Former CIA Director Says He Tortured People "To Help Them"

Former CIA Director, Jose Rodriguez, says he tortured people "to help them"

On January 29th, 2013, three former top-ranking Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials spoke at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, to talk about the movie "Zero Dark Thirty", which is a dramatization of the United States operation that found and killed Osama bin Laden.  In the movie there are controversial scenes involving "enhanced interrogation techniques", aka torture, and all three men speaking at this conference had a guiding hand in implementing these policies of torture.  The three men, Gen. Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA, John Rizzo, former deputy counsel of the CIA, and Jose Rodriguez, the former director of the National Clandestine Service at the CIA, were taking issue with certain 'inaccuracies' in the film, in regards to the enhanced interrogation techniques, and were trying to justify their own use of torture.  I believe they may be trying to cover their own butts, as there is increased talk worldwide of persecuting members of the Bush administration for war crimes.

One of the most unbelievable justifications for torture, that I have ever heard, came from the former 31-year veteran of the CIA, Jose Rodriguez, who actually seemed to be saying that he used torture to HELP the person being tortured, to RELIEVE them of the pressure of holding back information.  Can you picture what kind of psychopath this man must be?  Rodriguez is able to torture you, and justify it in his mind, that he is helping you!  Insane!  (Sidenote: Video recordings, showing these enhanced interrogation techniques being performed, were ordered destroyed by Rodriguez)

You can watch the whole ninety minute conference, titled, "Watching ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ with the CIA: Separating fact from fiction", yourself (video below), but the clip that I am referring to begins at 17:40 into the event, and I have transcribed the exchange here:

The host, Marc Thiessen, directs his question to Rodriguez:

"If you would, tell the story that you have in your book, about Abu Zubaydah, and what he said to our interrogators, after he was waterboarded"

Rodriguez replies:

"It was interesting because Abu Zubaydah, at one point, finally told us, that we should use, water-boarding, in particular, but the enhanced interrogation program, on all the brothers, and he said it because...the brothers needed to have religious justification, to talk, to provide information, however, they would not be expected by Allah to go beyond their capabilities of resistance.  So once they felt that they were there, they would then become compliant, and provide information.  So he basically recommended to us, that we needed to submit the brothers to this type of procedure if we wanted them to cooperate, as a matter fact, to help them, reach the level where they would become compliant and provide information."

General Michael Hayden then intercedes:

"Yea, in order to do so, without sin"

After a short discourse by General Hayden, attempting to justify his role in torture, Rodriguez comes back:

"In many cases, I believe they were finally relieved that they had reached the point where they felt they could talk"

(Hats off to the good folks at the No Agenda podcast, for their consistency in extraordinary media analysis.)

Related Links:

-  Four Torture Victims File Lawsuit Against Canada For Not Arresting President George Bush On His Last Visit (link)

-  United States Military Admittedly Detained Over 200 Young Afghan Boys (link)

United States Military Admittedly Detained Over 200 Young Afghan Boys

In a document released by the United Nations, the United States military has admittedly detained over 200 young Afghan boys, in a military prison next to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, for an average of a year at a time.

In this report, the United States claims "the average age of these individuals has been approximately 16 years old", meaning a good number of these children were under 16 years old.  But Tina M. Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network, which represents adult and juvenile detainees at this prison says she has represented children as young as 11 and 12!  Foster also has believes that the United States may be under-reporting the number of juveniles held at the facility.

Because these teens were never charged with any crime, "a detainee would generally not be provided legal assistance."  Foster says that the teens that are seized are not in uniform or even typically taken in combat.  In the report, the United States even admits that they were "not aware of the age of the children at the point of capture; in nearly all cases their ages were not finally determined until after capture."  The US military can keep these detainees with no charges, or trial, using the excuse "the purpose of detention is not punitive but preventative: to prevent a combatant from returning to the battlefield."

Think about that.  If the United States military didn't know the age of these children before capture, what kind of intelligence did they have?  Was it enough to warrant the tactic of snatching these children from their homes and families?  Can you imagine your child being snatched from the supermarket, and brought to some military prison?  It is happening all the time, being done with your tax money.  Most people won't care until it happens to them, and we suffer because of our selfishness.

I reported last month about how four men that were tortured at a US military base filed a lawsuit against Canada for not arresting President George Bush on his last visit to Canada.  These men were hung from the ceilings and walls, deprived of food and water, and much worse, at the United States' Guantanamo Bay prison.  None of the four men were ever charged with a crime, and three of the four have already been released, while the fourth man, only detained when he was sixteen, is still in Guantanamo and has yet to be charged with a crime.

Four Torture Victims File Lawsuit Against Canada For Not Arresting President George Bush On His Last Visit

On November 14th, 2012, four torture survivors filed a complaint against Canada with the United Nations Committee against Torture for the country’s failure to investigate and prosecute former President George W. Bush during his visit to British Columbia last year. (link)

These men were held at Guantánamo Bay, an American military prison operated in Cuba, infamous for their "enhanced interrogation" techniques aka torture.  Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay in 2007, before he was elected President, but has yet to do so.

You have to read the 69 page draft indictment to really get a picture of what these men went through.  Try to imagine being taken from your home in one country, never being told what you are charged with, a bag being put over your head as your flown to a prison in another country, where everyday you are subjected to beatings, being hung from walls or ceilings, sleep, food and water deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures, and more.  Your family not knowing anything, worrying what happened to you.

It is important to note that three out of four of these men were, after years, eventually released with no charges, and the fourth man, only detained when he was sixteen, is still in Guantanamo and has yet to be charged with a crime.