Comments on: ABC News: Whoops, Our Story Sanitizing Torture Was All Wrong

By: Mick Savage

Mick Savage — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:16:57 +0000

Butt crust:

Stay home and learn how to torture discreetly will you?
RE you idiotic exit question: The question of how the WTC was destroyed appears to be a festering sore for Amerikka; why else would a steel-framed building untouched by the hijacked aircraft still be attributed to the still unidentified “terrorists” attack.
Are you sure you weren’t separated at birth from your moronic twin, Jose Chung?

By: Crust

Crust — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:06:50 +0000

And what about Brian Ross and ABC’s screw up falsely linking anthrax to Iraq? Will they ever correct that?

By: liberals are liars

liberals are liars — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:24:58 +0000

‘A U.S. official with knowledge of the interrogation program told FOX News that the much-cited figure represents the number of times water was poured onto Mohammed’s face — not the number of times the CIA applied the simulated-drowning technique on the terror suspect. According to a 2007 Red Cross report, he was subjected a total of “five sessions of ill-treatment.”

“The water was poured 183 times — there were 183 pours,” the official explained, adding that “each pour was a matter of seconds.”…

The memos did not note that the sessions would be made up of a number of short pours — the ones the U.S. official said lasted “a matter of seconds” — and that created the huge numbers quoted by the New York Times: 183 on Mohamed, 83 on Zubaydah.
Pours, not waterboards.’

Exit question: How many seconds’ worth of water poured on the face of the guy who destroyed the World Trade Center is “inhumane”?”

By: Tena

Tena — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:54:25 +0000

Slightly off-topic, because it’s less about the media, but I think it explains, perhaps, some of Obama’s odd reactions to all this –

Y’all know this is basically also a war between the FBI and the CIA, who don’t like cooperating under the best of circumstances. With Bush just outright blaming 9-11 on the intelligence community, I think that ramped up the war between the agencies and I am betting that the CIA had the FBI reports that I heard about right after that FBI trip to Iraq, hushed up. I’ve been told, Greg, that your paper is a Company organ.

By: Tena

Tena — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:20:25 +0000

“AllButCertain A big issue I have with the Newshour is their non coverage of the UN Inspectors who had been on the ground in Iraq for four months pre invasion”

God you’re so right. So right. The inspectors had to run for their lives because Commander CooCoo decided to move up the invasion time because the inspectors were coming up empty-handed and his causus belli was disappearing. And Saddam kept coming on TV saying: “We’re cooperating and I promise you it won’t make any difference because Bush is going to invade regardless.”

And Bush invaded. And he and Cheney stole all of Saddam’s money. And then they hung him.

Lovely.

By: bob atkinson

bob atkinson — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:53:53 +0000

AllButCertain A big issue I have with the Newshour is their non coverage of the UN Inspectors who had been on the ground in Iraq for four months pre invasion. In two consecutive shows they had the very serious experts in interviews of why this atrocity was about to happen and in neither was the fact that 200 inspectors scouring the country for four months allowed to come up. Hate to say it but Jim Leher and Margaret Warner lost a viewer for their obvious complicity in the misinformation campaign.

By: AllButCertain

AllButCertain — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:40:07 +0000

SG – Thanks for those links. The Greenwald piece is particularly illuminating, and thus disturbing.

By: bob

bob — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:21:17 +0000

Greg, the two guys who designed the program, Jessen and Mitchell, “misrepresented” their experience to the CIA, according to the ABC News article. That sounds like lying to a federal official and is a crime. Any chance you could post on that angle?

By: kgb999

kgb999 — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:20:00 +0000

TheraP …. I think you are cutting the media too much slack.
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Propaganda is a significant weapon. This story was clearly crafted to create a false impression that minimized the use of torture. They have been selling torture to the American people like it was breakfast cereal. IMO the disinformation campaign is as big a part of this picture as who actually performed and authorized the torture. I say leave no stone unturned.

By: AllButCertain

AllButCertain — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:56:06 +0000

I have a question. Has anyone ever seen any kind of statement from or on the NewsHour about their using John Yoo as a commenter on legal issues involving the Bush administration? They did acknowledge using those military leaders who were revealed to be pushing administration talking points in that Pulitzer story. In fact, they did a segment on the story. But have they ever taken responsibility about Yoo?

By: Tena

Tena — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:49:34 +0000

“Instead, they were enablers, often not just pushing administration talking points but “misreporting” to use a kind of euphemism”

This is true because when I was still listening to “All Things Considered” every day on NPR, I heard a report in 2005, on the FBI’s trip to Iraq and their subsequent outrage at what was going on there. I knew what was going on in Abu Ghraib by 2005, because the FBI was trying to get it public. But so far as I know, only NPR reported on those findings and it all just disappeared.

And until the public was made truly aware of all this, they were polling in favor of what amounted to torture. If you don’t give Americans the information about someone who is charged with or suspected of committing some heinous act, Americans will almost instantly say: “we don’t care what you do to that person – they are scum.” If you make it clear what is actually happening, however, Americans will stop and think. You just have to tell them – “no, wait, this is what it is and this is what is going on and these people aren’t the criminals you think they are.” Now Americans know this, it’s been reported, now a large majority agree this is torture and illegal.

By: sgwhiteinfla

sgwhiteinfla — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:49:17 +0000

Here is a Glenzilla post about Brian Ross and how he operates and how the Kirakou story came to be on his show.
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/28/ross/index.html

By: sgwhiteinfla

sgwhiteinfla — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:46:22 +0000

The one thing that I think people might be missing is this, Kiriakao was treated as a whistleblower at the time by the media. This besides the fact that he was actually defending the practices that he supposedly was coming out to acknowledge. Notice the wording in the new ABC piece. They say he was the first one to “reveal” that we waterboarded but thats bullsh*t. By then several accounts of waterboarding were already out bu they weren’t “official” accounts. Kiriakao was the first one to come out and ADMIT that we waterboarded. But Tom Ricks asked the relevant questions the other day. Why didn’t the CIA put him on trial for revealing states secrets? And this is the most important part so don’t miss it. BECAUSE ITS LIKELY HE WAS A PLANT BY THE CIA TO SHAPE THE TONE OF THE STORY. Now Brian Ross wasn’t the only one to run his story. In point of fact everybody clamored to get him on their show or in their story after ABC news ran there’s. But Ross was the first one to give him the mic without doing the least bit of research before the interview or after to try to verify any parts of his story. He was just in such a rush for a “scoop” that he couldn’t be bothered. So what it comes down to is that the let someone come on a “news” show and spread propaganda
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Don’t forget that a guy just got a pulitizer prize for journalism for a story that ran in the NYTimes about how major news programs let former military leaders come on their shows and spread propaganda for the military contracters they worked for without ever revealing their financial ties. And maybe for the first time in history a guy got a pulitizer for a story that got little to no coverage on cable news.
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I have two links for you to read and I think both will make you a lot more pissed about that story in 2007
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Here is the Tom Ricks link.
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http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/28/john_kiriakou_cia_media_plant

By: AllButCertain

AllButCertain — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:31:01 +0000

TheraP – While it seems wise to reserve most of our rage for the people who were directly involved in making us torturers, I think we have to remember there’s been enough information about this public for a long enough time that, had the MSM–particularly ABC News–done their job, it wouldn’t have been largely swept under the rug. Instead, they were enablers, often not just pushing administration talking points but “misreporting” to use a kind of euphemism. One of the main reasons the Bush Cheney years were so awful is that the Fourth Estate lost its independence and ceased to exercise its very necessary function. They have to be accountable too. This is an institutional issue that is critical to maintaining democracy.

By: Chapman

Chapman — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:05:19 +0000

ABC as far as I’m concerned have gone out of their way to further the right wing talking points at every opportunity. On torture??? YES.
They never miss an opportunity to jump on Obama, but when Bush was in office they made every effort to cover his ***. I think what we’ll find in the very near future, is paradigms being shifted completely out of necessity, & for the sake of survival. I’m glad to see an acknowledgement on the part of ABC, but it would be much more significant if it was done in a high profile manner & a public apology were made. To err is human & I think we all have the capacity to forgive. It’s just hard to let go when the willingness to openly make amends is absent. Great piece. Thanks for connecting the dots…