donderdag 23 april 2009

Martelen 97


Over wat de NRC 'harde verhoren' noemt en de Amerikaanse pers en de Geneefse Conventies als  'martelen' kwalitifceert. 

Gruesome origins of 'torture' tactics overlooked Part 2
Officials failed to probe the history, efficacy of brutal interrogation
methods


The New York Times

After years of recriminations about torture and American values, Bush
administration officials say it is easy to second-guess the decisions of
2002, when they feared that a new attack from Al Qaeda could come any
moment.

If they shunned interrogation methods some thought might work, and an
undetected bomb or bioweapon cost thousands of lives, where would the moral
compass point today? It is a question that still haunts some officials.
Others say that if they had known the full history of the interrogation
methods or been able to anticipate how the issue would explode, they would
have advised against using them.

Torture accusations
This account is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and
former senior officials of the C.I.A., White House, Justice Department and
Congress. Nearly all, citing the possibility of future investigations,
shared their recollections of the internal discussions of a classified
program only on condition of anonymity.

Leaked to the news media months after they were first used, the C.I.A.’s
interrogation methods would darken the country’s reputation, blur the
moral distinction between terrorists and the Americans who hunted them,
bring broad condemnation from Western allies and become a ready-made
defense for governments accused of torture.
The response has only
intensified since Justice Department legal memos released last week showed
that two prisoners were waterboarded 266 times and that C.I.A.
interrogators were ordered to waterboard one of the captives despite their
belief that he had no more information to divulge.

But according to many Bush administration officials, including former Vice
President Dick Cheney and some intelligence officers who are critics of the
coercive methods, the C.I.A. program would also produce an invaluable trove
of information on Al Qaeda, including leads on the whereabouts of important
operatives and on terror schemes discussed by Al Qaeda. Whether the same
information could have been acquired using the traditional, noncoercive
methods that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the military have long
used is impossible to say, and former Bush administration officials say
they did not have the luxury of time to develop a more patient approach,
given that they had intelligence warnings of further attacks.

1 opmerking:

Anoniem zei

Ze hebben zich in ieder geval flink kunnen uitleven. Hoeveel mensen zouden er dood gemarteld zijn door de feestvierende "ondervragers" in Amerika en Israel?

anzi

Peter Flik en Chuck Berry-Promised Land

mijn unieke collega Peter Flik, die de vrijzinnig protestantse radio omroep de VPRO maakte is niet meer. ik koester duizenden herinneringen ...