December 10, 2014

The Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday released its report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) “enhanced interrogation” techniques, considered by many to be torture. The techniques were used on al-Qa’ida terrorism suspects in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. These techniques included exposure to cold, confinement in small places, humiliation, slapping, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding. (Waterboarding involves pouring water over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the sensation of drowning.) The document that was published is actually a 480-page summary of the Senate committee’s report, which runs to more than 6,000 pages and includes huge quantities of evidence that remains classified.

The authors of the report drew the following conclusions about “enhanced interrogation”: The methods employed were more extensive and more brutal than previously admitted; the techniques  did not deliver life-saving intelligence to U.S. officials; and CIA officials “provided inaccurate information to the Bush administration, Congress, the Justice Department, the CIA inspector general, the media, and the American public.” The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Diane Feinstein (D., California), wrote in the report that it is her “personal conclusion that, under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which released a report criticizing CIA interrogation methods during the administration of President George W. Bush. (U.S. Senate)

Senator John McCain of Arizona was the only Republican senator to defend the findings of the Senate committee on the CIA’s interrogation techniques. McCain was tortured as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. (U.S. Senate)

Nearly all Senate Republicans opposed the publication of the report, claiming that its revelations would place American lives in jeopardy and risk setting off a backlash overseas. Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, and five other Republican senators issued a 100-page dissent refuting the report. They claimed that the CIA was advised that its methods were not torture and that the program was critical to the destruction of al-Qa`ida. However, Republican Senator John McCain praised the Intelligence Committee report, stating that the CIA’s conduct “stained our national honor” and had done “much harm and little practical good.” As a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, McCain was tortured by his captors. Soon after taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama ordered the CIA interrogation program stopped.

Additional World Book articles:

• United States, Government 2004 (a Back in Time article)
• United States, Government 2007 (a Back in Time article)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)

September 5, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin opened the G20 group of nations summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia, today, stating that Syria would be discussed at a dinner later tonight, despite the fact that Syria is not formally on the agenda. United States President Barack Obama is seeking international support for military strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks on Syrian civilians. Russia and China have warned the United States not to take action without the backing of the United Nations Security Council. However, Russia and China have consistently vetoed attempts to bring pressure on Assad by the Security Council. Both have insisted that any solution to the Syrian civil war must be political.

In a surprising development, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced today that military action against Syria would be one of the topics discussed at the opening G20 dinner in St. Petersburg (AP/Wide World).

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10 to 7 in favor of granting the formal military authorization for the strikes in Syria requested by President Obama. The vote paves the way for a full vote on the floor of the Senate next week. Before the vote, the committee accepted amendments proposed by Senator John McCain (R., Arizona) that explicitly call for the United States to seek to “change the momentum of the battlefield” in ways that would force Assad to resign. The amendment reads in part: “It is the policy of the United States to . . . create favorable conditions for a negotiated settlement that ends the conflict and leads to a democratic government in Syria. A comprehensive U.S. strategy in Syria should aim . . .  to degrade the capabilities of the Assad regime to use weapons of mass destruction while upgrading the lethal and non-lethal military capabilities of vetted elements of Syrian opposition forces, including the Free Syrian Army.” (The Free Syrian Army is the most moderate of the armed rebel groups operating in Syria since the start of the civil war; among other groups, the terrorist organization al-Qa`idain Iraq is known to have moved forces into Syria.)

Arizona Senator John McCain added amendments to the Senate resolution granting President Obama authorization for military strikes in Syria. The amendments call for a "change in the momentum of the battlefield" to force Assad's resignation. (U.S. Senate).

Political experts note that the U.S. House of Representatives—with its deep and persistent divisions amongst legislators, both liberal and conservative—is unlikely to pass the resolution as amended by Senator McCain. Many liberal members are afraid that military strikes might lead to a greater involvement in the conflict. Many House conservatives are either isolationists or fear that any further military intervention in the Middle East would add to deficit spending, pushing up the national debt.

Additional World Book articles:

• Arab Spring
• Chemical Weapons Convention
• Celebrating the City of the Czars (a special report)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Syria: The Roots of Rebellion (a special report)
• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2012 (a Back in Time article)