Senate Staffer Attempts to Censor Wikipedia After Release of CIA Torture ReportCarey Wedler The user attempted to remove a phrase describing enhanced interrogation techniques as a euphemism for torture, citing removing bias as the reason for the edit. Both times, the revision to the first paragraph of the entry was rejected. As of Thursday morning the line was missing again, though a further change has not been reported. It is no surprise that agents of government are attempting to censor the truth about the report on torture. It has created a PR firestorm, and though Fox news and other government apologists have tried to downplay the severity, the world is not buying it. Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, said on Wednesday: UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson stated that, The attempted Wikipedia changes were noticed by the Twitter bot@congressedits, which reports anytime an IP address registered to the United States Congressattempts to make an edit on Wikipedia. It was inspired by@parliamentedits, the original British version. Similar bots reportanonymous edits made by the Russian governmentas well as by staffers attop media organizations. The disturbing 6,000 page report on the CIA released this weekcatalogued the various ways that the U.S. government tortured detainees, as well as the fact that they didnt work . It showed that while the widely-known water-boarding technique was used, so were other heinous methods: sleep-deprivation and forced rectal feeding were employed. Interrogators denied urgent medical care to those they tortured, making questioning a higher priority. Power drills were used to intimidate while another detainee was stuffed in a coffin-like box for over 24 hours. Government employees threatened to harm individualsfamilies (including sexual assault and slitting throats) and threw ice water on naked detainees. To commit acts of torture is a troubling sign of atwisted, detached individual, and though attempting to censor the information is not as violent, it stems from the same sick obedience to authority, no matter the cost. It is particularly ironic that the anonymous staffer would attempt to propagandize torture by censoring the report (considering the government propaganda of manipulating language from torture to enhanced interrogation to make it seem more innocuous). @Congressedits was only created in July 2014 but has already reported 430 edits. Changes have been made to everything from Lord of the Rings to Gamergate, but the CIA torture report is so far the most obvious attempt to downplaygovernment crimes. Carey Wedler writes for The Anti-Media, where this article first appeared. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter to receive their latest articles. 