CIA Using Torture

The Washington Post has reported that the CIA is using torture in order to elicit information for the war on terror.

Those who refuse to cooperate inside this secret CIA interrogation center [in Bagram, Afghanistan] are sometimes kept standing or kneeling for hours, in black hoods or spray-painted goggles, according to intelligence specialists familiar with CIA interrogation methods. At times they are held in awkward, painful positions and deprived of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of lights -- subject to what are known as "stress and duress" techniques.

Those who cooperate are rewarded with creature comforts, interrogators whose methods include feigned friendship, respect, cultural sensitivity and, in some cases, money. Some who do not cooperate are turned over -- "rendered," in official parlance -- to foreign intelligence services whose practice of torture has been documented by the U.S. government and human rights organizations.

...The picture that emerges is of a brass-knuckled quest for information, often in concert with allies of dubious human rights reputation, in which the traditional lines between right and wrong, legal and inhumane, are evolving and blurred.

Predictably, Human Rights Watch is up in arms. The Guardian follows up on the story here.

I hope nobody is surprised about this. The CIA has used and outsourced torture for the past 50+ years. They've literally written the book on how to use torture effectively.