CIA torture report released. -Reuters

Senator Diane Feinstien (D) gives a speech about the report to the Senate. Reuters

The CIA mislead the government and the american public about the enhanced interrogation program, which was much more brutal then previously reported. Reuters. The Senate report claims that between 2002 and 2006 no terror plots were disrupted through the use of the program. The program was developed by contractors and the interrogations took place in countries like Afghanistan, Romania and Poland. Some of the new actions described in the report include sleep deprivation for 180 hours, water boarding and "rectal feeding". Criminal prosecutions are unlikely. Of the 39 detainees detailed in the report 7 gave no information at all. Others made up stories. The CIA also did not use trained and vetted personnel. 

My Comment:

There isn't too much new here in this report. It did confirm a suspicion I had about the CIA interrogators not knowing what they are doing. I believe that torture can work in certain situations but not in the way the CIA was doing it. In short you have to combine the stick with a carrot. Of course, since the program failed to turn up any intelligence that hadn't been revealed by other sources, I doubt that the government will ever try this again. 

As to whether it was justified in the first place, it seems clear that it wasn't. And not just because they didn't get any intelligence from the program. From what I understand there was no major 9/11 style plot discovered with this program and no greater good served by torturing the prisoners. I've always said that torture may be justified if there is some immediate disaster to prevent, but it is clear from this report that they didn't even have that flimsy justification.

Hopefully there aren't any repercussions from this. Terror groups need little justification for terror attacks but it is possible that some embassies could be the target of protests. I haven't heard of anything yet but who knows what could happen. 

Editor's note

Feeling a bit under the weather this morning. That and a total lack of stories I want to cover this morning means blogging will return this evening. The CIA torture report should be released sometime today and I will comment on it this evening.

As for everything else happening in the world, people are still mad about Ferguson and a bunch of people got arrested. Old news. Iraq wants more weapons. More old news. Ebola is still out of control in Africa. Old news. And the rest just seems to be stupid stuff about celebrities and the British Royal family. I think I will wait until something actually happens before I post anything else...

2014 was a terrible year for children. Reuters.

Kurdish refugees from Kobani, Syria. Reuters. 

UNICEF declared that 2014 was a terrible year for children with up to 230 million children living in countries effected by war. Reuters. The immense number of crises this year lead to some being ignored. Specifically, Afghanistan, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, were overshadowed by the conflicts in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and Libya. The director of UNICEF, Anthony Lake, said that children have been subjected to torture, kidnapping, slavery, rape and conscription, adding that "Never in recent memory have so many children been subjected to such unspeakable cruelty". War isn't the only threat to children. Ebola has left thousands orphaned or killed while 5 million have been kept out of school. 

My Comment:

What a depressing story. It is true that many times in war, the little ones tend to be victims. The world is on fire right now, with so many different wars going on at once. Of course many people die accidentally in war, and children are no exception. That is nothing new, but the brutality seems to have increased. More and more it seems like children are being deliberately targeted. That is a special kind of evil. Many of the radical Islamic groups, like ISIS, Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda see nothing wrong with killing, enslaving or conscripting children. And those are just the groups that get headlines... 

There doesn't seem to be all that much anyone one person can do to stop the killing, other then trying to win or end the wars as soon as possible. America seems to have little interest in winning in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and seems much more interested in just stalling the enemy. And nobody is doing anything to stop the wars in Africa. There is nothing to do except document and bear witness unfortunately. 

Predictions of violence and death before release of CIA torture report. Yahoo/AP

House Intelligence chairman Mike Rodgers (R). Yahoo/AP

House Intelligence chairman Mike Rodgers (R) says that the release of the Senates report on torture could lead to deaths and violence. Yahoo/AP. Rodgers claims that foreign governments and intelligence officials are predicting the report will be used to incite radicals to violence. The report is due to be released this week and is 480 pages long. The Obama administration supports the release of the report, but John Kerry is criticizing the timing of its release. In addition, security at embassies and consulates across the world has been increased. The report details the so called "enhanced interrogation" program and details what forms of torture were used. The report also claims that no credible intelligence was collected through the program. 

My Comment:

I predict a lot of hypocritical anger over this report. Sure the U.S. government did some shady things, but so does every government in the world. This is especially true for governments in the Middle East. In other words, people should get their own house in order before complaining about the United States. 

As for torture itself, I have always said that if torturing a terrorist prevents a terror attack it is probably worth it. Too bad that torture usually isn't effective. Torture is very good at gathering false confessions and punishing people that you don't like, but it isn't all that good at collecting reliable information. 

We shall see if the predictions of violence are correct. I'm predicting that they are, but it will be limited to demonstrations and riots. The people capable of larger attacks are already angry enough and don't need any further encouragement to conduct terror attacks. I'll revisit this issue when the report is released. 

American and South African hostage killed in failed rescue attempt in Yemen. Yahoo/AP

Luke Somers, the American hostage. Yahoo/AP

An American photojournalist and a South African teacher were killed in a failed rescue attempt in Yemen. Yahoo/AP. The two men, American Luke Somers and South African Pierre Korkie, were apparently shot by Al-Qaeda during or shortly before the rescue attempt. Tragically, Korkie was due to be released on Sunday. President Obama ordered the raid after Al-Qaeda released a video indicting that Somers was to be executed on Saturday. The video made demands but it is unclear what those demands were. In addition, a drone strike killed nine Al-Qaeda members in Yemen on the same day but it is unclear if the strike was related to the mission. This is the second failed attempt to rescue Somers as a strike last month failed due to the fact that he was not where he was suspected to be. The raid did release eight people, but none of them were the American. 

My Comment:

Yet another botched raid. I'm all for trying to rescue hostages but the U.S. governments track record lately hasn't been great. There was the raid in Syria that failed, the first raid in Yemen and now this third one that ended with two hostages dead. I understand that there is a real possibility that the military manages to pull these off successfully and it never makes the news, but when it goes wrong the whole world knows. 

Of course this was an impossible situation. Somers was due to be executed today, so this was the only chance to save him. It didn't work out, and for now it is pointless to speculate on why they failed or which organizations were involved. The only good news, such as it is, is that the hostages were killed by their captors and not by their rescuers. It was worth trying but it did not work out as planned. To be perfectly fair to the president, I may have done the same thing... 

Time will tell how big of an impact this will have. The fact that Korkie was due to be released by Al-Qaeda in just a day may end up being unpopular in South Africa. After all, he would have almost certainly lived if the rescue attempt had not happened. I have sympathy of course, but there is another aspect of this that makes me very uncomfortable. The only way Korkie would have been released is if someone paid Al-Qaeda's ransom demands. If that is the case then that does not sit well with me at all. Paying ransom for hostages only encourages further hostage taking and any country or organization that pays for hostages should really rethink things. 

Still, this is a tragedy for all involved. Except Al-Qaeda of course. Sure they almost certainly took casualties in this raid and I doubt they will get the ransom money for Korkie now. But this is a propaganda coup for them, and a needed one at that. Al-Qaeda has fallen off the news pages lately due to ISIS overshadowing them. This operation, while painful for the organization, will lead to prestige, funding and new recruits. Even though it was most likely a Pyrrhic victory, they were still able to stop a major U.S. operation from completing their mission.