Have you heard of Peter Madsen? He is a Danish inventor, pretty rich guy who had a homemade submarine. In August last year Swedish journalist Kim Wall came to his submarine to conduct an interview about his project. It didn't go well. Actually, it has gone horribly wrong. He tortured her first, and her dismembered remains were found at sea 11 days later…
Few days ago, Peter Madsen has been sentenced to life without parole. Deserved. What do you think, what would be a deserved sentence for someone who actually was “carrying out, supervising, or directing the torture or abuse of people in U.S. custody”, or took a part in “the destruction of evidence relating to these activities”?
OK, you know now what am I talking about. “Bloody” Gina Haspel. Instead of long prison sentence, she is bound to become — a head of CIA!
Actually, she already took over CIA as an acting director, since last Thursday Mike Pompeo was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as the new secretary of state. She has yet to be confirmed in the Senate as the agency’s permanent director, which instigated 109 retired US generals and admirals to send an open letter addressed to Senat, urging lawmakers to reject Gina Haspel’s nomination as CIA director for being “intimately involved in torture,” and to declassify her role in the notorious interrogation program.
“…there are multiple uncontested reports that she ran a CIA “black site” prison, at which at least one detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was repeatedly tortured, including by waterboarding. In addition, former CIA general counsel John Rizzo has stated that for some period of time a person we now know to be Ms. Haspel oversaw the CIA’s entire interrogation program—a program that was rife with mismanagement and abuse.”
The letter was published at the “Human Rights First” website, and you can read it in full here…
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) also appeal against her nomination, insisting that torture puts US troops “in serious jeopardy when captured.” In their memo (with 26 signatures) they said that “there is no more effective recruitment tool than torture to attract more terrorists.”
So, here is a standard: you can develop, surveil and apply torture programs in secret prisons all over the world as long as you do it for the Empire. But if anyone try to reveal those monstrous crimes, he will probably finish in jail like John Kiriakou, who revealed the CIA torture program.
English is not my native language, and I can’t find the right words for this. Can you?
