Former US intelligence official Scott Rickard comments on an upcoming Senate report on CIA’s torture program.
Tue Nov 18, 2014 9:51PM GMT
1
Americans
should be made “well aware” of the “actual horrors” caused by the
United States intelligence agencies, says former US intelligence
official Scott Rickard as a Senate report on CIA’s torture program
awaits release.
Rickard, a former American intelligence linguist in Florida, told Press TV on Tuesday that such a report would not “further endanger Americans,” yet he questioned if it could “properly” report the real “horrors” caused by US intelligence activities.
“The degree at which some of the torture is being conducted may have been reduced but at the same time the horror that was caused… may not be properly represented in this report” on the US torture program in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, which the government calls “defunct,” yet “has continued” so far, Rickard said.
“This is just a snippet… of what has actually occurred over the last ten years.”The former US official further slammed the mainstream media for not “playing a great role in whistle blowing” and working “alongside the State Department and Pentagon to really mask these horrors.”
“Americans aren’t aware of the actual horrors that are being conducted by American agencies like the CIA.”
If Americans were given the “proper information” on a daily basis in this regard, they would “speak out” against it, he said.
“There are interrogation techniques but let’s not go to this extreme barbarism... in order to achieve our goals,” said the former US official.
“At the end of the day, you’re only encouraging others to do the same,” he noted, a day after ISIL terrorists released a video, saying they had beheaded American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig.
The United States has been accused of torturing prisoners in both domestic prisons and CIA’s so-called black sites abroad. Human rights groups accuse Obama of repeatedly declining to deliver justice for US torture victims.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has conducted a five-year investigation into the CIA’s torture program adopted in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 attacks.
But the CIA is reportedly seeking to conceal facts about its controversial interrogation methods in the upcoming report, whose release has been delayed due to a dispute over declassification review.
NT/NT
