Sunday, February 12, 2006

Bush Fires CIA Counter-Terror Expert Who Would Not Stoop to Torture



From The Sunday Times UK:

CIA CHIEF SACKED FOR OPPOSING TORTURE

The CIA’s top counter-terrorism official was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as "water boarding", intelligence sources have claimed.

Robert Grenier, head of the CIA counter-terrorism centre, was relieved of his post after a year in the job. . . Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of counter-terrorism at the agency, said: "It is not that Grenier wasn't aggressive enough, it is that he wasn't 'with the programme'. He expressed misgivings about the secret prisons in Europe and the rendition of terrorists.

Grenier also opposed "excessive" interrogation, such as strapping suspects to boards and [near-drowning] them in water, according to Cannistraro. . .

AB "Buzzy" Krongard, a former executive director of the CIA who resigned shortly after Goss's arrival, said . . . said it was up to President George Bush to stop the rot. "The agency has only one client: the president of the United States," he said. "The reorganisation is the way this president wanted it. If he is unwilling to reform it, the agency will go on as it is."

"History will judge how good an idea it was to destroy the teams and the programmes that were in place."
Link here to whole story.

I've made jokes about Bush's documented youthful penchant for animal sadism, when he amused himself by putting lit firecrackers into live frogs and blasting them to bits. I've called him "Preznit Toad-Exploder" and made reference to the pro-sadism policies of Cheney and Gonzalez. Krongard's quote here makes me think the number one pro-torture sadist IS actually Bush. Which is quite in line with the pathology of his youth, I fear.

On another related unhappy note, here is the story of a returned Iraq vet who had survivor guilt and PTSD (related to witnessing civilian deaths and CIA torture) who was unable to get the inpatient psychiatric care he needed as the beds in the PTSD ward were full. Supported by outpatient therapy, he later killed his father and then himself.

It's not just a Buddhist thing. Actions have consequences. People are injured not merely by being subjected to torture, but by subjecting others to torture, and by having to witness others being tortured.

How hard is that to figure out?





5 comments:

enigma4ever said...

As a nurse we were always taught that children that have a penchent for hurting small defenseless animals and pleasuring in it- were to be watched and feared that these are truly danger signs...
Signs of a Pathological Path that will cause harm to others.....

and that yes, if it starts with small animals the size of the Prey grows...

enigma4ever said...

I will try this again- I think my comments are not making it through...I keep getting those spam alert things...Thanks for posting on this...I came back to say something- but now I got destracted and I cna't remember what I was going to say...guess we'll see if this goes through....

Neil Shakespeare said...

I agree. Bush, and everyone around him, has pathological tendencies. Tendencies? Hell, I guess they aren't 'tendencies' anymore when you play them out, are they?

Lily said...

Yes, I agree, especially with your last paragraph and the impact on both the victim and the perpetrator...

No Blood for Hubris said...

e4e, neil, lily --These sociopathic traits are very disturbing--teen Bush exploding frogs with firecrackers, and Cheney going on hunts not for hunting, but for the opportunity to kill.

kvatch--good point. cat out of bag, one hopes?

e4e--sorry about comment problems. I'll work on it.