[In the Drunk Tank]

Originally Posted by Livia

I think it's dangerous to continually hold the security services to public account. It's hard to conceive the weight of responsibility on the security services in all countries fighting terrorism and reports like this do nothing but aid terrorists and support for terrorists. Waterboarding caused convulsions and vomiting... well at least their heads weren't hacked off.

The most telling sentence from that whole report for me is this:
"The intelligence gained from the programme was critical to our understanding of al-Qaeda and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day," Director John Brennan said in a statement."

Can't help but feel like those are the empty words of a Director who needs to cover his ass though, I'd place more weight in the findings of a transparent and deeply researched report. I also doubt the US security services would be so understanding if a report surfaced like this about the Russian security services.

Fact is you cannot claim to be a beacon of human rights on the surface while carrying out stuff like this clandestinely. You either work within the law or you're above it. And when you are above it you can no longer preach it.