Wednesday, November 02, 2005

More on the CIA’s Secret Prison System

I’ve covered this story before, but previously the main focus seemed to be on what is now turning out to be a “mini-internment” camp at Gitmo and the rendition process. Some of this information is completely new to me and, quite frankly, disgusting. Just sit back and let the bitter irony of the fact that we’re using Soviet camps for the same internment processes that we used to condemn them for sink in. We have become our own worst enemy. Here are the new details from today’s copy of the Post:

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.


Like I’ve said before, ANY time in ANY administration, when you see CIA, think White House Administration, as they serve at the pleasure and direction of the administration, and this prison system has all the fingerprints of the Bush Administration’s fetishes: torture, secrecy, and lack of accountability to the processes that make America what it is. Don’t believe me?

The CIA and the White House, citing national security concerns and the value of the program, have dissuaded Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions under which captives are held. Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.

While the Defense Department has produced volumes of public reports and testimony about its detention practices and rules after the abuse scandals at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay, the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites. To do so, say officials familiar with the program, could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad.


There you have it. Their hallmarks are all over this and they’re guarding it like the vicious secret that it is. At the risk of invoking Godwin’s Law, it makes one wonder just how much visibility the German people had into their own “internment camps”. And god forbid we open ourselves up to criticism from abroad, from people who believe in, you know, due process of law and the inherent concept of innocent until proven guilty. Oh, and what do you suppose this is all about?

Those concerns escalated last month, when Vice President Cheney and CIA Director Porter J. Goss asked Congress to exempt CIA employees from legislation already endorsed by 90 senators that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoner in U.S. custody.

Hmm, what could they be up to down there?

Posted by crimnos @ 8:43 AM

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I hate this

Posted by Blogger Jes @ 9:15 AM #
 

Me too.

Posted by Blogger crimnos @ 9:25 AM #
 

Yeah, my real political awakening came when I realized that "this is not the America I was brought up to believe in." I know, it's very naive to believe that politicians should act in the best interests of their people.

But that's the America I want to live in. And we're not there.

I just keep waiting for some Republican to get up and, in defense of some of this, give the Jack Nicholson, "you can't handle the truth" speech.

But this is wrong. Morally wrong and legally wrong. The unfortunate thing about this is that this only incentivises the Bush cabal to stay in power. Being busted on shady election tactics is a heck of alot better than being brought up on war crimes.

I haven't given up hope yet.

But it's hard sometimes.

Just rambling.

Mike

Posted by Blogger mikevotes @ 7:34 PM #
 

Ahhh, great.
American gulags.

Posted by Blogger Handsome B. Wonderful @ 2:53 PM #
 
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