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Thread: CIA Chief: Interrogation Methods 'Unique' But Legal

  1. #1
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    CIA Chief: Interrogation Methods 'Unique' But Legal

    CIA chief: Interrogation methods 'unique' but legal

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...etainees_x.htm

    (Gold9472: Isn't that interesting. Porter Goss, helping out Dick Cheney to get his torture exemption.)

    By John Diamond, USA TODAY

    LANGLEY, Va. — CIA interrogators use "a variety of unique and innovative ways" to collect "vital" information from prisoners but strictly obey laws against torture, CIA Director Porter Goss said.

    In his first interview since the clash this month between the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Senate on restricting interrogations, Goss said the CIA remains officially neutral on the proposal by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to ban "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of detainees by CIA or military officers. But Goss made clear that techniques that would be restricted under McCain's proposal have yielded valuable intelligence.

    "There is a huge amount of misinformation swirling about on the subject of detainees. That would include alleged activities of this agency," Goss said in an interview Friday in his office at agency headquarters in Northern Virginia.

    "This agency does not do torture. Torture does not work," Goss said. "We use lawful capabilities to collect vital information, and we do it in a variety of unique and innovative ways, all of which are legal and none of which are torture."

    Goss declined to describe interrogation methods exclusive to the CIA. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said the problem with McCain's proposal is that the restriction on "degrading" treatment might bar psychological techniques, such as calling a prisoner a coward or isolating a detainee in a very small room. Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is a close ally of the administration in the interrogation debate. (Related story: Lawmakers: Interrogators feeling threatened)

    The Senate included McCain's measure in two annual defense bills, the House in neither. The two branches must work out the issue. The White House has threatened to veto any bill that includes McCain's measure.

    Goss echoed administration arguments about the need for flexibility in fighting terrorism.

    "An enemy that's working in an amorphous network that doesn't have to worry about a bunch of regulations, chain of command, rule of law or anything else has got a huge advantage over a stultified, slow-moving, bureaucratic, by-the-book" organization, Goss said. "So we have to, within the law and within all the requirements of our professional ethics in this profession, develop agility. And that means putting a lot of judgment in the hands of individuals overseas."

    Goss declined to discuss reports by The Washington Post and Human Rights Watch alleging that the CIA maintains secret detention centers at military bases in Central European countries. He said media leaks about allies helping the CIA in capturing and interrogating detainees may provoke reprisal terrorist attacks.

    Cooperation from allies is essential to intelligence operations, Goss said. "I don't have any arrest authority overseas. If you want to disrupt a terrorist, you've got to have local law enforcement help you."

    Exposure of allied cooperation with the CIA has already prompted several European governments to launch investigations into alleged CIA activities in their territories. Such diplomatic complications are among the reasons Goss is pressing for the CIA to improve its ability to operate on its own overseas.

    "Sometimes other sovereign nations have somewhat divergent views or opinions, and so it's a good idea — even with your best friends ... to have a secret," Goss said.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  2. #2
    Partridge Guest
    Tenn. Office Linked to CIA Renditions

    By WOODY BAIRD
    Associated Press Writer

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- The law office of Douglas R. Beaty sits in a small business park near the city's more prosperous suburbs. Nothing on the front door says anything about the CIA or airplanes.

    But Beaty's law office figures in an investigation into whether the CIA is secretly flying terrorism suspects to third countries for questioning and perhaps torture.

    Spanish investigators say at least two planes that may have been used for such flights and made stopovers on the island of Mallorca were operated by Stevens Express Leasing Inc.

    Tennessee state records show that Stevens Express Leasing has the same business address as Beaty's law office. And Beaty is listed as a registered agent and assistant secretary for Stevens Express Leasing.


    In a recent report on the CIA's use of "extraordinary rendition," as the practice of moving suspects to third countries is called, The New York Times identified Stevens Express Leasing as one of several companies believed to be fronts for the agency's air operations.

    Last week, Beaty refused to talk about the company or his duties with it when questioned by The Associated Press.

    It is not uncommon to see Beaty's name on records kept by the Tennessee secretary of state's office. He is listed as a registered agent for more than 90 companies and has carried similar titles for more than 100 others that the state no longer considers active. More than 100 companies have shared his office address.

    "All I do is real estate," Beaty said when asked about his law practice.


    He was also the incorporator and president of a small company, Tenn-Ford Inc., that figured in a Tennessee political scandal. Beaty and former Rep. Harold Ford Sr., a Memphis Democrat, were indicted on federal bank fraud charges in 1987 and acquitted in 1993 after two trials. The government argued unsuccessfully that Tenn-Ford was a shell company created to funnel payoffs to Ford from Tennessee bankers Jake and C.H. Butcher Jr.

    There are no signs for Stevens Express Leasing in the business park, a cluster of unattached one-story buildings that also house a doctor's office, a dentist, several real estate agents and Miss Pat's School of Dance and Gymnastics.

    The Federal Aviation Administration lists Stevens Express Leasing as the owner of four airplanes - three Beechcrafts and a DC-3.

    A report prepared for Spain's Interior Ministry in April, parts of which were obtained by the AP, said two planes that made stops in Mallorca were operated by Stevens Express Leasing.

    Italy and Germany also are looking into the CIA's handling of suspected terrorists within their borders.

  3. #3
    jetsetlemming Guest
    Its not really hard to get them to talk, they don't need physical torture. With all the chemicals and drugs available, you could get anything out of them. Just pump weed smoke through the prison. I really don't see why they're so hell bent on using pain when drugs are better.

  4. #4
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    They get off on it.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  5. #5
    jetsetlemming Guest
    Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of sadististic interrigators.

  6. #6
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    I was referring to Cheney.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  7. #7
    jetsetlemming Guest
    He doesn't do it himself, but I guess maybe he just likes the idea.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by jetsetlemming
    He doesn't do it himself, but I guess maybe he just likes the idea.
    I envision him coming home from a hard day's work... sitting on his barcolounger, opening a beer, and popping in the days torture videos to pleasure himself.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  9. #9
    jetsetlemming Guest
    You invision Dick Cheney pleasuring himself? Sick!

  10. #10
    Partridge Guest
    Europe protests CIA activity on its soil
    LA Times


    Outrage in many countries triggers parliamentary inquiries and a handful of criminal prosecutions


    From Scandinavia to the tropical Canary Islands, the CIA's clandestine use of European soil and airspace for counter-terrorism missions is triggering outrage, parliamentary inquiries and a handful of criminal prosecutions.

    In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Europe was either silent about or unaware of the ways in which American agents operated within its borders. But in recent weeks several European governments have become much more vocal about possible CIA activity in their jurisdictions.

    Among the complaints: CIA operatives, without formal permission, have seized suspects in European cities and then transported them to third countries for interrogation; CIA flights that transported terror suspects around the world purportedly have used European airports for layovers; and the CIA may be operating clandestine prisons in Europe.

    Officially, Europe, with its long history of respect for civil rights, has been lukewarm to U.S. counter-terrorism measures. To find itself the territory on which some of Washington's most controversial tactics are being played out has become a matter of much debate and soul-searching.

    But prospects for holding the CIA to account appear to be fading in some countries.

    Two countries where some of the strongest evidence has emerged are Italy, where prosecutors are attempting to arrest 22 CIA operatives, and Spain, where officials have confirmed a steady parade of purported CIA flights into Spanish airports.

    In Germany, prosecutors are investigating both the alleged kidnapping by the CIA of one of its citizens and a number of suspicious flights into German air bases. Sweden and Norway also launched investigations following similar incidents. The Dutch accused Washington of "hiding" its use of secret prisons in Europe, and the 46-member Council of Europe told Romania to investigate reports that it was the site of such illegal detentions.

    Investigations into alleged CIA landings or flyovers are under way in Austria, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

    And the European Union said any of its members housing secret prisons for suspected Islamic terrorists, as first reported in the Washington Post, would be in violation of the law and subject to fines.

    Spain this week announced it would begin stricter monitoring of flights into its airports and closer screening of the occupants of those flights. This came after it was revealed that planes believed to be seconded to the CIA landed at least 10 times in Spanish airports in 2004 and 2005 on excursions that had all the earmarks of the so-called extraordinary rendition--the transport of terror suspects from one country to another for interrogation that in some cases has allegedly resulted in torture.

    The first reports of this suspect air traffic came in a small local daily newspaper, the Diario de Majorca, in the Balearic Islands where several of the flights touched down. As an investigation by Spanish Guardia Civil widened, similar flights were discovered to have touched down in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands.

    One flight that originated at Guantanamo, where the United States is holding hundreds of terror suspects, stopped over in Tenerife in April 2004 on its way to Bucharest, the Romanian capital.

    The revelations have proved problematic for the leftist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. It was this government that, days after taking office last spring, pulled its troops from Iraq because of disagreement over the U.S. war there. Yet, Spanish officials are reluctant to take on another fight with Washington.

    Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, called upon Thursday to report to parliament on the case, found himself on the defensive. He told legislators that it appeared no laws were broken by the flights and that the government had received assurances from Washington that the flights were not being used to transport prisoners.

    "The government is convinced that all of the stopovers took place within the framework of the law," Moratinos said, reading from prepared remarks against repeated questioning.

    Leftist congressmen were openly incredulous and even the right expressed perplexity over the foreign minister's justification of the U.S. action.

    "You can say there is no evidence of a crime but you cannot say there is no crime," Gaspar Llamazares of the United Left party told the foreign minister.

    The government's stance has not satisfied public opinion, either. A group of citizens is suing in Majorca. In the Canary Islands, Gov. Adan Martin demanded a fuller accounting. "We need to be more vigilant," he said.

    In Italy, prosecutors, using a trove of phone records and other paper trails, painstakingly documented the capture by CIA operatives of a radical Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. The cleric, known as Abu Omar, was bundled off to Egypt, via the Ramstein U.S. air base in Germany, and has claimed he was tortured by Egyptian authorities with U.S. officials present.

    Over the summer, the prosecutors issued arrest warrants for the agents, and, earlier this month, following protocol, they asked the Italian Justice Ministry to demand the extradition from the U.S. of the agents. But last week Justice Minister Roberto Castelli, who answers to the pro-U.S. prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, undermined the entire case by calling the lead prosecutor, Armando Spataro, a leftist militant.

    Although the justice minister has not ruled definitively, it seems likely the case will advance.

    In Germany, probes are proceeding on two fronts.

    Eberhard Bayer, the public prosecutor in the region that covers the Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany, opened an investigation into the use of the base as a stopover in the 2003 abduction from Milan of Abu Omar.

    Suggestions that U.S. bases in Germany may have been used by the CIA to transport suspected terrorists have led to some politicians calling for a federal investigation.

    "The German foreign minister should have a talk with the U.S. ambassador," Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a top official with the Free Democrats, recently told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. "If the so-far unproven accusations are correct, it would be outrageous."

    Berliner Zeitung reported on Nov. 22 that six CIA planes stopped over at Rhein-Main Airbase near Frankfurt between December 2001 and August 2003. One of those flights was a Hercules C-130 that left Germany and headed for Baku, Azerbaijan, on Jan 21, 2003.

    In addition, Munich prosecutors earlier this year opened an investigation into the alleged CIA kidnapping of Khaled Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, who was snatched in Macedonia on New Years Eve 2003. Masri claims he was then flown by the CIA to a prison in Afghanistan where he was held and interrogated for five months before he was released, with neither charges nor apologies.

    His lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, says he plans to sue the U.S. government.

    But the political moment is delicate in Germany also. New chancellor Angela Merkel is keen to improve ties with Washington that were strained under her predecessor. So although German politicians are demanding answers about CIA activities, Merkel may be reluctant to pursue them.

    Romania denied reports by Human Rights Watch that it was the site of secret CIA-operated prisons for terror suspects, whose detention abroad relieves U.S. officials of respecting the Geneva Conventions or other human rights concerns. Poland, also mentioned by the New York based organization, issued a similar denial.

    "We do not keep terrorists here, nor do we interrogate them," said Jerzy Szmajdzinski, defense minister until a change of government a few days ago. "I exclude that such a situation took place in Poland." Romania and Poland, which are both emerging from communist pasts, are key allies in Washington's war on terrorism.

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