The Role of 9/11 in Justifying Torture and War: The Criminalization of the US State Apparatus. Senate Report on CIA Torture is a Whitewash
Global Research, December 11, 2014
http://www.globalresearch
The words “possible criminal actions” by CIA employees is used in the report. The terms “unethical” and “immoral” are mentioned. The criminality of those who ordered these actions at the highest levels of government, however, is not acknowledged.
The actions directed against alleged jihadists are categorized as “ineffective” in the process of revealing intelligence. This in itself is a red herring. The objective of torture was not to reveal intelligence (but to terrorize).
What of course is not acknowledged is that the alleged terrorists who were tortured were framed by the CIA. Known and documented, the Al Qaeda network is a creation of US intelligence. The jihadists are US “intelligence assets”.
And the Senate committee report ultimately upholds the legitimacy of the US intelligence apparatus, the US government, its military and intelligence agenda and its “humanitarian wars” waged in different parts of the World.
The term “legally misguided” is mentioned but the fact that these actions were “illegal” and “criminal” is casually dismissed.
According to Senator Feinstein: “The CIA plays an incredibly important part in our nation’s security and has thousands of dedicated and talented employees.”
The actions documented by the Senate report were undertaken from 2001-2009, namely during the Bush administration, overlapping into the Obama presidency. This inevitably raises the issue of responsibility of the current US administration. There is no evidence that these practices were abandoned by the Obama presidency. In fact quite the opposite. And the “Global War on Terrorism” prevails with new initiatives on the drawing board of the Pentagon.
The Role of 9/11
9/11 serves as a justification for the torture program in same way as it serves as a justification to wage war on Afghanistan and Iraq. According to Senator Feinstein:
“All of us have vivid memories of that Tuesday morning when terror struck New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. “Make no mistake, on September 11, 2001 war was declared on the United States.
“Terrorists struck our financial center. They struck our military center. And they tried to strike our political center and would have, had brave and courageous passengers not brought down the plane. “We still vividly remember the mix of outrage and deep despair and sadness as we watched from Washington. “Smoke rising from the Pentagon. The passenger plane lying in a Pennsylvania field. The sound of bodies striking canopies at ground level as innocents jumped to the ground below from the World Trade Center.
Enemy Number One: Osama bin Laden, alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks
The tacit argument –which is contained in the Senate report– is that America was under attack. Evil folks are lurking. The security of the Homeland was at stake. And these evil people knew things (allegedly intelligence that even the CIA and White House didn’t know) which were threatening our security. The CIA had a mandate to go after “the terrorists.”
Yet we all know by now that the 9/11 official narrative is a fabrication. The official 9/11 story is that Osama bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks. Lest we forget, bin Laden was hospitalized in a Pakistani military hospital in Rawalpindi on September 9, 2001.
9/11 was used as a pretext, a casus belli to wage an illegal (and fabricated) war against Afghanistan. What we are dealing with is a criminal US State apparatus.
Jihadists were not behind the 9/11 attacks. The evidence points to a conspiracy at the highest levels of US government including the involvement of the intelligence apparatus.
We do not learn from our mistakes, says Senator Feinstein. These decisions were from an administrative point of view misguided, according to the Senate Committee. 
It was all a big mistake, according to the Senate report. (But it was no mistake. Those White House, the NSA, and the CIA had planned it for a long time … to build a pretext for enlarging the US war machine.)
It was all a big mistake, according to the Senate report. (But it was no mistake. Those White House, the NSA, and the CIA had planned it for a long time … to build a pretext for enlarging the US war machine.)
The evidence contained in the report points to criminal wrongdoing at the highest levels of government. Yet the political statements underlying the report as well as the media coverage constitute a whitewash (escape clauses so that no criminals will be prosecuted).
The September 11, 2001 attacks provided the green light to wage a “Global War on Terrorism.” While the report acknowledges CIA brutality, it does not question the legitimacy of the “Global War on Terrorism”. The acts of torture were all for a good cause (albeit illegal, immoral, and insane … and covered up at the highest levels of governmetn).
The truth is that the CIA is a criminal entity within the US State apparatus.
Nobody is to be held responsible. The report is in essence a political whitewash. In substance what the report says is:
“We are clean and moral people, it was an administrative error to torture the terrorists. But under the circumstances with our nation under attack, it is understandable that we acted in that way. Let us learn from our mistakes. It will never happen again.” But history will judge us.
The ugly truth underlying the “Global War on Terrorism” has not acknowledged. The fact that torture has been routinely applied [since the establishment of the military], extensively applied in Latin America, Africa and South East Asia, and has always been casually dismissed.
President Bush is not alone. What he did was to implement a policy which was already firmly entrenched in the intelligence community. Blaming Bush is not enough. Every US administration that has gone to war has endorsed the practices of torture.
What distinguishes the Bush and Obama administrations, in relation to the historical record of U.S. sponsored crimes and atrocities, is that the concentration camps, targeted assassinations, and torture chambers became known to the public (mostly via the internet) and were openly admitted as legitimate forms of intervention to support the spread of Western democracy.
Will the Architects of Torture be Indicted for Crimes against Humanity?
Today’s legal system in America has all the essential features of an inquisitorial order, which supports torture and provides a green light to CIA atrocities.
The Senate report ultimately upholds guidelines of the Department of Justice adopted in the immediate wake of 9/11. Torture is permitted under certain circumstances, according to an August 2002 Justice Department legal opinion:
“If a government employee were to torture a suspect in captivity, he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the Al Qaeda terrorist network (said the memo, from the Justice Departments office of legal counsel, written in response to a CIA request for legal guidance). It added that arguments centering on necessity and self-defense could provide justifications that would eliminate any criminal liability later. (See Washington Post, June 7, 2004)
Interrogation methods bordering on torture do not imply an unconstitutional infringement according to the U.S. Justice Department:
Even if an interrogation method might arguably have crossed the line drawn in Section and application of the stature, it was not held to be an unconstitutional infringement of the Presidents Commander in Chief authority. We believe that under current circumstances [the war on terrorism] certain justification defenses might be available that would potentially eliminate criminal liability. (Complete August 2, 2002 Justice Department Memorandum in pdf)
The current US policy is to regard anybody who doubts the legitimacy of the American Inquisition (i.e. 9/11 and the Global War on Terrorism) as a heretic conspiracy theorist or an accomplice of the terrorists.
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