Or, "How two psychologists who don't know what the fuck they're doing made a nice little torture program for the CIA." Background: the SERE program prepares certain military and intelligence personnel in case they are captured by countries that don't honor the Geneva Conventions. Trainees are exposed to conditions like humiliation and waterboarding, so in case they are captured, they are better prepared to withstand horrific treatment. Only... now we're the country that doesn't follow the Geneva Conventions. These two con artists with Ph. D's turned the SERE program on its head in the moronic belief that you can get good intel that way.

Our government is being run by seriously disturbed people with a torture fetish. And they are worshipped by the clowns at publications like the Weekly Standard and National Review--run by squishy, soft middle-aged or even youngish men who've never done manual labor in their lives and got their positions in life because of Mummy and Daddy.

"At least half a million dollars a year for these two knuckleheads to do voodoo"

Edit: The VF article fails to mention that Abu Zubaydah was froot-loops even before we tortured him. No telling what state the guy is in now.
http://ad-kay.livejournal.com/98836.html

Three of the 13 people whom Germany wants to arrest on kidnapping/torture charges have been identified, according to the LA Times. They are three pilots who live in North Carolina and work for Aero Contractors. (See Germany issues warrants in rendition/torture case for background.)

According to the LA Times story, Pilots traced to CIA Renditions:

Flight records show that Aero Contractors, based in Smithfield, N.C., operated the plane that carried Masri from Macedonia to Afghanistan. The charter aircraft company has flown scores of sensitive missions for the CIA and has played a key support role in counter-terrorism operations since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to former agency officials.

The LA Times has not released their real names because they have been charged under their aliases, but the LAT story gives such specific personal details about the men that it will only be a matter of time before someone figures out their real identities.

Last Friday, the Italian government issued warrants for 26 CIA operatives for kidnapping an Egyptian cleric thought to have been recruiting jihadis. He was sent to Egypt, where his lawyer said he was tortured. I find this claim all too plausible, considering what happened to al Libi, the al Qaeda operative forced to "confess" to al Qaeda activities in Iraq.

According to the LA Times:

One former CIA operation officer who was involved in the Italian case at CIA headquarters, speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is classified, said he and his colleagues were increasingly nervous about traveling in Europe for fear of getting swept up in the investigations. He said he checked with a contact at the Italian intelligence service for reassurance that he would not be arrested.

Under Italian law, the 26 can be tried in absentia.

ETA: TalkLeft has a translation of a German news story on the warrants.
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/1/31/12294/6357

The German Magazine Der Spiegel interviews Tyler Drumheller regarding extraordinary rendition. Here's what he says about the Bush administration's attitude toward torture and plausible deniability:

From the perspective of the White House, it was smart to blur the lines about what was acceptable and what was not in the war on terrorism. It meant that whenever someone was overzealous in some dark interrogation cell, President (George W.) Bush and his entourage could blame someone else. The rendition teams are drawn from paramilitary officers who are brave and colorful. They are the men who went into Baghdad before the bombs and into Afghanistan before the army. If they didn't do paramilitary actions for a living, they would probably be robbing banks.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,462782,00.html

(Hat tip to Glenn Greenwald http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2007/01/various-items_31.html )

German prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 13 U.S. agents involved in the kidnapping and rendition of German citizen Khaled al-Masri. In 2003, al-Masri was arrested while on vacation and sent secretly to a prison in Afghanistan, where he was tortured. After several months, someone realized that--oops--this guy isn't a terrorist, he just has a name similar to a terrorist--stupid Ay-rabs with their weird names that all sound alike. Al-Masri was dumped in Albania with no explanation. IIRC, his wife and family thought he had abandoned them, and had moved away with no forwarding address.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070131/terror_070131/20070131?hub=World