Torture Controversy Quotes
In the War on Terror, some CIA officers had gotten a George W, Bush Administration green light to torture some captured terrorists using a torture technique known as “water boarding”—a practice for which American military personnel were court marshaled and convicted in the Philippine War. The torture sessions had been videotaped, a normal procedure with CIA interrogations. The fact of the torture had leaked and a national scandal ensued with Americans on both sides of the question. President Bush and his Vice President publicly stated that the United States does not torture. Rodriguez then ordered the tapes destroyed. Later he gave his reasons after the Obama Administration decided not to investigate the matter or determine which, if any, CIA officials might have broken the law, by wither doing the torturing or destroying evidence—“obstructing justice.”
A large part of the report had been devoted to proving by exposure of CIA internal documents that the CIA had repeatedly and frequently lied, to Congress, the American people and perhaps to the President himself. The CIA director and other officials of the agency, in trying to justify their actions, continued to diverge from the truth. The behavior criticized by the report involved CIA Directors before Brennan; however the CIA insular, protective culture is so strong that he would lose the loyalty of much of the CIA staff if he did not continue to maintain the “party line”. The CIA has a long history of lying to the public, and to the Congress—including the oversight committees, and on a number of occasions to the President himself.
