Sputnik — Pot Meet Kettle: Why Hayden's Attack on Trump Sounds Hypocritical

Former G.W. Bush-era NSA and CIA head Michael Hayden has joined the ranks of Trump's social media critics, tweeting that the president's "outrageous assault" on press freedom makes him feel like he's "wasted 40 years of [his] life." However, Hayden's record doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his newfound role as defender of the Constitution.…

The outpouring of support for George W. Bush's CIA & NSA chief — who oversaw torture, rendition, illegal domestic spying and an array of other evils — is so moving: "No, General Hayden, your career was not wasted!" https://t.co/Q1A2S7TT68— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 27, 2017

Sputnik International
Pot Meet Kettle: Why Hayden's Attack on Trump Sounds Hypocritical

Cora Currier — CIA Director Describes How the U.S. Outsources Terror Interrogations

CIA director Brennan admits that rendition still US policy. All that's changed is the name. Now it's "assisting partners."

During a question-and-answer session, it was Fox News’ Megyn Kelley who questioned Brennan about “capturing terrorists.” 

“Are we still doing that?” she asked. “And where are we keeping them and how are we interrogating them?” 

Brennan responded that the U.S. is able to work with “partners” to “identify individuals and to have them captured… although there are not a lot of public pieces on Fox News about somebody that might be picked up in different parts of the world.”....

Brennan’s comments today are a rare confirmation that the CIA remains actively involved in the arrest and interrogation of terrorist suspects overseas.

The Intercept

CIA Director Describes How the U.S. Outsources Terror Interrogations

Cora Currier

More double-speak:

Glenn Greenwald, The Orwellian Re-Branding of “Mass Surveillance” as Merely “Bulk Collection”

Victoria Parsons — Poland’s Complicity in CIA Torture and Rendition Confirmed as European Court rejects Warsaw’s Appeal

The European Court of Human Rights today confirmed that the Polish government was complicit in the CIA’s secretive programme of rendition, detention and interrogation. 

The Court in Strasbourg today rejected a challenge from the Polish government to a landmark ruling from last July, a decision which now makes that original judgement final.… 

Poland is the first EU member state to be found guilty of complicity in the CIA’s secret detention programme and responsible for multiple violations of the detainees’ rights.…

The European Parliament last week voted to resume investigating the complicity of EU member states in the CIA programme, in the wake of the new information revealed by the Senate’s summary.…

Global Research
Poland’s Complicity in CIA Torture and Rendition Confirmed as European Court rejects Warsaw’s Appeal

Victoria Parsons

William Blum — American Exceptionalism and American Torture

 Lest we forget...

If you open the window of torture, even just a crack, the cold air of the Dark Ages will fill the whole room.

Cold air or stench?

No, Obama didn't end torture.

BTW, if you haven't seen Brazil (1985 film), it's as apropos as Orwell's 1984.

Counterpunch

American Exceptionalism and American Torture
William Blum

Also

Truthout
We Need Moral Certainty on Torture

Victoria Bassetti, Brennan Center for Justice | Op-Ed

We need to reestablish that foundational, incontrovertible moral certainty we once had about torture. The Senate report was a bold and important step toward reestablishing that certitude. More is needed. 

There is a less known coda to the Milgram experiments. When dissent was added into the equation, when someone objected to the shocks being administered, the experiment participants’ willingness to inflict abuse diminished substantially. 

"The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson: often it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act," Milgram wrote after more than a decade’s work.

Washington's Blog
Senior U.S. Government Officials: Release the Full Torture Report

With permission from Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

MEMORANDUM FOR: Senator Mark Udall 

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) 

SUBJECT: Stopping Torture 

We, the undersigned are veteran intelligence officers with a combined total of over 300 years of experience in intelligence work. We send you this open letter at what seems to be the last minute simply because we had been hoping we would not have to.…

For the Steering Group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.) 

Thomas Drake, Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, NSA (resigned) 

Daniel Ellsberg, former State Dept. & Defense Dept. Official (VIPS Associate) 

Mike Gravel, former Senator from Alaska; former Army intelligence officer 

Larry Johnson, CIA analyst & State Department/counterterrorism, (ret.) 

John Kiriakou, former CIA counterterrorism operations officer; federal prison, Loretto, Pennsylvania 

Edward Loomis, former Chief, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA 

David MacMichael, USMC & National Intelligence Council (ret.) 

Ray McGovern, Army Infantry/Intelligence officer & CIA presidential briefer (ret.) 

Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle East (ret.) 

Todd Pierce, MAJ, U.S. Army Judge Advocate (ret.) 

Coleen Rowley, Minneapolis Division Counsel & Special Agent, FBI (ret.) 

Peter Van Buren, Department of State, Foreign Service Officer (ret.) 

Kirk Wiebe, Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA (ret.) 

Ann Wright, Col., US Army (ret); Foreign Service Officer (ret.)

Conor Friedersdorf — Beyond Torture

President Obama is letting the CIA play a major part in censoring a report on brutal human-rights abuses perpetrated by CIA employees. This has always been self-evidently absurd: No possible arrangement would present a bigger conflict of interest. What many Americans might not know is that the CIA isn't just intent on covering up torture. It's also averse to the public knowing more about renditions, a euphemism for kidnapping people and handing them over to violent thugs.

The Atlantic
Beyond Torture

Conor Friedersdorf

Robert Stevens — CIA planned rendition of Edward Snowden

Ominous story of "an unmarked Gulfstream V business jet—tail number N977GA."

WSWS
CIA planned rendition of Edward Snowden
Robert Stevens