CIA report chilling

A landmark report on the methods of CIA interrogation of detainees after the 9/11 attacks, which was put out by the Senate Intelligence Committee headed by Dianne Feinstein, opens up a huge can of worms.

It appears the very concept of the advance of civilisation is challenged by the revelations of waterboarding, ice baths, rectal feeding and other methods of torture which the CIA hid from the American public. While the brutality of malcontents like the ISIS, who have beheaded innocent aid workers in the virtual war zone in the Middle East, is as beastly, such dehumanising events simply point to where the world is headed.

The 528-page document on what went on under the Bush administration between 2002 and 2007 is a compendium of sins committed in the name of intelligence gathering. The risks entailed in the triggering of consequent anti-US sentiments have not stopped the report from being made public by the chairman who says the US is big enough to admit when it is wrong.

The expose is a tribute to democratic ideals. But just imagine what anyone attempting to even blow the whistle on such covert operations or to bring to light the excesses of the forces would be called in India.