This is a cross-post from BuzzFeed.
Torture jokes were a big hit at Dick Cheney’s roast earlier this week. Even Cheney couldn’t help himself and told a torturing joke. Here are other torture facts Cheney and Co. can laugh about.
- U.S. forces tortured at least eight men to death.Source: Command’s Responsibility, Human Rights First
- Serving officers say Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are two powerful recruiting tools for terrorists.
- America tortured children.“They’re looking for al-Qaida, you have to say you’re al-Qaida!’ Then they put the electrodes on my toes. For ten days I had them on my feet. Every day there was torture. Some of them tortured me with electricity”
– Mohammed el Gorani and Jérôme TubianaSource: Diary of Mohammed el Gorani and Jérôme Tubiana - U.S. soldiers raped both male and female detainees, including children.
“At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube. Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts. Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.”Source: Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos ‘Show Rape’. The Telegraph, May 27, 2009 - The Bush administration used torture to try to get information that would help make the case for war with Iraq.“Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people were told repeatedly, by CIA … and by others, that there wasn’t any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam, and that no such ties were likely because the two were fundamentally enemies, not allies.”
– A former senior U.S. intelligence official Source: Abusive tactics used to seek Iraq-al Qaida, McClatchy DC - Abed Hamed Mowhoush, a former Iraqi general, was “beaten over days by U.S. Army, CIA and other non-military forces, stuffed into a sleeping bag, wrapped with electrical cord, and suffocated to death.”Source: Command’s Responsibility, Human Rights First
- According to veteran interrogators, torture prolonged the hunt for Bin Laden and complicated their jobs in trying to develop useful information.“We believe that the U.S. would have learned more from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other high value detainees if, from the beginning, professional interrogators had a chance to question them using the sophisticated, yet humane, approaches approved by U.S. law.”
– Matthew Alexander, Colonel (Ret.) Stuart A. Herrington, U.S. Army, Joe Navarro, Ken Robinson, Buck Revell, Mark Fallon, Torin Nelson, Steve Kleinman, Jack CloonanSource: Human Rights First joint statement with a coalition of retired interrogators against torture.
- The United States used “extraordinary rendition” to outsource the torture of suspects—including innocent ones—to brutal regimes. A suspect rendered to Morocco says his interrogators sliced his penis with a scalpel.Source: ‘They used a scalpel… I was crying in agony’: Guantanamo victim Binyam Mohamed speaks, Daily Mail, March 8, 2009.
- The Senate Intelligence Committee produced the most comprehensive report of the post-9/11 CIA interrogation and detention program—but it remains classified.
- Senator Dianne Feinstein says the classified Senate Intelligence Committee report shows that torture was far more systematic and widespread than we thought and is much less effective at gathering actionable intelligence.“The report uncovers startling details about the CIA detention and interrogation program and raises critical questions about intelligence operations and oversight.”
– Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee
- The CIA is fighting the Senate Intelligence Committee’s findings tooth and nail to prevent its release. Source: Human Rights First
