US Political Leadership Responsible for CIA Torture Techniques: Analyst

WASHINGTON, December 13 (Sputnik) – Foreign countries, including Washington's European allies, should not be mentioned in connection with the recent CIA torture report, because the focus should be on the mistakes of US political leaders and their violations of international law, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, has told Sputnik.

"In releasing these documents [the CIA torture report], no need to go and embarrass other countries at this point. The failures in this had to do with the political leadership of the United States and their willingness to ignore the law," Johnson said Friday, responding to an inquiry on whether US allies involved in CIA operations, most notably the United Kingdom, should have been mentioned in the materials or not.

A UK parliamentarian, who is a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), told Sputnik on Friday that the ISC is investigating alleged requests by British intelligence agencies to delete references to the United Kingdom from the CIA torture report, released by the US Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday.

According to Johnson, people are "trying to make this overly complicated", in raising the question about whether or not other countries should have been exposed.

"The United States was the lead in this and had the cooperation of other countries," Johnson stressed, admitting, however, that other countries involved "probably shouldn't have cooperated with the United States on something so patently illegal".

The larger point, according to Johnson, is that the episode has shined a light on American hypocrisy, considering US leaders have now violated the very principles they like to espouse.

"The United States had prided itself upon being against torture and was in a morally superior position of being able to lecture other countries. Well, they no longer have that luxury," Johnson told Sputnik.

Johnson also pointed to the "unfortunate precedent" the US torture program has created, which now allows any country to argue "when national security is at stake, anything is justifiable".

The CIA torture report was commissioned by the US Senate Intelligence Committee in 2009 and contains a description of interrogation techniques, used at CIA detention centers around the world. The torture practices, listed in the report, include waterboarding, threats of sexual assault, forced nudity, prolonged sleep deprivation, mock executions and threats against children and family.

The summary of the report contains information, indicating that a number of EU member-states, including Sweden, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany, have, to some extent, cooperated with the CIA. According to the report, the agency, aided by various countries, abducted and transferred suspects to secret detention facilities where they were subjected to cruel interrogation techniques.