Return to Decency
The clearing out of the villainies of the past maladministration may take awhile to be completed, but it is a good beginning that the 'black' prisons are swept away. This is a great favor that the president and his functional executive branch has accomplished for us.
For a long time, it has been hard to be proud of this country. That capacity is returning with the onslaught of the housecleaning our government is due.
Thank you, Mr. President, for the great service to our country, and to the heritage we should be able to pass on to coming generations.
In a U-turn to George Bush's policies to deal with terror, the CIA has shut down its secret prisons where the US spy agency used to interrogate suspected terrorists using harsh techniques, including waterboarding.
In a letter to the agency's employees, CIA Director Leon Panetta has said that he informed the US Congress of its detention policies, following an executive order by President Barack Obama this January to close down the secret detention sites as well as the camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
The US spy chief said in his letter, issued on Thursday, that the Central Intelligence Agency had discontinued "using contract employees to conduct interrogations" also.
"CIA no longer operates detention facilities or black sites and has proposed a plan to decommission the remaining sites. I have directed our agency personnel to take charge of the decommissioning process and have further directed that the contracts for site security be promptly terminated," he wrote.
The now-empty "black sites" in unidentified countries were used to detain suspects who were captured in the "war on terrorism" launched by former American President George W Bush after the September 11 attacks.
However, Panetta said that the CIA would continue to question suspects, using "a dialogue style of questioning that is fully consistent with interrogation approaches authorized and listed in the Army Field Manual" which bans harsh methods, the US media reported.
"CIA officers do not tolerate, and will continue to promptly report, any inappropriate behaviour or allegations of abuse. That holds true whether a suspect is in the custody of an American partner or a foreign liaison service," he said.
For a long time, it has been hard to be proud of this country. That capacity is returning with the onslaught of the housecleaning our government is due.
Thank you, Mr. President, for the great service to our country, and to the heritage we should be able to pass on to coming generations.
Labels: Change, Human Rights, Torture
posted by Ruth at 9:00 AM
3 Comments:
Release the "torture memos" publicly. Now please, Mr. President.
Thank you.
And good morning, droll cabbies! Thanks for all the good work you do here.
Thanks for your good support, too, and yes, we are definitely pushing for the prosecution of torture, however it is accomplished.
So where's the woman scientist held for the last 5 years? Maybe Bagram doesn't qualify as a 'black site'.
Regarding the 'torture memos', I called both Whithouse's and Leahey's offices asking that any un-released memos be read into the congressional record, as Mike Gravel did with the Pentagon Papers. i'm not holding my breath.
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