While men from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other countries were brutalized in the U.S. torture chamber of Guantánamo prison, an NSA job listing for torture-interrogators to work at Guantánamo was filled with euphemisms and descriptions of the fun to be had at “Gitmo” during off-hours.
The Guantánamo notice is from a 2003 internal NSA newsletter “SIDToday” and part of a trove of 166 documents released today by The Intercept online publication, for wider public access and use by journalists.
These previously classified NSA documents expose not only the surveillance operations of the Signals Intelligence Directorate (SID), it also reveals that NSA personnel were actively engaged in interrogating prisoners at Guantánamo.
Other documents describe the many varied NSA operations to gather any information that would then justify the U.S. so-called “war on terror.”
In early 2013, former CIA analyst Edward Snowden blew the cover on the NSA’s illegal massive surveillance in the United States and throughout the world, when he released hundreds of thousands of NSA documents.
The Internet website was soon launched by Snowden and investigative reporters Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill to handle the NSA documents.
For his heroic exposé, Snowden has had to live in exile in Russia or face prosecution in the United States. Another whistleblower, U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning, told the truth of U.S. war crimes in Iraq by handing over hundreds of thousands of military documents as well. For that bold act, she is serving an unjust 35 years in U.S. military prison.
Until now, some data has been available to the public by various articles in the media, including The Guardian and Washington Post.
With this open release of 166 documents, The Intercept editors have announced that 10 years of the SIDToday publication will be openly available for reporters’ scrutiny and dissemination.
Dated December 22, 2003, the Guantánamo two-page announcement for “interrogators”—in reality, torturers—is exposed for the first time to the public, to prove that the NSA was an integral part of the CIA/FBI and other military forces in the kidnapping, imprisonment, torture and in many cases, killing of men illegally captured since 2001.
“The work can be extremely interesting, challenging and very fulfilling. On a given week, the NSA LNO might pull together intelligence to support an upcoming interrogation, formulate questions and strategies for the interrogation formulate questions and strategies for the interrogation, and observe or participate in the interrogation,” says the SIDToday NSA newsletter. Then, the potential torture hires are told, “Outside work, fun awaits … boating, paddling, fishing, water skiing and SCUBA. … Surround all this water fun with a Tiki Bar and a Jerk House … relaxing is easy.”
Another, dated October 29, 2003, is titled, “Can You Handle the Truth? 90 Days in Guantánamo.”
To this very day, dozens of men are still held in Guantánamo, on illegally occupied Cuban territory, denied their fundamental rights, denied justice, denied freedom.
Snowden and his partners have contributed greatly to unmask the true nature of the U.S. government’s war of terror. It is bound to prove vital in the anti-war and anti-imperialist movement.
The 166 documents can be downloaded from the Intercept page.
Gloria La Riva is the 2016 presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Learn more about the campaign at VotePSL.org
