Book Notes CIA-Thai Link

[webfact]

Book notes CIA-Thai link

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Book to reveal CIA's "Hard Measures", a book due to be released on April 30, will reveal more about the US authorities' "torture" of prisoners outside American soil and possibly rekindle the controversy about a "secret prison" in Thailand.

The book touches upon videos "filmed in Thailand" that were ordered destroyed by a now retired Central Investigation Agency (CIA) official. The videos show officers torturing terrorist suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd alNashiri using the infamous "waterboarding" technique.

The author Jose Rodriguez, a retired CIA officer who ordered the destruction of the videos, says in the book that he was tired of waiting for Washington's bureaucracy to make a decision on protecting Americans.

Rodriguez, who oversaw the CIA's oncesecret interrogation and detention programmes, also lashes out at President Barack Obama's administration for calling waterboarding a form of torture and criticising its use.

"I cannot tell you how disgusted my former colleagues and I felt to hear ourselves labelled as 'torturers' by the president of the United States," Rodriguez writes.

Associated Press purchased a copy of the book on Tuesday and found that the chapter about the interrogation videos adds few new details to a narrative that has been explored for years by journalists, investigators and civilrights groups. However, the book does represent Rodriguez's first public comment on the matter since the tapedestruction order was revealed in 2007.

That revelation touched off a political debate and ignited a Justice Department investigation that ultimately produced no charges. Critics accused Rodriguez of covering up torture and preventing the public from ever seeing the brutality of CIA's interrogations. Supporters hailed him as a hero who acted in the best interest of the country in the face of years of bureaucratic indecision.

The tapes, filmed in a secret CIA prison in Thailand, showed the waterboarding of terrorists Abu Zubaydah and Abd alNashiri.

Especially after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, Rodriguez writes, if the CIA's videos were to leak out, officers worldwide would be in danger.

"I wasn't going to sit around another three years waiting for people to get up the courage," to do what CIA lawyers said he had the authority to do himself, Rodriguez writes. He describes sending the order in November 2005 as "just getting rid of some ugly visuals".

Rodriguez writes critically of Obama's counterterrorism policies. With no way to capture and interrogate terrorists, Rodriguez says, the CIA relies far too much on drones. Unmanned aerial attacks alienate America's foreign partners and make it impossible to question people in the know, he says.

-- The Nation 2012-04-26

[softgeorge]

Will he be hunted just like julian Assange for revealing the ugly truths about the U.S? The U.S likes to present an image that they are sqeaky clean and beyond criticism.

Edited April 26, 2012 by softgeorge

[h90]

That water boarding is just a detail that came to public attention.

Not that well known is the use of drugs.

Secret US prisons in Egypt where the local "Experts" tortured.

Secret US prisons on vessels....

A shame that Thailand is supporting that regime and even hand out people to them.

[chooka]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

[55Jay]

Hope the book sales offset his pension when it gets shut off.

[grantbkk]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Waterboarding isn't considered by most as torture. Much ado about nothing really. This will certainly bring out the USA haters and cry babies. The author is perfectly safe and the sky is not falling.

[spidermike007]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

What, the US government lying about something like this? No, that would never happen. Since when do you think honestly is something one can ask of ANY government? I believe the days of noble governments either never existed, or are a historic footnote. Certainly not the US government. Nothing Obama says can be trusted. But, the next president, if it is Mitt Romney, which I believe is likely, will be the same. It is institutional, at this point. National Security, or some such nonsense.

[Rhodiebkk]

Seriously tho, this is hardly "news".

Hope it includes the debauched debrief of Chalabi's plant at the Hard Rock hotel in Pattaya.

[emilyb]

Former employees and contractors of the CIA always have to clear their books through with the agency before publication, so there's almost a zero chance that this isn't vetted material. Any assumption to the contrary would assume that this guy actually published a non-vetted book, which is possible technically, but sounds very unlikely (it's also unlikely that a major publisher would publish a book of this nature that hadn't been vetted).

In other words, the CIA knew what was being published months ago and isn't surprised by the contents.

[samjaidee]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Waterboarding isn't considered by most as torture. Much ado about nothing really. This will certainly bring out the USA haters and cry babies. The author is perfectly safe and the sky is not falling.

If, by most, you mean more than 50% of the world's population, I think you'll find that you are wrong. How can any civilised person think that waterboarding is not torture?

[bigbamboo]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

I doubt murdering Presidents and their secret girlfriends is considered to be the 'American way' either.

[kruangfaifar]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Waterboarding isn't considered by most as torture. Much ado about nothing really. This will certainly bring out the USA haters and cry babies. The author is perfectly safe and the sky is not falling.

Which "most" are you talking about? A UK reporter who tried it out doesn't agree see: http://www.thesun.co...ding-agony.html the reporters conclusion was "This is no “interrogation technique but torture pure and simple with no place in a civilised society.I would have told my interrogator anything they wanted to hear to make it stop". Thailand has a long history with the CIA,, Udorn Thani, Air America, Hmong, Vang Pao to name but a few associations. Personally it bothers me that organisations like the CIA can operate without oversight and without being subject to Laws. I dont trust them to do the right thing and I can't foget that Iraq was invaded due tothe prescence of WMDs. That is a long war and so many people died for WMDs that were never there. After 9-11 GWB announced his war on terror and said " You are either with us or against us" which to me means that people who don't agree with the US's actions can be classified as pro Terrorists. Is that what you mean by US haters? BTW where was the war on terror when funds raised in the US were being transferred to the IRA?

[Cats4ever]

Josef Mengele was terribly upset when his legitimate medical experiments were labelled as cruel and unnecessary sadism by crybabys.

[h90]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Waterboarding isn't considered by most as torture. Much ado about nothing really. This will certainly bring out the USA haters and cry babies. The author is perfectly safe and the sky is not falling.

Several died already by this non-torture. The problem is that you can't breath......

[h90]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Waterboarding isn't considered by most as torture. Much ado about nothing really. This will certainly bring out the USA haters and cry babies. The author is perfectly safe and the sky is not falling.

If, by most, you mean more than 50% of the world's population, I think you'll find that you are wrong. How can any civilised person think that waterboarding is not torture?

you give the answer yourself: "civilized person"

[h90]

Josef Mengele was terribly upset when his legitimate medical experiments were labelled as cruel and unnecessary sadism by crybabys.

Well waterboarding isn't the only thing that happens in such prisons.

And they hunt down everyone who publish it, like Assange

[unanimosity]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Waterboarding isn't considered by most as torture. Much ado about nothing really. This will certainly bring out the USA haters and cry babies. The author is perfectly safe and the sky is not falling.

If, by most, you mean more than 50% of the world's population, I think you'll find that you are wrong. How can any civilised person think that waterboarding is not torture?

A civilzed person whose civilized way of life is threatened by uncivilized elements that execute and disfigure their own for behaving civilized, behead innocent journalists, and attack innocent civilians; yet the U.S. presidential administrations, the media, you, and other armchair sensitivistas delude yourselves that they are misunderstood victims and that everything will be peachy keen if we could all just get along and sing Kum Ba Ya.

[Time Traveller]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Americans don't torture anyone. They employ local soldiers of the country the prison is in to do it.

[h90]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Americans don't torture anyone. They employ local soldiers of the country the prison is in to do it.

there were enough videos published in which Americans did it.....

[chainarong]

Big Deal, harden up big bad cruel world.

[belg]

water boarding, done by the phuket jetski maffia ... looooooooooooool

[Jobo]

The end of the US is nigh! And God cannot protect it even though there is no such being. They don't believe that of course.

You Americans defending your right to attack and infiltrate other countries and torture unlawfully and commit genocide without retribution ask yourselves this question.

How do you stop terrorism?

Stop being one!

[h90]

The end of the US is nigh! And God cannot protect it even though there is no such being. They don't believe that of course.

You Americans defending your right to attack and infiltrate other countries and torture unlawfully and commit genocide without retribution ask yourselves this question.

How do you stop terrorism?

Stop being one!

It is a falling empire and like all falling empires it causes a lot damage while doing so.

Unfortunately Europe, which should know better isn't doing much.....

[softgeorge]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Waterboarding isn't considered by most as torture. Much ado about nothing really. This will certainly bring out the USA haters and cry babies. The author is perfectly safe and the sky is not falling.

Several died already by this non-torture. The problem is that you can't breath......

Yes but the U.S do not consider this extreem but purely asking the victim a reasonable question. Now if someone was to use the same technique on a U.S citizen just watch the outcry. The U.S are accountatble to no one and they know it. If you speak out against them then you will get your face slapped

[chrisinth]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

I think it depends on what else he knows and has saved up for a rainy day!

Knowledge is power.

[robenroute]

Josef Mengele was terribly upset when his legitimate medical experiments were labelled as cruel and unnecessary sadism by crybabys.

Spot on, mate. Harsh, but nailed it. No human being would consider waterboarding not torture.

[chrisinth]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Waterboarding isn't considered by most as torture. Much ado about nothing really. This will certainly bring out the USA haters and cry babies. The author is perfectly safe and the sky is not falling.

If, by most, you mean more than 50% of the world's population, I think you'll find that you are wrong. How can any civilised person think that waterboarding is not torture?

50% (mimimum) of the world population have never heard of waterboarding. And a much larger percentage are definitely not civilised!

[unanimosity]

Yes but the U.S do not consider this extreem but purely asking the victim a reasonable question. Now if someone was to use the same technique on a U.S citizen just watch the outcry. The U.S are accountatble to no one and they know it. If you speak out against them then you will get your face slapped

Not sure whether naivete or stupidity best describes what you have written. That gritty feeling in your eyes and ears is from the sand where your head is buried. To suggest that the USA is running around torturing people without provocation--and that using the same technique on a U.S. citizen would evoke an outcry--shows a gross ignorance of facts and trivializes the beheadings, the three thousand World Trade Center murders, and a whole list of other jihadist atrocities.

Still, those Americans defend your right to be ignorant and say what you will and they can only laugh at isolated rogue ignorance knowing that it is not a reflection on the countries from which such rogue ignorance has come; and that said countries are barely able to defend themselves in peacetime from immigration and economic aggression, let alone defend themselves against an imminent threat. First sign of trouble and out goes the call, "Uncle Sam, please-please help us, we are so scared."

[softgeorge]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Americans don't torture anyone. They employ local soldiers of the country the prison is in to do it.

If indeed as you say, they employ local soldiers to carry out the barbaric acts of the U.S then those employed are representing and following the orders of the U.S government. Who established these centres, set the protocols, managed, supervised and gave the orders? I do not think the Thai's were freelancing trying to score a few points with the yanks. You cannot handball this into the Thai field sorry. 100% instigated and enacted by the U.S.

[h90]

Hang on didn't the U.S strongly deny they had any such thing in Thailand and torturing of people was not the American way? Either this guy is lying or the prim and proper U.S.A is lying. Either way I think this guy is going to be in a lot of trouble and the U.S are not going to like what he is saying. "Dead man Walking"

Americans don't torture anyone. They employ local soldiers of the country the prison is in to do it.

If indeed as you say, they employ local soldiers to carry out the barbaric acts of the U.S then those employed are representing and following the orders of the U.S government. Who established these centres, set the protocols, managed, supervised and gave the orders? I do not think the Thai's were freelancing trying to score a few points with the yanks. You cannot handball this into the Thai field sorry. 100% instigated and enacted by the U.S.

But it is consistent...attacking other countries, supporting Pol Pot, killing people, also the own one....

It is just a criminal group of banksters, weapon producer and other criminals that hijacked that beautiful and resourceful country :-(