CSIS lawyer and advisor on operations and legislation, GEOFFREY O'BRIAN , on a Public Safety Committee hearing today, March 31, 2009 talked about those countries that torture as:
"countries that have human-rights records that are not as glowing as ours"
Regarding CSIS use of information obtained through torture, Mr. O'Brian also claimed that:
"... there is no absolute ban on using intelligence that may have been obtained from countries with questionable human rights records on torture"
He went further saying that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service will use information extracted through torture if lives are at stake.
Some experts would disagree with Mr. O'Brian just because they value reliable intelligence.
In a recent article in the Washington Post ( Sunday, March 29, 2009) Former senior American government officials who closely followed the harsh interrogations (torture) affirm that :
" not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of tortured confessions. "
"Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated"
The article - "Detainee's Harsh Treatment Foiled No Plots" - by Peter Finn and Joby Warrick , Washington Post, Sunday, March 29, 2009,
can be read HERE
"Waterboarding, Rough Interrogation of Abu Zubaida Produced False Leads, Officials Say"
( to read the article, click HERE )
Also, an article where Dan Coleman, the FBI’s senior expert on al-Qaeda, revisits the CIA’s introduction of the torture program, after the successes recorded by the FBI , can explain why experts disagree:
The article:
"The Futility Of Torture and A Trail of Broken Lives"
(click HEREto read the article)
BUT GEOFFREY O'BRIAN , CSIS lawyer and advisor on operations and legislation, probably disagrees with an al-Quaeda expert and even with those senior officials who closely followed the torture of "high value" detainees:
Instead of a respectful and decent intelligence service, capable of gathering reliable information, his claim puts Canadian Secret Services side by side with those who practice barbaric medieval procedures like torture. Not to mention breaking Canadian Laws, the Geneva Conventions and so on..
But Mr. O'Brian still believes that Canada is different from those "others" when the refers to those "other countries" as :
"countries that have human-rights records that are not as glowing as ours".
GLOWING RECORDS ??? Canada has signed and ratified , among others, Nuremberg and Geneva and all international conventions and treaties that BAN TORTURE, making them Canadian law.
Is the Canadian human rights record still glowing that much after information obtained through torture is part of CSIS' intelligence gathering tool kit?
More or less complicity in torture ????!! More or less breaking the Law??? !!!
And still a GLOWING RECORD!!???
The torturers all around the world are having the day of their lives today, for sure!! Canada is a friend !
Canada has just joined the list of those who endorse "a bit of torture" and believe that information gathered in this way is OK!!
At least Mr. O'Brian candid assertions give a clear definition to the Canadian "glowing record" on human rights - some torture here , some torture there is OK!
The reason the cover up of the torture of Canadian citizens happened and a little bit here and there of the "indirect participation" of CSIS/RCMP in torture were well explained today by Mr. Geoffrey O'Brian!
Liberal Mark Holland said something important but why would Mr. O'Brian care?
"We're sending the message today that if it's good enough, that if you torture them well enough and you get information that is marketable enough, then we're going to buy it — we're in the market for information obtained by torture," he said.
"That's a dangerous message to be sending out there," Holland said.
To watch Mr. O'Brian at the Committee hearing and all those present , go to :SECU Meeting No. 13 - March 31, 2009 at:
http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Parlvu/ContentEntityDetailView.aspx?ContentEntityId=4326
More at: (some articles dated March 31, 2009)
MACLEANS: "Do We Endorse Torture? "
http://www2.macleans.ca/tag/geoffrey-obrian/
Globe and Mail : "CSIS won't rule out tips derived from torture"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090331.wcsis31/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090331.wcsis31
CTV : "Spy agency rejects complete ban on torture info"
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090331/CSIS_torture_090331/20090331?hub=Canada
The Canadian Press:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hwY1L_6m_leNu169qhKQ4y_r3W5w
The Star:
http://www.thestar.com/article/611114
