Central Intelligence Agency Quotes
Prior headquarters approval must be obtained for the interrogation of any subject against his will [or] … if bodily harm is to be inflicted [or] if medical, chemical, or electrical methods or materials are to be used.
Earlier in the manual, the illegality of such techniques is stated. Later there are suggestions for the use of duress. See {597790}
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), KUBARK, U. S. Counterintelligence Interrogation Manual, July 1963
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
It should be noted that at the beginning of the manual the reader is told that force or involuntary interrogation is illegal. Then later, the manual tells the interrogator that headquarters approval is required for unwilling subjects. See {597792}. Throughout the beginning of the War on Terrorism the principle was quietly used in incarcerating Taliban and other terrorists.
It should be noted that at the beginning of the manual the reader is told that force is illegal. Then later, the manual tells the interrogator that headquarters approval is required for torture of use of chemicals. And still later there are instructions such as this quotation {597792}.
During that period some terrorists were handed over to Saudi Arabian and Egyptian authorities for interrogation. These countries had no qualms about torture. Goss never answered the question about that practice.
The reason for these creative phrases was that President George W, Bush had publicly stated that it was United States policy to follow American and International Law and the U. S. does “not torture”. The CIA then decided that it should destroy the videos of the episodes where these euphemisms were used when they were accused of torture and there were calls for prosecution for violation of U. S. law.
Major Fleener had been assigned to defend accused terrorists who were being held at the military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba. For several years they were held without a hearing or trial. Then the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that they had to be given a hearing or trial. A Military tribunal was selected. The methods and procedures of these hearings came under much public world-wide criticism as they did not meet the normal legal standards of most countries. Surprisingly, one of the military officers made public statements criticizing the army and the trials.
The “third degree” was widely used by police throughout the nation. It was in relatively progressive New York City that the practice was first widely investigate, exposed and curtailed. Most of the country followed suit, but unfortunately, the practice still exists, but is much less common than in the 1930s.
Rendition is the process whereby one country sends a prisoner to another country for interrogation under the theory that the second country can use methods that would be illegal in the first country. Usually torture is involved.
This was untrue. The CIA used several forms of torture on high value detainees. The torture was psychological and physical. Even the FBI had agents who observed CIA interrogations and complained to their supervisors. For cover, the George W. Bush administration, got 3 Justice Department Attorneys to write a secret memo defining certain types of torture as “enhanced interrogation”. Water Boarding, for which American soldiers had been court martialed and convicted for torture then became enhanced interrogation, and was used on a few terrorists. Because of the rigged Justice Department memo, the CIA claimed that they did not torture people. Another thing the CIA did was to turn over enemy to the intelligence services of third countries like Egypt, where torture was used commonly with no regard for the Geneva convention or other human rights provision. CIA agents then watched and asked questions but they claimed that they did not torture which was in some sense literally true.
Several American soldiers have been court marshalled and found guilty of illegal torture for Warterboarding prisoners to induce them to provide information. Most experts agree that intelligence received this way is highly unreliable in that victims will say anything they think the torturer wants to hear to get the torture to stop.
- Born:
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Intelligence; Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government, tasked with gathering, processing and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and Cabinet. Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is a domestic security service, CIA has no law enforcement function and is mainly focused on overseas intelligence gathering, with only limited domestic collection.
