Did Spokane host torture?

The U.S. government has systematically violated U.S. and international law in its so-called war on terror. Given deepening revelations about severe misconduct, illegality and cover-ups by the CIA, civilian contractors and U.S. military personnel in interrogation, torture, extraordinary rendition and killing of foreign detainees, it is well past time to ask even more difficult questions.

Among the most urgent for local citizens deal with Fairchild AFB and the SERE torture training facilities west of Spokane, combined with the presence here of now-infamous CIA torture designers James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen (until recently located at Riverside and Washington) whose CIA activities have been reported by The Spokesman-Review, Vanity Fair, Salon, the New Yorker, Alternet and the New York Times.

Have any “high value detainees,” “foreign combatants,” or anyone else – foreign or national – ever been transported to the Spokane area for questioning, “enhanced interrogation,” torture, or any purpose whatsoever? If so, who? When? Under what circumstances and authority? And, what is their current whereabouts and condition?

It is time for The Spokesman-Review and local TV stations as well as Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and other public officials to seriously inquire further, notwithstanding predictable U.S. government lies and stonewalling.

David Brookbank Jr.

Spokane