CIA Blogger Fired for Anti-Torture Post

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Posted on Jul 21, 2006

The Water Torture--Facsimile of a woodcut in J. Damhoudre's "Praxis Rerum Criminalium:"

From Wikipedia: The modern practice of waterboarding involves tying the victim to a board with the head lower than the feet so that he or she is unable to move. A piece of cloth is held tightly over the face, and water is poured onto the cloth. Breathing is extremely difficult and the victim will be in fear of imminent death by asphyxiation. However, it is relatively difficult to aspirate a large amount of water since the lungs are higher than the mouth, and the victim is unlikely to actually die if this is done by skilled practitioners. Waterboarding may be used by captors who wish to impose anguish without leaving marks on their victims as evidence.

A software contractor for the CIA was fired when she posted a blog entry to the agency’s closed network stating her opposition to torture. The post started like this: “Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong.” Such a sad confirmation of our government’s dismal human rights policies that so obvious a statement qualifies as grounds for termination.

Washington Post:
Top-Secret World Loses Blogger
CIA Contractor Is Fired When Internal Post Crosses the Line

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 21, 2006; Page A15

Christine Axsmith, a software contractor for the CIA, considered her blog a success within the select circle of people who could actually access it.

Only people with top-secret security clearances could read her musings, which were posted on Intelink, the intelligence community’s classified intranet. Writing as Covert Communications, CC for short, she opined in her online journal on such national security conundrums as stagflation, the war of ideas in the Middle East and—in her most popular post—bad food in the CIA cafeteria.

But the hundreds of blog readers who responded to her irreverent entries with titles such as “Morale Equals Food” won’t be joining her ever again.

Link

TAGS: blog boarding cia conventions fired geneva software torture water

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By Mark, July 23, 2006 at 8:56 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Right wingers try to stop these conversations by getting us bogged down in the question of what constitutes “torture”. But in fact, US law requires adherance to the Geneva Convention, which forbids all abusive or degrading treatment of prisoners.

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By John Dwyer, July 22, 2006 at 5:26 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

She’s right: Waterboarding is torture and torture is wrong.  There’s gotta be a hell and I hope that the demons there are fully prepared to deal even worse torture, eternally, to those who torture others and to those who approve of doing it.

Mr. Bush seems headed for just such a bolgia.

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By Ontario Emperor, July 22, 2006 at 10:16 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

As long as the debate stays behind closed doors, and as long as the debate only includes information known to all participants, any company (Microsoft, CIA, whoever) can only benefit by analyzing the issues. More here, including the CIA’s own thoughts on this circa 1999.

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By TomChicago, July 22, 2006 at 3:16 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

The current regime does not give points for free speech.

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