America's shame and strength: The CIA torture report

Every conflict in history has been fought on at least two grounds: first in the battlefield and then in the minds of the people, using propaganda. The 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' are both guilty of manipulating the facts of their case with distortions, subjectivity, inaccuracy and even fabrications. This is done to get support and a sense of legitimacy for their cause.
This is exactly what America did when it embarked on fighting its war against terrorism. The country knew that in a democracy what is required is the 'manufacture of consent.' This is a euphemism for thought control. America knew that its government could not control the people by force, but could do better by controlling what they thought. America therefore began a massive propaganda war to make the world believe that it was the 'good guy' when it came to finding out who were the perpetrators of terrorism after the World Trade Centre in New York was destroyed by the associates of Osama bin Laden in 2001.
The Bush administration set up secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sites around the world to forcibly extract information from individuals belonging to many nationalities about future terrorist plans. Between 2001 and 2006, America used various forms of torture, called 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' on the detainees there. The horrendous methods used were sleep deprivation for up to 180 hours at times with their hands chained above their heads, simulated drowning or 'water boarding,' sexual abuse including 'rectal feeding' and 'rectal rehydration,' among others. All these were done without any documented medical need. America did what it itself criticised when other countries resorted to torture to extract information from suspects. The CIA believed that information from detainees in these facilities subjected to such enhanced techniques of interrogation helped the US to track down al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. He was killed in the 2011 US raid in Pakistan. But America kept all the torture it did under wraps and the world was kept in the dark. The cause was good and nothing else mattered.
But how far is all this true? It goes to the credit of America that its Senate formed a bipartisan select committee on intelligence to find out about the extent of abuse in the CIA facilities. It reflected the strength of US democracy when the people's elected representatives went out to uncover what their government had perpetrated. The 6,000 page report took 5 years to complete at a cost of $ 40 million. After 8 months of deliberation in the Senate it voted to release a portion of the report. Thus, a 525 page extract highlighting the key findings and an executive summary of the full report was published. The remaining portion of the full report is still classified.
This 525 page CIA report, which in fact is America's shame, has seven sections and 20 key findings. It concludes that CIA's use of torture was not an effective means to obtain real time intelligence. Thus there was no justification behind use of such enhanced techniques. There were many inaccurate claims of their effectiveness. The torture techniques were not only brutal, they were much worse than those depicted to policymakers in the Bush administration. Even the US Department of Justice could not do a proper legal analysis of the CIA torture programme. Oversight of the programme by Congress and the White House was also impeded. The CIA in the meantime coordinated the release of classified information to the media, including inaccurate information on their effectiveness. Two contract psychologists who devised the CIA torture programme were paid $81 million for their efforts. By 2005, the CIA outsourced the programme. The Senate Committee came to the conclusion that the CIA torture techniques damned the US standing in the world and resulted in other significant monetary and non-monetary costs.
What was more shameful was that at least 26 of the 119 prisoners held by CIA were later found to have been improperly incarcerated. It must be remembered that President Bush had ordered that “only persons who pose continuing serious threat of violence or death to US citizens or interests or planning terrorist activities were to be detained by the CIA.” Since the CIA kept incomplete records, it is not clear whether 119 was the total number of detainees in their custody.
A huge hue and cry was raised in the US after the report was released. Various human rights organisations have called for the prosecutions of senior Bush officials who authorised the torture. Many think that unless prosecutions take place, torture in the US will remain a policy option. Another perception is that the practice of torture in the US has led many countries to justify their own abuses in their territories. The media in many countries around the world have already dubbed the CIA torture programme as 'wicked acts.'
There is no doubt that the CIA torture report has raised serious question about the ethics of torture. Some think that when the overall outcome of lives saved due to torture is positive, there is a strong case to justify it. The ends justify the means when analysts consider the 'ticking time bomb scenario.' But then experienced intelligence officials say that torture does not work, it usually results in false information since people subjected to torture will say anything to make the torture stop. Then there is the possibility that torture can impair a person's ability to tell the truth.
All this debate about the ethics of torture leaves us with a nagging question: have we learned nothing from 9/11? Perhaps we have: violence in any form or style only incubates new forms of violence, and all religions teach us to refrain from it. Now the world has indeed to relearn it and start practicing it.

The writer is a former Ambassador and now a commentator on current issues.
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