Ronald Reagan’s Torture

[Judi Lynn]

Ronald Reagan’s Torture

February 10, 2015


From the Archive: George W. Bush’s torture policies may have been extraordinary in the direct participation of U.S. personnel but they were far from unique, with Ronald Reagan having followed a similar path in his anti-leftist wars in Central America, as Robert Parry reported in 2009.

By Robert Parry (Originally published on Sept. 8, 2009)



The 2004 CIA Inspector General’s report, released in August 2009, referenced as “background” to the Bush-era abuses the spy agency’s “intermittent involvement in the interrogation of individuals whose interests are opposed to those of the United States.” The report noted “a resurgence in interest” in teaching those techniques in the early 1980s “to foster foreign liaison relationships.”

The report said, “because of political sensitivities,” the CIA’s top brass in the 1980s “forbade Agency officers from using the word ‘interrogation” and substituted the phrase “human resources exploitation” (HRE) in training programs for allied intelligence agencies.

The euphemism aside, the reality of these interrogation techniques remained brutal, with the CIA Inspector General conducting a 1984 investigation of alleged “misconduct on the part of two Agency officers who were involved in interrogations and the death of one individual,” the report said (although the details were redacted in the version released to the public).

In 1984, the CIA also was hit with a scandal over what became known as an “assassination manual” prepared by agency personnel for the Nicaraguan Contras, a rebel group sponsored by the Reagan administration with the goal of ousting Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government.

More:
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/02/10/ronald-reagans-torture/

[forest444]

1. For a second I thought this was an article about Nancy.

Seriously though, with a political history marked by highlights such as serving as publicist for Operation Paperclip (the CIA effort to recruit Nazi war criminals), the campaign against Medicare, his record as governor (when mental clinics were shuttered and the labor inspectors' office was effectively shut down - leading to California's twin problems of homelessness and illegal immigration), his getting into office by way of the "October Surprise", plus his own complete lack of understanding or even interest in his office, this surely had to be the most unfit person to hold the office of President of the United States since at least Warren Harding - and we all know what Harding's policies led to.

Whenever you mention Reagan, of course, Republicans always say the same thing: well, inflation went down! I posit to them that it went down not because of anything Rainbow Ronnie did, but because his predecessor Jimmy Carter did all the heavy lifting - credit controls, production and conservation incentives, fuel efficiency standards, etc. - that burst the '70s commodity bubble and broke OPEC's back. This is what forced oil prices - and thus inflation and interest rates - to ease. All Raygun did was squander the opportunity with his massive deficits and banking corruption.

A mere appetizer compared to what happened under Dubya, unfortunately.