Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 434 posts

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#231

Post by adolph »

nanna wrote: post #169
ganzuul wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, this is far, far worse. It shows the CIA is just as rogue as the Kremlin, and given their history it is fairly clear now that within these two groups there is extreme collusion. The Western intelligence apparatus has been hijacked by a force that is getting instructions from the reptilian brain instead of the cerebral cortex, meaning they are now the enemy.

> The Western intelligence apparatus has been hijacked by a force that is getting instructions from the reptilian brain The sheer wackiness of David Icke's Antisemitism (where 'reptile brains' are coda for Jews) never ceases to amaze me.

I'm not 100% sure what the OP intended but there are more generous interpretations:

Many people call [the limbic system] the "Lizard Brain,” because the limbic system is about all a lizard has for brain function. It is in charge of fight, flight, feeding, fear, freezing up, and fornication.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/where-addiction-meet...

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#232

Post by worik »

xyst wrote: post #110

"Enhanced interrogation techniques" is one of the reasons why the US no longer recognizes the ICC jurisdiction.

Their routine use of torture is one of the reasons why the US no longer recognizes the ICC jurisdiction.

Can we not use the euphemisms?

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#233

Post by black_puppydog »

teakettle42 wrote: post #139
mywacaday wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to see how the US can claim a moral high ground on anything when it continues to not be a member of the ICC and is even occasionally actively hostile towards individual judges and member countries by threatening sanctions.

I’m glad that my US constitutional rights cannot be abrogated by a supranational judicial system.

And that's why the US is increasingly seen as nothing more than a bully on the international stage. And to the point of the root comment, this will fall back on everyone in the US, you included.

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#234

Post by cheeze »

gerbilly wrote: post #209
pandemicsoul wrote: post #166

Bonkers reading through this thread and seeing people discuss torture as casually and unemotionally as if it were just a regular ol' anyday thing. Like wow folks, this is not academic!

That's HN for you. I honestly don't know why I keep coming here. This is a safe space for rationalisation, we can't let 'the feels' creep in and threaten that. Also it would be way too 'political' if we assigned a moral valence to torture, and political discussions are discouraged here.

But it's totally okay to get political about COVID and deny, deny, deny here.

Such an odd cross section of libertarian "freedom above all else" people and legitimately smart technical folks.

I like the technical part, the "this is binary and I believe in freedom above all else" cohort turns me off pretty hard though.

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#235

Post by worik »

foxyv wrote: post #2

I kind of hoped that Biden would try and stop this thing from happening anymore. Or Obama... Then I see stuff like this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/06/cia-torture-...

Obama was very bad. Made the use of robots to do extra judicial killings, state sanctioned murder, routine.

What a shame.

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#236

Post by hammock »

keybored wrote: post #217
mrtksn wrote: post #11

This is the kind of stuff that probably makes some people’s job down the pipe easier and at the same time undermines the Western civilization. Make no mistake, no US citizen outside of the political class benefits from this or other atrocities. The exact same goes for the surveillance programs. Losing the moral high ground degrades the whole society. The whole anti establishment movement rallies around stuff like thi…

I cannot express how bewildering this comment is. The article in question is about using torture as a training tool -- inflicting brain damage on a person so that folks will learn the valuable skill of beating up defenseless people. Then this comment comes along and complains about the optics of it. Why? Because it undermines "Western civilization". And what's the problem with that? Because then Western civilization…

What about parent comment did you think had to do with optics? By my reading it has everything to do with the actual behavior itself, which they call "atrocities."

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#237

Post by worik »

foxyv wrote: post #133
joncp wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like: "Hey boss, remember JFK? It would be a real shame if something like that happened to you. Or your family."

How long do you think the CIA would remain as a legitimate organization if something like that happened? All it would take is one public statement by a president that CIA had threatened them and the organization would come down like a house of cards. The entire leadership would be in handcuffs and trying to explain away treason to the FBI who would happily hand them over to military intelligence organizations to rend…

> How long do you think the CIA would remain as a legitimate organization if something like that happened?

It has been about seventy years so far.

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#238

Post by black_puppydog »

cwkoss wrote: post #170

If our country was just, everyone in the CIA who engaged in or authorized torture would be executed. I'm typically against capital punishment, but state sanctioned torture is such a far line past what is acceptable, I really think we'd be better off if we swept all these evil people off the face of the planet. Instead, they get cushy think tank and consultancy jobs as a reward for their evil 'service'.

There'd also be the option of "give them the toughest punishment in the book."

That might finally make a dent in getting rid of capital punishment once and for all.

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#239

Post by mywacaday »

teakettle42 wrote: post #139
mywacaday wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to see how the US can claim a moral high ground on anything when it continues to not be a member of the ICC and is even occasionally actively hostile towards individual judges and member countries by threatening sanctions.

I’m glad that my US constitutional rights cannot be abrogated by a supranational judicial system.

What about the US abrogating the legal rights of people, terrorist or not, taking them to a black site to avoid their own domestic laws and using them as a training test doll for torture techniques to the point of causing brain damage. At some point every country should be accountable to someone.

Re: CIA black site detainee served as training prop to teach torture techniques

#240

Post by mhh__ »

NoGravitas wrote: post #35
foxyv wrote: post #2

I kind of hoped that Biden would try and stop this thing from happening anymore. Or Obama... Then I see stuff like this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/06/cia-torture-...

Obama ran for office on a pledge to close Guantanamo, and he could have done so by executive order. He didn't, and that should tell you all you need to know about the nature of the American presidency.

Didn't or couldn't?
Post reply on HN