Bush administration: Ex-CIA prisoner shouldn’t speak to attorney

A suspected terrorist who spent years in a secret CIA prison should not be allowed to speak to a civilian attorney, the Bush administration argues, because he could reveal the agency’s closely guarded interrogation techniques.

Everything the government does is something that cannot and should not be discussed. In fact, I’m sure Bush thinks that the very fact that we’re talking about the CIA’s “techniques” is aiding the enemy.

Human rights groups have questioned the CIA’s methods for questioning suspects, especially following the passage of a bill last month that authorized the use of harsh—but undefined—interrogation tactics.

In recently filed court documents, the Justice Department said those methods, along with the locations of the CIA’s network of prisons, are among the nation’s most sensitive secrets. Prisoners who spent time in those prisons should not be allowed to disclose that information, even to a lawyer, the government said.

That prisoners should not be allowed to disclose “interrogation techniques” to their attorneys conveniently crushes their cases against the government, since their attorneys don’t have any testimony as to what occured in the CIA’s prisons.

“Improper disclosure of other operational details, such as interrogation methods, could also enable terrorist organizations and operatives to adapt their training to counter such methods, thereby obstructing the CIA’s ability to obtain vital intelligence that could disrupt future planned terrorist attacks,” the Justice Department wrote.

In related news, President Bush has recently urged Congress to ban sledgehammers across the nation. “Sledgehammers, once used for driving stakes into the ground for fences and scarecrows and such are increasingly being used to demolish houses and attack people. Terr’ists can easily purchase sledgehammers at local hardware stores and utilize them as weapons when attempting to hijack an airliner.” When it was pointed out that sledgehammers aren’t allowed on commercial flights, the president responded: “The very fact that we’re discussing illegal and dangerous uses of sledgehammers gives the terr’ists priceless knowledge about how to utilize them to carry out the plans.” When the reporter pointed out that it was the president himself who not only initiated sledgehammer discussion but also revealed the dangerous uses, the president responded: “How about a little dunk in the water for the reporter pesterin’ me?” The reporter was seized by two Secret Service agents and dragged out of the press room yelling.

According to documents filed on his behalf by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Khan was arrested in Pakistan in 2003. During more than three years in CIA custody, Khan was subjected to interrogation techniques that defense attorneys suggest amounted to torture.

The biggest issue I have with the Big Media and Big-Government Idiots is that they treats the government’s word as gold and dismiss any allegations. They don’t look at what is actually being said; they just assume that the government is right and the proles are wrong. “The government says rape and waterboarding aren’t torture? All right, they’re not. Former prisoner says he was raped and waterboarded and claims that he was, therefore, tortured? He wasn’t.”

There is a poll located in the column left of the article. The question it poses is this: “Should CIA interrogation tactics be a state secret?” I voted “No,” of course, and when the results window opened, I was not shocked but depressed.


The results were 51% for “No“ and 49% for “Yes”—practically a tie. I never thought I’d see the day that the people of the United States would be evenly split on whether or not the government should keep its illegal and immoral “harsh interrogation techniques” a secret.

Come to think of it, I never thought I’d see the day where the United States federal government would admit to torturing, either.

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