'"Torture" became "enhanced interrogation techniques which critics call torture." '

In George Tenet's memoir he described the torture of al-Libi in Egypt - which resulted in a false confession that was used to help sell a war which as resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and will end up costing trillions of dollars - as "further debriefing." According to Jane Mayer's account, previous to being seized by the CIA, with an agent bursting in to inform al-Libi he was being sent to Egypt and that the agent was going to find and f__ck his mother, the FBI had been getting valuable and actionable intelligence from him through non-coercive means.

Secrecy coupled with lawlessness is not a key to national security. It's a key to promoting incompetent and disastrous government.

It is a very sad state of affairs when basic bedrock principles of democracy are considered a weakness, instead of what they are, the core of our vitality and strength as a society.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/7990

Source: New York Times, November 18, 2008

"Dan Abrams, the chief legal correspondent for NBC News who recently lost his prime-time cable news show, is forming a consulting firm that he hopes will connect a global Rolodex of media experts with businesses that need strategic advice," reports Brian Stelter. "The firm, Abrams Research, may resemble a narrowly focused version of 'expert network' firms that connect investors to industry experts. Journalists and bloggers retained and paid by the firm could consult with corporations, conduct media training sessions, or conduct investigative reporting for corporate clients." Abrams Research says it has also "established strategic partnerships with major PR and media strategy firms" including Dan Klores Communications and the Abernathy MacGregor Group. As Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal points out, "This is about as clear a violation of our conflict of interest rules as I can imagine. Journalists shouldn't be advising companies about how to game their own organization." Similar concerns have been expressed by journalists at CBS News and others. However, NBC seems to think that Abrams can continue to work as both a professional flack and as one of their journalists. "NBC News could not have been more accommodating throughout this process," he told TVNewser, adding that he would be "staying on as the Chief Legal Analyst for NBC News and hope to remain with NBC for many years to come."

In the comments Dan Abrams shows up and asks for corrections, at which point CMD's Sheldon Rampton has to explain to Abrams why exactly hiring out journalists to do investigative and p.r. work for corporations is bad journalism, as well as why it's a bad idea to keep him on as chief legal analyst.

They been watching that "24" garbage. Maybe that's the problem

From Torture Team by Philippe Sands

Ideas also came from other sources and Beaver mentioned one that surprised me. I noted the words "24 - Jack Bauer," but didn't immediately follow this up with her. It was only when I got home that I realized she was referring to the main character of Fox Channel's popular series 24, which everyone watched. Jack Bauer is a fictitious member of the counter-terrorism unit in L.A. who helped prevent many terror attacks on the United States; for him torture and even killing are justifiable means to achieve the desired result. "Rules don't apply to Jack Bauer," another character says in one episode, "he does what he wants, when he wants, and he doesn't care whose life it affects." Bauer had many friends at Guantanamo Bay, Beaver said, "he gave people lots of ideas." Later on I watched the second season of 24, that started broadcasting in October 2002, with my son. The first episode opened with a scene of a man being tortured, apparently with chemicals. The information he divulged - that a nuclear device was to be exploded in Los Angeles within the next twenty-four hours - was the basis for the series. The message was clear: torture works. I raised this with Beaver when I next saw her. "We saw it on cable," Beaver explained, "people had already seen the first series, it was hugely popular." She believes the scene contributed to an environment in which those at Guantanamo were encouraged to see themselves as being on the frontline - and to go further than they otherwise might. Nowadays she can't watch 24 anymore.

He would be a fantastic guest to have on Salon radio if possible.

'In an era where the Army/CIA/Military routinely enlist the misuse of the medical field (psychiatry and medical doctors) to perpetrate particular techniques upon certain "terrorist" "detainees", is there any wonder they've succeeded in obscuring what constitutes torture?'

As Jane Mayer noted in her reporting and in The Dark Side, James Mitchell - a retired military psychologist who had worked for the CIA studying illegal torture methods and how to resist them, aka the SERE progam - was brought in by the CIA to head up the interrogation of Abu Zubayda.

"could anyone even imagine a Senior Fellow at CAP proposing this while Bush was President?"

I find it fairly bewildering, Think Progress regularly decries the excessive secrecy of the Bush adminstration and did a number of posts about McClellan's book.

I'm wondering if Miller is impressed by Dick Cheney having kept the roster of his staff secret for the past 8 years. Really, how absurd is that, that Cheney was able to do that?