CIA Interrogation Summary

While the law itself condemns use of torture for any purpose, torture becomes necessary to be used in particular critical instances. According to Miles, the United States senate allowed the use of enhanced interrogation techniques on a number of cases and detainees. The human rights should be considered first in any event whether in interrogation or any other course of action1. The policy makers have found themselves between hard and difficult decisions to make on the techniques for obtaining vital information from terrorists who are trained heavily on resisting from giving information when caught in the wrong side of the law.

“The one lesson we 've learned from history is that we have not learned any of history 's lessons” (Unknown Author, n.d.). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the use of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) such as “waterboarding” and extraordinary rendition (aka “black sites”) by CIA agents for American intelligence interests and to analyze the drastically apposing views of the legalities, morality, and effectiveness of these methods. Is the CIA’s use of EITs and extraordinary rendition equivalent to torture, and therefore, acts in violation of international law? The definition of “torture” under statute 18 U.S.C. 2340 states, “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control” (United States Code, 2011). This definition expands with specific identifying characteristics of an act and varies to include humiliation of an individual. Of course, pain and suffering is a subjective experience. The worlds historical practice of “torture” reinforces lessons that human’s imaginative capacity for inflicting pain and terror on our fellow human is disgracefully boundless; yet, parallel behaviors of violence and humiliation reemerge with disturbing regularity (Smith, 2013).

Torture is known as the intentional infliction of either physical or psychological harm for the purpose of gaining something – typically information – from the subject for the benefit of the inflictor. Normal human morality would typically argue that this is a wrongful and horrendous act. On the contrary, to deal with the “war on terrorism” torture has begun to work its way towards being an accepted plan of action against terrorism targeting the United States. Terroristic acts perpetrate anger in individuals throughout the United States, so torture has migrated to being considered as a viable form of action through a blind eye. Suspect terrorists arguably have basic human rights and should not be put through such psychologically and physically damaging circumstances.

Torture has long been used by law enforcement agencies and governments to questions criminals and terrorists. It is used to coax confessions or to find out any sort of information that may lead to the arrest or capture of other criminals. Although the torturing of prisoners in the United States is strictly prohibited by the constitution, the government started using the tactic waterboarding against terrorists. Although the government says waterboarding has led to prevention on mass terrorist attacks on U.S soil, it is not accepted by all of this country’s citizens. It is believed by certain people that waterboarding is torture and others do not believe it is. It is my goal to explore why the United States deemed this

Bush, Dick Cheney, etc are in change for the use of torture, and they refused the expression ‘torture’ or argued that the action of CIA was patriotic. It seems like they are proving themselves that they are apart from the standard of civilization. But their resistance is fiercer than we thought, and they are trying to use terror to justify the use of torture. This is why we cannot entrust this issue to own solving abilities of the U.S. The United Nations human rights body turned out to solve the issue, and some countries presented criticism.

A new congressional report was released last week detailing the controversial CIA torture program during the years following the September 11 attacks on the twin towers. The report detailed several despicable ways detainees were treated at various CIA black sites, detainees endured waterboarding, sleep deprivation, confinements, rectal feeding and death from hypothermia. The most despicable aspect of the report was that psychiatrists, psychologist, and some physicians originated some of the torture techniques used by the CIA.

‘Phycologists find these tactics immoral and beyond torturous, and a ticking time bomb for disaster (O’Donohue).’ Although not everyone disagrees with the tactics Research has shown that these interrogations both have pros and cons. Research from the Phycological association shows that these types of interrogations “betrays trust and human rights, professional ethics and the society's trust (Pope).” For example, many believe that the interrogations break the Miranda rights per the 5th amendment, but others argue that the 5th amendment rights should be reserved only for people holding a valid US citizenship. (Rychlak) Medical ethics of the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, because these facilities are not on US soil the 5th Amendment rights should also apply to these detainees that are detained, making it a national policy. (Quinn) After the 9/11 attacks congress authorized president Bush to authorize “all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons’ (Worthington).” However, this was quickly shut down by former

Many of those detained in the military entrenched prisons inside Iraq, are subject to torture by one of many interrogators that are allowed to use any method necessary to gain intelligence on any of these two primary goals. The collection of the intelligence, was then used in many strikes against those who stood against the United States against the overall goal of creating a free Iraq.

As part of the “war on terror,” the US began a revolutionary practice of holding "enemies" in military detention without charge and without according them basic rights. Guantanamo Bay is a notorious United States military prison, known for the frequent mistreatment of its inmates. Hundreds of people have gone in and out of GTMO, but none were afforded the rights granted to regular American prisoners. These inmates have spent years holed up in a secretive compound, where some aren't even cognizant of the charges against them. Furthermore, these detainees have reported incidents of abuse and torture, direct violations of the eighth amendment. Bush appointed officials, like Susan Crawford, have conceded that torture occurred at GTMO, validating claims made by those imprisoned. This controversial detention center is infamous internationally, as a 2005 Amnesty International report called the facility the "Gulag of our times.” The U.S. government opened this base as a holding center for the “world’s most dangerous criminals,” and perpetuates its existence to ensure national security. Guantanamo Bay may not seem relevant to most Americans, but its existence is a blatant violation of the Constitution, and foreshadows more encroachment upon the personal liberties enjoyed by

In 2014, the Senate Select Committee released its key findings of the CIA torture report. Their conclusions and summary listed in the report were shocking. For years now, debate has been going on as to whether the CIA torture reports should have been released. It may even be considered one of the biggest conspiracy theories of all time. Some claim it should not have been released, to protect the citizens. While others argue, it should be released because it is our right to know. The controversy lies in if cruel and unusual punishment was occurring, then the public should have been informed. Secondly, if inhumane treatment is being administered by our government, the world’s perception of America ‘the land of the free’ is vastly compromised

In the wake of 9/11 the Central Intelligence Agency was given the authority by George W. Bush and his administration to initiate a covert war against Osama bin Laden’s Qaeda network. He signed a series of directives to capture, detain and extract information from Qaeda and other terrorist suspects from 2002 to 2008 (McCoy 2005). The enhanced interrogation was kept hidden to the public until the release of a 500-page executive summary in late 2014. However, the full CIA Inspector general’s office has admitted having “mistakenly” destroyed their only extensive disclosed 6,700 page classified report(Radsan 2010). CIA’s sources did although describe six enhanced interrogation techniques instituted and used on top suspects, the list includes: (Ross and Richard

Accordingly, to Naomi Klein in the “torture’s dirty secret: it works” there was united states officer are being under interrogate and beating. In the organization form the USA and Canadian council are responding that only tentatively for some good evidence and being successful. The officials they are to speak the true about the rule of the interrogator that can act of fear. For an example act of fear can penetrate the person in pressure to be so afraid of being interrogator that they did not do anything wrong or right. The outsider’s world they can seize the records and the evince by harming the people in America by threat they life. They are demanding the justice systems to not be afraid and let the agency can know/not be knowing what is happening

Pain is one of the most powerful human motivators. People will say anything to make it stop because it hurts. And when used specifically to derive information our federal government can make it hurt a lot. No one should ever have to be put through the type of pain that is specifically engineered to hit your pain threshold, engineered to cause you to fear your interrogator, engineered to make you talk. The practice of enhanced interrogation should not be used under any circumstances because it is illegal under international law, it’s not always effective, and it’s inhumane.

In the United States, one of the major methods in obtaining crucial information has been through the use of Guantanamo Bay. While many have condemned of the torture that is believed to occur there, not only does Guantanamo Bay comply with national and international standards, but it also complies with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (Meese 1) which states

After 9/11 attacks happened, With President Bush’s consent, the CIA constructed new interrogation techniques that mainly focus on using cruel and inhuman ways to breakdown the suspects in order to acquire information that the CIA believes they have and extract confessions for things that the CIA believes they have done. Some of the cruel interrogation techniques includes “sleep deprivation, slapping, subjection to cold and simulated drowning, known as "waterboarding".”( CIA Tactics ) Take waterboarding for example, “in which a person is strapped on a board with a rag or cloth covering his or her face and doused with water” (Does Waterboarding Have) During the waterboarding, water will get into lungs and it is proven that waterboarding will cause profoundly traumatic to not only lungs, but also brain damage from oxygen deprivation, not to mention the serious psychological damage afterwards. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, one of the key prisoners from