ABC News (12/7/14): “Will Report Put Americans in Danger?”
There’s an unfortunate impulse, when you or someone you’re close to does something wrong, to turn the situation around so that you can seem like the victim. That ugly human defense mechanism was on display on ABC‘s nightly newscast for two days running as the network previewed the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s torture program.
The report revealed shocking, even sickening treatment of the intelligence agency’s captives, more than two dozen of whom turned out to have no connection at all to militant groups. But ABC‘s focus (12/7/14) wasn’t on the US government abuses detailed in the report, but “the fear that its release could threaten American lives.”
With a graphic reading “ON ALERT: WILL REPORT PUT AMERICANS IN DANGER?,” correspondent Martha Raddatz told viewers that the report includes “some details never heard before, and many people fearing tonight that revealing them will lead to violence.”
Raddatz makes clear who she expected to become violent: “The Muslim world has erupted many times before when the US and the West have been accused of religious and cultural slights.”
“Cultural slights”—perhaps that’s a reference to the report’s revelation that the CIA made “threats to sexually abuse the mother of a detainee”?
Raddatz’s chief source for the claim that releasing the report would put Americans in danger was House Intelligence chair Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who stated this speculation as fact: “It will in fact incite violence, and it’s likely to cost someone their life.” Raddatz brought Rogers back later in the report to make the case that (in Raddatz’s words) “if this report is released, groups like ISIS will take full advantage.”
The next day (12/8/14), Raddatz was back to warn that “diplomatic and military facilities around the globe are bracing for potential violence targeting Americans.” And not only could the report lead to violence, but Raddatz’s CIA sources suggested that the lack of torture might be dangerous in itself, as “the CIA argues that waterboarding was key…in stopping future plots against America.”
In that report, Raddatz says the report revealed “shocking detail about waterboarding and other interrogation methods the CIA conducted during the dark days after 9/11.” According to the CIA, the Agency’s torture (or “Enhanced Interrogation”) program lasted until December 2007—so that would make it approximately 2,300 dark days after 9/11.
Another tortured tale of the corpress’ enhanced in-terror-gation
Diane Feinstein whined that CIA practices ‘stained’ American values, but people around the world know that these actions exemplify the values of the American Empire. ABC’s message is that it too doesn’t give a shit about non-Americans — except as threats.
Unfortunately, ABC knows its market: a nation whose only question is “How will it affect ME?” The same as whan an airplane crashes and they can report with relief, “But there were no Americans on board.” and then move on to something else.
The problem with the torture report is that most Americans either are happy about it or just don’t care. And that’s why there are only three comments on this page. Most Americans won’t even bother to read the post.
Raditz says that the revelation of these disgusting acts of violence is causing “many people fearing tonight that revealing them will lead to violence”. How disconnected can you get?
Don’t expect the Peace Laureate to do anything like invoke moral law or UN conventions against torture. Instead, he is sending out Brenner to defend torture.
Give ABC”s Martha Raddatz credit for one thing: ignorance of the subject at hand. Otherwise her mouth is where the money is, which for a journalist is far more despicable than being uninformed.
There used to be an old Fairy Tale of people who had their Arms, legs and head on backwards. Perhaps this is the ancestors of the current crop of Idiots pretending to be journalists and reporters; only the new crop also has their Feet stuck in their mouth, and are shaped like doughnuts, with the Cranium lodged securely up the backside.
It’s the only explanation that can answer how these people can screw up things in such a royal fashion.
I find it bizarre that anyone imagines that the enemies of the United States are not already well aware that Uncle Sam tortures people.
“Why on earth do they hate us?” ask many Americans, mystified. “Why don’t our bombs and Hellfire missiles win their hearts and minds?” And then the thought strikes them: “Don’t anyone tell them that our agents torture people, too, or then they’ll hate us even more – though, heaven knows, they have no reason to!”
This discussion marks just how far from reality we have strayed. Al Qaeda and ISIS are not rational organizations, nor are their respective leaders driven by rationality.
If all this torture works so well, why is it that after all this time we still don’t understand this? Why are people (in this case Ms. Raddatz and Mr. Rogers) so sure that the information revealed in the report will cause violence? Al Qaeda and ISIS are both ultra-violent organizations on their own, regardless of what we do. (Technically, this is a failure, not so much of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, but of being able to interpret and analyse the information thus obtained, or for that matter from simple observation.) But surely, by now, most people know that these radical organizations do what they want and blame any and all of their crimes on the victims.
The real issue here is who are we as a people? The charge to us is to do the right thing, tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. We have no control over the actions or insanity of others.