Trump Team Moving Fast on Policy that is Mostly Harsh, Controversial, and Just Plain Bad

Mr. Trump: Review the case of Manadel al-Jamadi died in the hands of the CIA

(Died Nov 2003 at Abu Ghraib shortly after capture and harsh interrogation)

Mr. Trump: Torture does NOT work, period

(Sole purpose: Inflict pain; NOT to gain valuable info)

Bring back CIA “black sites” and then as I posted about earlier here re: Make torture (e.g., waterboarding) legal, lawful, and U.S. policy.

This breaking news story is from the Washington Post here.

Related coverage also from here (NBC news), and from CIA Vets who say don’t reopen black sites (from the Daily Beast report).

An executive order apparently drafted by the Trump administration calls for a policy review that could authorize the CIA to reopen “black site” prisons overseas and potentially restart an interrogation program that was dismantled in 2009 after using methods widely condemned as torture.

The document copy of a draft was obtained by The Washington Post, would revoke former president Barack Obama’s decision to end the CIA program and require national security officials to evaluate whether the agency should resume interrogating terrorism suspects.

The unsigned draft represents the clearest signal from President Trump that he intends to at least explore ways to fulfill campaign threats to return the CIA to a role that supporters claim produced critical intelligence on al-Qaeda, but ended in a swirl of criminal investigations, strained relationships with allies, and laws banning the use of waterboarding and other brutal interrogation tactics.

I posted about this very subject back in November – review that post here.

Now my entire torture and detainee “library files” are posted here and I l try to keep it up to date as much as possible… now quite frankly and based on the above article about this “black site” document and Trump W/H and Press Secretary Sean Spicer, again, denying anything, well both my eyebrows are raised as well as some in Congress like Sen. McCain, who has once again challenges Mr. Trump on torture. 

This is both a troubling and very serious matter. Congress needs to step in and rein in stop Trump now - like his proposal to spend tax dollars for the wall and get Mexico to “reimburse us later” – what the hell does that mean?

And, that on top of this torture and “black site” document shows a deceitful and quite underhanded old trick or stunt: Put out tons of new stuff, cancel old stuff, generate new stuff, and cause turmoil and doubt and uncertainty along the way about everything controversial from the rightwing and bash for the press for asking questions that might hopefully keep the public informed. Just watch and listen to Sean Spicer spew his crock of crap. That stage is already set.

Recall that the first step towards dictatorship is to belittle or get rid of the media and if totally, then to lessen their ability to collect information and let the public know that I recently posted here on that exact subject.

Seeing this style and technique harks back to the paranoid days of Richard Nixon and his abuse of power in the Watergate era, and everything tied to that time. We need not travel back down that road and certainly now try to rename or gloss over it with some fancy name like “Trump’s Right of Way” or anything close.

I have said for a while now, that we are in deep and dangerous territory and uncharted waters. And, it is painfully clear those waters are full of sharks on the prowl.

BTW: My main detainee/torture library file is here – check it out, too.

Stay tuned.