James Fetzer: CIA torture techniques have tarnished moral standing of US

Press TV has interviewed James Fetzer, professor at University of Minnesota Duluth in Madison, to discuss the newly-released documents related to CIA’s detention and interrogation program.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: Once again we have some reports about CIA’s illegal methods in torturing the detainees, something that the CIA has always rejected and claimed that its techniques are legal and they are part of the routine procedure. What does this latest report and condemnation sort of by human rights say? 

Fetzer: It tells us that the CIA, in fact, has a sordid history of abusing its role by techniques that were euphemistically described as enhanced interrogation and strongly supported by Dick Cheney and the Bush administration, but it has been a disaster. As the Abu Ghraib revelations have shown, it has absolutely tarnished the moral standing of the United States, which can no longer pretend to be the upholder of human rights around the world.

Press TV: Coming to human rights, we cannot help but think of the US double standard when it comes to the issue of human rights we see the US issuing its annual list of human rights violators, accusing other countries of human rights violations and claiming to be a champion in defending human rights while we have this report coming out and as it says it is sort of a stain on the legacy of US President Barack Obama and what more does it say about the US double standard? It is something that everybody knows. Isn’t this further proof in this regard?

Fetzer: Absolutely. In my entire life I never believed that I would live in a country that was such a gross violator of human rights, a practitioner of torture and of terrorism, where these endless wars in the Middle East are a perfect demonstration that the United States has completely lost its way, and where the great virtue of the candidates Bernie Sanders and surprisingly Donald Trump is that they are both opposed to the continuation of these wars in the Middle East, whereas Hillary Clinton alas would be a continuation of the Obama administration, which was an extension of the same policies of Bush and Cheney, where Obama has surrounded himself with neoconservatives, where the neoconservatives drove the whole championing of the invasion of the Middle Eastern countries by the United States especially by rigging, staging, the events of 9/11 which were not committed by 19 Islamic terrorists but rather by the United States, by the CIA, by the neo-cons and the Mossad.

Press TV: Do you think that Obama will be really impressed by this report to take any action? Do you think it will have any effect on what CIA is doing with regard to detainees especially we have had reports of its interrogation and torture techniques at Guantanamo for instance?

Fetzer: I regret to say that I have long since concluded that Obama is actually an instrument, a puppet of the CIA, sad to say, that he is not good to take any appropriate response here. He may offer words but not deeds. He has been one of the most disappointing presidents in American history and I cannot believe that I was so taken in by him in the beginning that I actually voted for him in the past. In my opinion, he has done great damage to the United States and so long as he is not succeeded by Hillary Clinton, we may see an end to this long nightmare of continuing wars in the Middle East.

Press TV: So you think this is an Obama problem or this is something that would have happened under any US administration no matter who the president is?

Fetzer: I believe that either Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump, in spite of his occasionally reckless rhetoric, they are both opposed to continuing these wars. They both want to rein in the CIA and the neo-cons. I think you find a completely different situation, because Obama has surrounded himself with neo-cons, in the Department of State Victoria Nuland, at the United Nations Samantha Power, in the Department of Defense with Ashton Carter, even his own National Security Advisor Susan Rice is a neo-con. These people really are using the United States as an instrument to benefit Israel.

The wars in the Middle East were designed to take out the modern Arab states that serve as a counterbalance to Israel’s influence in the Middle East and the sooner that they end the better.

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