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| Daily News Brief December 9, 2014 |
Top of the Agenda
Washington Braces for CIA Torture Report
U.S. military bases and diplomatic missions are on high alert (NYT) Tuesday
as a Senate report on post-9/11 interrogation tactics is set to be
released. The 480-page Senate Foreign Relations Committee report is
expected to detail harsh tactics, such as sexual threats, that were part
of the CIA's anti-terrorist Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program (Reuters).
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned the committee's chairwoman,
Dianne Feinstein, last week that the report could endanger U.S.
personnel and operations in the fight against ISIS, according to White
House officials.
Analysis
"The CIA is often forced to operate at the edge
of the United States’ acceptable response—currently with drone strikes
and a variety of activities to degrade and dismantle the Islamic State.
The avoidance of 'boots on the ground' in the Middle East has placed an
additional burden on intelligence services to work with (often flawed)
allies, target enemies and strike from afar. Political leaders, once
again, urge intelligence officials to do what is necessary," writes
Michael Gerson in the Washington Post.
"The less we reflect
upon how officials allowed the previous torture era to occur, the more
likely that it—or an era where equivalent counterterrorism abuses are
endorsed—will be repeated," writes CFR's Micah Zenko in Foreign Policy.
"[Granting pardons] may be the only way to ensure that the American government never tortures again.
Pardons would make clear that crimes were committed; that the
individuals who authorized and committed torture were indeed criminals;
and that future architects and perpetrators of torture should beware.
Prosecutions would be preferable, but pardons may be the only viable and
lasting way to close the Pandora’s box of torture once and for all,"
writes Anthony Romero in the New York Times.
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