Lies About Torture

GLENN CARLE
Carle was a career CIA field officer, who retired in 2007 as the Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats. His book, The Interrogator, details his involvement in the “enhanced interrogation program.” He recently wrote the piece “Torture is Wrong,” which states: “The ‘ticking time bomb’ scenario rests on the flawed assumption that, somehow, torture would provide desperately needed information not otherwise obtainable in enough time to stop the threat. But when people are tortured, they will say anything to try to stop the pain.” See from March in the Guardian: “No proof torture helped U.S. find Osama bin Laden, Senate report concludes.” 

MARCY WHEELER
    Wheeler writes widely about the legal aspects of the “war on terror” and its effects on civil liberties. She blogs atemptywheel.net and writes the “Right to Know” column for ExposeFacts.org, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

    She just wrote “Some Torture Facts” which highlights critical information, including: “Torture was authorized by the same Finding that authorized drone killing, heavily subsidizing the intelligence services of countries like Jordan and Egypt, cooperating with Syria and Libya, and the training of Afghan special forces. …

    “In late 2002, then SSCI [Senate Select Committee on Intelligence] Chair Bob Graham made initial efforts to conduct oversight over torture (asking, for example, to send a staffer to observe interrogations). CIA got Pat Roberts, who became chair in 2003, to quash these efforts, though even he claims CIA lied about how he did so. …

    “[Former CIA director] John Brennan has admitted to using information from the torture program in declarations he wrote for the FISA Court. This means that information derived from torture was used to scare [FISA judge] Colleen Kollar-Kotelly into approving the Internet dragnet in 2004.”

    Other related pieces by Wheeler include “CIA’s Own Records of CIA’s Lies to Congress.”