Confirming Gina Haspel Will Confirm Everything the World Thinks of the USA & CIA

Confirming Gina Haspel Will Confirm Everything the World Thinks of the USA & CIA

The CIA may have done a lot of good around the world, but it has also earned a well-deserved reputation for doing a lot of bad stuff. Overthrowing governments, starting wars, assassinating foreign leaders who refused to acquiesce to U.S. demands, and supporting brutal dictators friendly to the West is just the tip of the spear of activities the agency engages in to maintain America's dominance over the rest of the world. So, it should surprise no one to find career agents like Gina Haspel willing to violate international laws to torture suspected terrorists mercilessly, to force them to say whatever she wanted them to say. And while some will herald her as a hero, others will call Haspel a sadist. I understand she enjoyed her work.

Call me a pussy if you will, but I for one couldn't stand the screams of people with their testicles attached to electrical cables and having the juice turned up to test their truthfulness. It takes a very special person who can slap the living sh*t out of another human being until their teeth are bouncing off the wall. I would have a very difficult time participating in waterboarding someone. Just think of what waterboarding must be like. You're strapped to a table or board, sloped downward at the head. A cloth is placed over your face. Then someone pours water into your breathing passages. This torturous procedure simulates drowning. The unlucky suspect thinks he's gonna die. And in some cases, they're hoping to do just that. After a few sessions of this particularly gruesome experience, you would too. Unfortunately, the CIA has other creative means of getting people to talk.

Imagine coming home from work after pulling a double shift and all you can think of is getting a few hours of peaceful shuteye to recuperate before it's back to the grindstone. But, you've got a neighbor who loves to play his music (music you hate) loud and late into the wee hours of the night. Or, you got a neighbor who won't shut his dog's incessant barking at the moon. Or perhaps worst of all, you've got a neighbor with a screaming, colicky baby who can't be comforted. You've got to get some sleep. You'll do anything to stop the noise. You begin to feel as though the inconsiderate bastards are doing these things on purpose. Well, that's what sleep deprivation feels like in civilian life. However, when the CIA is keeping you awake, the noise can't be stopped because your tormentors are doing it on purpose. They won't let you close your eyes. You're not meant to be able to rest. EVER!

According to psychologytoday.com, prolonged sleep deprivation is an especially insidious form of torture because it attacks the deep biological functions at the core of a person's mental and physical health. If the deprivation continues, the worsening effects include disorientation, visual misperceptions, apathy, severe lethargy, social withdrawal and in extreme cases, could actually lead to death. And by the way, when the suspect is being tortured this way, they've been placed in stress positions. That's when you're kept standing with your hands shackled above your head or worse. They twist your ass into a pretzel and leave you that way. Generally, 24 hours is the limit the average person can go without sleep before suffering some serious health issues, but the CIA has been known for keeping suspects awake like this for up to 180 hours. Now, that's fu**ed up by anybody's measure. Still, it gets worse.

According to the Daily Beast, suspects were subjected to freezing temperatures so cold they froze to death. Some were stripped naked and chained to the floor. Some were interrogated non-stop for days, even weeks at a time. Some of those unending interrogations took place with the suspects standing on broken legs, ankles, and feet. Some were kept in dungeon-like settings so dark, the guards had to wear headlamps to see themselves. Others were kept in rooms with bright lights and white noise to keep them disoriented. And if that didn't net the results interrogators were seeking, there was always the old rectal feeding technique. I had to look this one up. Rectal feeding is a technique used to force feed someone on a hunger strike. A tube is rammed up the suspect's asshole and sh*t like a pureed mix of hummus, nuts, and pasta was served for lunch. I kid you not.

According to ibtimes.com, former CIA Director General Michael Hayden defended rectal feeding and rectal hydration as medical procedures. Hayden contended these tactics were deployed to get the necessary fluids into dehydrated detainees and were not used as a method of interrogation. However, doctors and psychiatrists maintain, there is zero medical value engaging in these activities and they were merely a variation on a medieval form of torture in which the intestines were intentionally swollen up with fluids in order to cause pain. According to Dr. Steven Miles, a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota and board member of the Center for Victims of Torture, for the government to claim rectal feeding and rectal hydration are some forms of feeding techniques is just bizarre because there's no physiological way for any nutrients to be absorbed in the colon. No matter how you cut it, this is f**ked up!

Still, many will say America was at war. The United States had been attacked and something had to be done about it. Others will argue these terror suspects might have had information that could have prevented subsequent attacks. If you recall, it was the ticking bomb scenario. What if someone had knowledge of a nuclear device exploding in a major U.S. city? Wouldn't Americans be willing to sacrifice their values and principles to save thousands or maybe millions of American lives? And when one frames the argument that way, the laymen would say, hell yeah. Kill the sons of bitches, if you have to. Do whatever it takes to protect the homeland. Unfortunately, professionals in the business of interrogations have always stated TORTURE rarely works. And many have sworn, testified and placed their career on the line to defend that position.

Bottom line: It's no wonder CIA operatives work in the dark, stay in the shadows and remain on the down-low. The old adage of, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you" makes so much sense now. If the American people really knew what the CIA does to "keep us safe", I'm certain most would be willing to take their chances by finding ways to protect themselves. To nominate a monster like Gina Haspel to Director of the agency is to confirm the world's worse fears about America and what it really stands for. If you've ever asked yourself why the United States is hated around the world, now you know. Podcast below.