.

But that's a slippery slope argument, and most such arguments actually involve formerly level surfaces with a relatively high coefficient of static friction propped up on one side with a hefty wedge of suspicion. What's of note in such arguments isn't the plane or the coefficient's value, but the suspicion.

[Subdivisions]

7. Another yawn-fest. When someone from the bush admin actually

sees justice for their crimes, I will consider that explosive. Anything less is hot air.

[noise]

9. At least we will get to see the report

instead of having to rely on the word of politicians and media with anonymous sources.

It should be noted that Helgerson conducted two well known IG investigations--the 9/11 internal review and the torture review. To date only the executive summary of the 9/11 review has been released. Helgerson called for the convening of disciplinary panels to address the gross misconduct of several high ranking CIA officials but Goss and Hayden refused to do so. It is important to note some of the officials called out by Helgerson in the 9/11 review were key advocates of the torture program. For years we have been led to believe that the torture program was a good faith overreaction by panicked officials who were desperate to prevent follow up attacks. This rationale is questionable for many reasons:

1)Key officials involved in 9/11 failures were promoted. If concern about terrorist attacks was the priority then it doesn't make sense to promote officials who presided over one of the worst intelligence failures in US history.

2)The pre-9/11 conduct of torture program advocates has never been fully examined. For example we have never learned why Alec Station withheld from the FBI (from 1/00 through 8/01) the fact that two ID'ed al Qaeda operatives were in the US.

3)FBI agent Soufan testified that legal FBI methods were working and that the CIA torture program was counterproductive. This is very important as we have been led to believe the torture was a last resort measure required when all legal interrogation methods failed. If the priority was not to attain solid intelligence then of course the legal FBI methods wouldn't have worked. Torture would have been required for false confessions (i.e. linking al Qaeda to Iraq).

4)Scott Shane (NYT) wrote that the CIA interrogator who replaced Soufan 1)didn't speak Arabic 2) had no counterterrorism experience 3)had no interrogation experience. This strongly suggests the CIA wasn't interested in attaining reliable information.

[Igel]

12. Yes, at least we will get to see the report.

It should make for enlightening reading, and for annoying sound bites.

[Hissyspit]

16. Thanks for that.

It's easy to forget a lot of the details.

[emulatorloo]

10. Will cable news devote coverage to this, or will they spend more time showcasing teabaggers?

Should be interesting.

On the other hand, if they do cover it, I bet they will trot out Liz Cheney for her "expertise"

[RagAss]

13. Yawn...nobody will answer to anything.

[Tutankhamun]

14. There are no consequences. Nothing to see here. Move along.

In other news, some guy is screaming nonsense about Nazis at a town hall meeting, leaving America asking "Did you know Obama was a genocidal Nazi when he was elected?"

[barbtries]

15. i'll be watching for the story tomorrow

let it be done. justice.

[L. Coyote]

17. "A group of Republican senators has already sent Holder a letter ..." Subpoena them!

Ask them what they know in regards to their asssertions!

We need to know WHY any investigation “could have a number of serious consequences, not just for the honorable members of the intelligence community, but also for the security of all Americans” and what those consequences might be.