New book exposes CIA abhorrent rendition and torture program

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In the US' early days of its so-called "war on terror," senior intelligence officials convened in a clandestine meeting of the top brass of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to debate what to do with detainees exposed to rendition and "enhanced interrogation techniques."

After considering several possibilities such as detaining them, moving them to another country, and prosecuting them, one senior official remarked, "Why don't we just kill them?"

Read more: CIA prison in Lithuania where inmates were tortured to be sold

 

The specifics of the meeting were disclosed on Monday during a virtual panel discussion with author and journalist Cathy Scott Clark, whose book The Forever Prisoner provides an in-depth look at the CIA's notorious torture program.

Clarks's book is to be released later this week and focuses on the story of Guantanamo inmate Abu Zubaydah, who was questioned using torture tactics such as being waterboarded 83 times in one month, suspended nude from a ceiling, and deprived of sleep for 11 days in a row.

Lithuania has paid more than $110,000 to Abu Zubaydah, the "forever prisoner" at Guantánamo, in compensation for allowing the CIA to hold him at a secret site outside Vilnius where he was tortured.

Abu Zubaydah was held for more than 20 years by the US without charge.

It covers a variety of facets of the CIA's rendition operation, including interviews with numerous high military and intelligence personnel conducted by Clark.

After interviewing numerous masterminds behind the torture operations, including James Mitchell, Clark stated that her overall feeling was that it "sort of became like a pack mentality - that everybody was in it together," adding that  "if someone were to say who's responsible should someone be prosecuted, I don't think you can point to any one person."

The US justified its torture of inmates by claiming that its campaign was targeted at finding "Terrorists" responsible for the 9/11 attacks in order to prevent further attacks on US soil.

However, civil society groups have stated that many of Washington's actions, including rendition and "enhanced interrogation techniques" - which the Senate ruled amounted to torture in a historic report - are unlawful under international law.

Abuses in the US military definitely and absolutely present

Clark also revealed, despite US officials' denials, that there is a link between the creators of the CIA's torture program, such as Mitchell, and the torture that occurred at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, where detainees endured physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including the use of electric shock and mock executions.

Clark proclaimed that one thing she put together was that " the CIA's enhanced interrogation program absolutely, definitely led to abuses in the US military as well."

She added that "The same people... were involved in putting together training programs, training materials, training the CIA, training interrogators to go to Guantanamo, training interrogators at Bagram, and then interrogators who went to Abu Ghraib."

The author concluded by stating that Mitchell could deny the blame for the abuses that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison but he must accept the responsibility that he "Created something that got out of control."

Guantanamo Bay sustained brain damage after serving as CIA live prop

Last month, newly declassified reports detailed how Ammar Al-Baluchi, also known as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, is currently being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba and was subjected to excessive torture at the hands of CIA interrogators who used him as a live prop, a training tool for employees learning the agency's cruel and illegal practice for years.

Al-Baluchi suffered from brain damage after being exploited as a live prop for trainee interrogators at a secret CIA black site in Afghanistan for years, newly declassified documents revealed.

The military prison in Cuba -- created after the September 2001 attacks to house detainees in the US so-called "war on terror"-- is still operating despite international and local calls to close it.

A group of UN experts has repeatedly urged Washington to finally close the site of "unrelenting human rights violations."