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"... not even past"
There are three conclusions I immediately draw from this turn of events. Others may find more to comment upon.
One, the specious short-version narrative from the SASC report, and its failure to put recommendations to its conclusions on the use of SERE torture, put everyone to sleep.
Two, not much has changed since the bad, old days of Bush and Cheney. SERE psychologists are still used in the field much as Mitchell and Jessen were, to construct psychological profiles on prisoners, and "consult" on interrogation plans. What else could this be for but instruction on "how to break down another's ability to withstand interrogation," because that is what SERE psychologists are trained to do? It's what we've seen already they do in practice.
The entire episode narrated in the SASC report becomes then a tale of a military command (USJFCOM) asserting command dominance over a subordinate agency, not a story of how SERE torture was stopped.
The "experiment" of using SERE support for interrogations continues, most likely in Afghanistan, whose new commander is Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, former chief of Joint Special Forces Command, who bears command responsibility for the use of SERE interrogators and techniques to conduct torture at Camp Nama in Iraq (and possibly elsewhere).
Three, with McChrystal in Afghanistan, and with Robert Gates at the Office of Secretary of Defense -- and given premises one and two above -- one can charitably conclude that truly not much has changed under President Barack Obama when it comes to military operations. The prohibition on the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" by the Obama administration leaves plenty of room for the use of other, SERE-based techniques, and leaves intact the core, pre-SERE torture program which relies on isolation, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation or overload, and promulgation of fears to break down prisoners. The latter program, along with a light prohibition on only those drugs that cause "long-term damage," remains at the heart of the military's current Army Field Manual.
At a minimum, someone should be asking President Obama or Secretary of Defense Gates at their next press conference why they have made an exception to allow SERE psychologists, implicated in torture from Guantanamo to Afghanistan, to oversee special operations battlefield interrogations and detentions. I hope I don't have to wait a long time.
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