Politics

Jon Stewart Is Speechless, Says He Wants To Vomit Over CIA Torture Report

December 10th 2014

Jon Stewart weighed in on the CIA Torture Report yesterday, which attn: covered extensively here, and his outrage could only be described by his sensation to want to vomit. 

In a montage of news clips, Stewart recaps the grisly interrogation practices of CIA operatives toward suspected terrorist detainees, as well as blasts the lack of transparency on the part of both the Bush and Obama Administrations for obfuscating such vile acts. 

Stewart juxtaposed America's torture practices with his new movie, Rosewater: ""It's funny, I just made this movie about a guy who triumphs over the inhuman conditions in his imprisonment in an authoritarian country, and I don't think they did half that shit to him," 

What are these torture stories that everyone is talking about?

The reports says that, for days and weeks at a time, detainees were subjected to stomach-turning torture techniques:

Waterboarding. You may have heard of this one. It involves pouring water on someone's head while they are wearing a hood or some other facial covering. This simulates the feeling of drowning. It induced "convulsions and vomiting" and consisted of a "series of near drownings." Former top Al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded at least 183 times, the report says. He and another detainee, Abu Zubaydah, almost died from waterboarding.

Sleep deprivation. C.I.A. officers kept detainees awake for up to 180 hours, "usually in standing or stress positions, at times with their hands shackled above their heads." The report says that at least five detainees experienced "disturbing hallucinations." Two of those detainees were forced to remain awake anyway.

Rectal rehydration or rectal feeding. You read that right. The report details an example where a detainee was fed a meal through his rectum, and it included hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts, and raisins. Here's why people are saying that these force rectal feedings are torture in this situation: They were not medically necessary. The officers in charge were using these feedings to exert control on detainees. 

The report also rendered these tactics ineffective at obtaining accurate intelligence. According to the report, seven of the 39 C.I.A detainees known to be subjected to these techniques produced no intelligence while in custody. Further, some detainees actually provided information of real value before they were interrogated. And then they were tortured afterward.

For more info, we quickly summarized the 500+ page CIA torture report here

We also detail the partisan split over whether the torture report should have been made public here.

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