THE TORTURE REPORT: A COMMENTARY BY AN AMERICAN

American soldier prepare for deployment in 2004

EDITORIAL
By Rev. Jim Purcell

In December, 2014, 525 pages worth of an "executive summary" was published, which is supposed to represent a 6,000-page, in-depth study about the Detention and Interrogation Program the CIA operated between 2001-2006. It was published by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The larger report is classified, and no doubt will be until doom's crack.

Millions of pages of materials were examined by the SSCI. And, according to nearly every decent reference out there, the Obama Administration and the CIA have done little to actually assist this investigation. Yes, they've talked it but they sure as Hell haven't walked it.

There were allegations the CIA attempted to hack the SSCI computer network used during the investigation. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, was pretty sure the CIA did it. At the end of the day, that too was covered up by the CIA and the Justice Department. Then there is Obama, the supposed "Good Guy" who "fights for the people" and all that. Well, he used executive privilege to hold back documents and other materials requested specifically by the SSCI. Why? Because those documents would 'clear' the CIA?

I doubt it. I doubt it very much.


Ft. Bragg's "Iron Mike" embodies America's ideals

Everyone is walking around on egg shells here about what is hitting everyone in the face: The CIA used "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- torture -- on detainees. And, they didn't actually get anymore information from detainees than they would have if they had been using conventional tenants allowed under the Geneva and Hague Conventions, which we, as a nation, have been a party to since World War I.

American officials broke those tenants, though, purposefully and with malice. By definition, those are acts of war criminals. Anyone who exceeds what is allowed under the Geneva and Hague Conventions is, irrefutably, a war criminal. It appears we have quite a few of those hiding behind our stars and stripes now.

A moron could put together that innocent people do not destroy evidence, as CIA Clandestine Services chief Jose Rodriguez did when he destroyed 100 recordings of interrogations of detainees from 2005. President Barack Obama has used executive privilege to keep 9,400 pieces of evidence away from SSCI investigators. And, even the SSCI has balked at providing Americans, who paid for this failed Big Top from stem to stern, the full, unedited report of atrocities done in the name of this country by at least one of its agencies.

Well, here is where the commentary comes in: I am an American who has served my country in its uniform in peacetime and wartime. I love my country and what it stands for, and always have. I have spent my career fighting for causes like Civil Rights, Women's Rights and Peace when not in an Army uniform. And, I know what America should be and what it shouldn't be. The United States should never be a nation of evil, regardless of the enemy or the era, and the leaders of that dark time, President Bush and Vice President Cheney, presided over the destruction of our American ideals and wrapped a flag around it to shut people up. There are many people who will not shut up, and if I haven't shut up by now then I guess I'm not going to do that either.


A color guard of vets from the 82nd Abn Div. Assn.

We, as a nation, are the Great American Experiment in democracy and freedom -- still. And, if we are not that then we are nothing. If our nation has sunken to being similar to some sweaty, Third World banana republic then someone in power needs to send that memo to the people of this nation. Already, some of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have, from what I have heard and seen, accepted that torture is OK because that is the generation they come from. Most don't and thank God for it. But, that contamination of spirit will be felt for years in our services, and not easily be turned to Right.

I served in an Army that was dedicated to freedom for our country and its neighbors. It observed the Geneva and Hague Conventions. My uncles served in that Army too, as did my father and his father. And, none of us were serving in the Mexican Marine Corps, where looting, murder and torture were 'just fine.' Years after I have left the military, I still salute our flag every morning and every evening. I do it not because I want to be some 'rah rah' guy; I do it out of respect for what America is supposed to mean. I salute for those who have served our nations and made terrible sacrifices. I salute the American flag because I still hear the words of our late President John F. Kennedy talking about our nation as a "City on the Hill." I salute the flag because I took an oath when I entered the service, and to me it has no time-stamp or expiration. America is a place where intelligence, reason, strength, determination and peace is emblazoned onto our hearts, or should be. When we must fight a war, we do it with all resolve in the name of freedom or defense.

On Main Street, USA

None of this affair is consistent with any of the principles of the nation I grew up under and served, of the nation I love still and always shall. I hear this era's wartime vets today talking about how this was a "different war." Well, my ass it was. If you look back through the trenches of World War I, the global war throughout the planet in World War II, the nightmares that were Korea and Vietnam, among others, these were not walks in the park. Still, though, our nation managed to stay our nation through these trials by fire -- still America represented what our Founders stood for, and what every American since them have stood for.

Only now, because of their majesties King George of America and Prince Cheney has the American dream been disfigured, mangled and turned into a mockery of its once glorious self. And, every official that supports not being open and honest about the events from 2001-2006 as part of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program stand against the echoes of real American patriots who have sacrificed so much for our land. Yes, that means President Obama is in the wrong here too.

If there is not an actual accountability of what happened, when it happened and who was involved then justice has not been served. I say our nation stop thinking about what the damn world thinks and clean our house clear of the traitors who sanctioned and operated this criminal program within the CIA.

I say to hell with pleasantries. No one is above the law, or no one should be. If they are, and commit the despicable acts outlined in this report, then we, as a nation, have traveled far afield of what we once were.

I don't care a good goddamn about the detainees. They can all go to Hades for all I care. I do not speak in their defense, but in the defense of our nation, our homes, our ways of life. This abomination that has been visited upon our land, the torture of prisoners in direct contrast with the Geneva and Hague Conventions deserves being answered by courts of either this country or in the world.

As for the official air of government lackeys being jerks and calmly citing some self-indulgent law protecting wrong-doers in our government -- I say their lying should not rule the day, and it will certainly not win out in the Judgment.

(This is the second of a four-part series about "The Torture Report")

(Rev. James J. Purcell is a graduate of the New York Theological Seminary, in NYC. He is also a former Paratrooper and NCO who served within the U.S. Army's Intelligence Corps. As a journalist after the service, Rev. Purcell wrote for several daily newspapers in the state, and formerly published the weekly Courier, in Monmouth County, NJ.)