TASK DEFINITION: Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
PROBLEM: Torture is a crime, time to end the impunity. This week the world has seen headline after headline about the CIA's horrifying practise of systematic torture and cruelty : Mentions of "rectal hydration" and rape threats, sleep and sensory deprivation, forced nudity, stress positions, subjection to cold temperatures, food deprivation, hanging from bars, confinement in a "coffin size" box, hooding, and physical assaults ; a man left shackled and naked to die overnight in a secret CIA facility in Afghanistan ; psychologists contracted to design the best ways to break the human spirit ; doctors ensuring that victims were fit to endure more torture . These were violations of the most fundamental human rights and crimes under international law . But still, no promises to bring any of those responsible to justice . It has been known for years that the US turned to torture as part of its response to the crime against humanity that was committed on September 11, 2001 . Today, the cruelty carried out in the CIA secret detention programme run under authority granted by President George W Bush still has the power to shock and sicken . While the CIA may have exceeded its authority and lied to him , he still had a part to play . But we must not forget that behind the text of the summary report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and the details contained within, are cases of real people . People whose lives have been broken , whose humanity was forgotten under this state-sanctioned programme . The case of Abu Zubaydah has long been known . Amnesty International first raised its concerns with the US government in April 2002 . He was the first person to be taken into CIA custody considered by the agency to have high intelligence value . Abu Zubaydah was effectively treated as a human guinea pig to test the CIA's emerging interrogation regime . He was subjected to a range of torture methods, including being waterboarded multiple times . The SSCI summary adds some new chilling details . A July 15, 2002 cable sent by the interrogation team at "Detention Site Green", believed to be in Thailand, ended:"In light of the planned psychological pressure techniques to be implemented, we need to get reasonable assurances that [Abu Zubaydah] will remain in isolation and incommunicado for the remainder of his life." CIA officers responded that "all major players are in concurrence that [Abu Zubaydah] should remain incommunicado for the rest of his life" . Then , after Abu Zubaydah had been subjected to 47 days of complete isolation, he was subjected to numerous "enhanced interrogation techniques" including physical assaults, stress positions, cramped confinement, white noise, and sleep deprivation "in varying combinations, 24 hours a day for 17 straight days" . Reports were constantly fed back to top authorities . Daily cables sent from "Detention Site Green" to CIA headquarters recorded that Abu Zubaydah frequently "cried", "begged", "pleaded", and "whimpered" . At times, he was "hysterical" and "distressed to the level that he was unable to effectively communicate" . Waterboarding sessions would result in "hysterical pleas" , and on at least one occasion, Abu Zubaydah "became completely unresponsive" until he received medical attention . Abu Zubaydah's ordeal is not yet over . After four and a half years in secret CIA custody he was transferred to Guantanamo , where he remains today . He has never been charged with any crime . The injustice continues . On August 5, 2002, at the same time that Abu Zubaydah was being tortured in Thailand, CIA headquarters approved an interrogation plan for Ridha al-Najjar at another secret facility, dubbed"Detention Site Cobalt" , believed to be the Salt Pit facility in Afghanistan . The interrogation plan for Najjar included isolation in total darkness, lowering the quality of his food, keeping him in cold temperatures, 24-hour-a-day loud music, shackling and hooding . Over one two-day period, he was left with his wrists handcuffed to an overhead bar for 22 hours a day in order to "break his resistance" . On September 21, 2002, his interrogators sent a cable describing Najjar as "clearly a broken man" and "on the verge of complete breakdown" . His detention and interrogation "became the model" for the treatment of detainees at that facility, according to the SSCI . Twelve years later, Najjar remains in US custody in Bagram, Afghanistan . He has never been charged or tried, and is still being denied his right to challenge his detention in court . A petition on his behalf is currently pending before the US Supreme Court . The psychological impact of such intense cruelty has devastated those subjected to it . According to the SSCI, many detainees"exhibited psychological and behavioural issues, including hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm and self-mutilation" . Majid Khan, who was held in secret CIA custody for three and a half years before being transferred in 2006 to Guantanamo, where he remains today, is said to have engaged in numerous acts of self-harm, including"attempting to cut his wrist on two occasions, to chew into his arm at the inner elbow, cut a vein in the top of his foot and into his skin at the elbow joint using a filed toothbrush" . As the world struggles to comprehend the details in the summary it is important to remember all we've been given is a snapshot, a peek through the keyhole to the dark secrets hidden within . The report released yesterday is just a summary of a full report that runs to 6,700 pages . That report describes the detention and interrogation of 119 detainees held by the CIA . Senator Dianne Feinstein said that "decisions will be made at a later date" as to whether the whole report will be declassified and released . Amnesty International believes this should be done sooner rather than later, indeed should be set in motion now . The Senate committee also needs to address the fact that the US human rights violations and crimes went beyond torture . The CIA detainees were subjected to enforced disappearance  - which, like torture, is a crime under international law . No one has been brought to justice for these crimes . This accountability gap leaves the US squarely on the wrong side of its international obligations . Those responsible, no matter their current or previous level of office, must be brought to justice, along with those in other countries that colluded with the CIA to facilitate these programmes . December 10 marked 30 years since the adoption of the Convention Against Torture - an anniversary which the US would do well not to gloss over . The US ratified the treaty in 1994 . President Obama should make a public commitment to end the impunity being enjoyed by those who authorised and carried out the crimes committed in the CIA programmes of rendition, interrogation and detention . And victims should be offered redress  - most urgently they must be offered treatment to help them overcome the trauma to which they were unlawfully exposed . If they have committed crimes they should be prosecuted and punished for them , but as victims, they too deserve justice . Laying out a catalogue of abuses is not enough . There must be accountability too .

SOLUTION: This week the world has seen headline after headline about the CIA's horrifying practise of systematic torture and cruelty

PROBLEM: Peace on Earth? There are a whole bunch of people who simply don't like Christmas and are fighting to get rid of it any way they can . And, there are a lot of people on the other side who are angry at those efforts . And so, this whole battle over whether to say Christmas or Happy Holidays misses the point . I suppose it may be hard to be a non-believer in the religious themes around Christmas and live in our culture . You are confronted daily with the religious symbolism of Christmas in the books you read, the friends you have and the movies you watch ; and , above all ,  you have to stay away from religious stuff...like Christmas celebrations . I'm a believer, but not without a modicum of compassion for those who don't share my religious beliefs . I can imagine how irritating Christmas must be for those whose whole worldview is built on the belief that Christmas doesn't matter because it points to what is spurious at best and dangerous at worst . I get that, too . I must admit, though, that I get irritated sometimes when a group of people bring a lawsuit to get rid of the town creche or when someone wishes me "Happy Holidays." It bothers me when universities remove Christmas trees or Christmas concerts are canceled because it offends those who aren't religious or Christian . Frankly, I listen to a lot of stuff from the other side all the time . Fair play suggests that it wouldn't hurt for the other side to abide some of mine . I decided that I'm just not going to fight the Christmas war . I'm an old guy and old people are already irritated about being old . As someone said, it takes very little to tick us off . Instead, I'm just going to sing as loudly and as publicly as I can a Christmas carol---a Christmas carol about love and a God who went to a lot of trouble to express his love for us . You see , in my belief system, Christmas doesn't mean that God came to destroy us or to kick posteriors . I believe that the reason he came was to tell us that he isn't angry . And when we make obscene gestures or get mean with those who disagree with us, it kind of misses the point . It becomes a disconnect between what I believe and what I do . And if I really believe(and I do) that the King came , it kind of changes my perspective . I have a friend whose family takes playing chess very seriously . It gets so "hot" sometimes that they end up throwing chess pieces at one another . As you can imagine , they lose a lot of pieces . One Christmas when they were playing chess, my friend took the baby Jesus from the small creche under the Christmas tree to replace one of his lost pieces . My friend then began to move all over the board, going after his brother's pieces . "You can't do that," his brother said,"that's illegal." "Oh, yes I can," my friend said."This is Jesus and he can do whatever he wants to do." Jesus does as he pleases and he does it right well . At Christmas he decided to love and, then, clean up the mess later . So I think I'll opt out of the war . The King was doing fine before I came along and will do fine long after I'm gone . He doesn't need my defense . So, Merry Christmas or...uh .... Happy Holidays . Whatever .

SOLUTION: There are a whole bunch of people who simply don't like Christmas and are fighting to get rid of it any way they can And, there are a lot of people on the other side who are angry at those efforts

PROBLEM: CIA interrogations report: New Congress must tackle how to get intelligence right. As I read news reports detailing the Senate Committee Report on the CIA interrogation program after the September 2001 terrorist attacks , I concluded there are several recurring problems to this latest effort to govern our national intelligence agencies . As an old man, I have had the opportunity to have first-hand exposure to how complex it is for Congress or even the White House to assert control over these vital intelligence activities . After there were revelations in the 60's that the CIA had engaged in a variety of activities that were highly questionable including efforts to kill Fidel Castro and others , the Carter administration reacted and went through the kind of political process that many are urging should be done today . In an attempt to purge the agency of its tendency to use nefarious individuals to carry out some of its covert projects, the CIA was directed to refuse to associate with any persons who could not meet the test of good character . One CIA officer told me how absurd that directive was . "We are trying to get people to betray their governments and to lie and cheat on our behalf. You cannot expect us to find those people in the front pew at the local churches." Perhaps the directive was well-intentioned but it made no sense . Richard Helms, the CIA head from 1966 to 1973, whom I knew well and admired greatly, told me of his personal problems when he was indicted by the Carter Justice Department for perjury . In testimony he gave to the Congress, Helms denied under oath his agency had been involved in the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile, an action ordered by President Nixon . Helms told me he was following instructions he had been given repeatedly by various Senators including such powerful men as Senators Richard Russell and Walter George to the effect that if he were ever asked at an open hearing a question the answer to which "would put any of our people at risk" he should feel free to protect the secrets in whatever manner he wished . Of course Helms knew of many instances when he and others in the Agency had relied on that authority . Helms was defended by the powerful Washington lawyer, Edward Bennett Williams and the case against Helms was quickly resolved when Williams explained to the Justice Department his plan to have Helms take the stand and recite all the covert programs that had been protected by various forms of prevarications by intelligence officials . Of course no such trial in public made any sense and the danger to ongoing intelligence activities of testimony such as Williams would have had Helms provide was so great the ill- advised indictment of Helms resulted only in a slap on the wrist . Williams made a deal in which Helms pled guilty to a misdemeanor with no punishment . Later ,  President Ronald Reagan gave Helms the National Intelligence Medal as an obvious act of apology . Perjury is not to be condoned and lying before the Congress is criminal conduct . But the intelligence world involves subtle issues . If we want to have a major intelligence effort , there are clear costs to be accepted . One of them is that much of the necessary supervision by Congress has to be done with deft caution . It can hardly be conducted in open hearings . Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law Professor and prominent civil libertarian, contends torture to save lives should be permitted as long as there are rigorous procedural safeguards . He points out the Israelis have used torture for years with apparent success . Getting information from unwilling prisoners cannot be done without some risks to civilized process . It can be a dirty game . I once visited Vice President Walter Mondale at his White House office where he served under President Carter from 1977 to 1981 . His desk was piled high with documents he said were mainly reports from the CIA . He volunteered his frustration at the then weaknesses at the CIA . He told me he had come to regret he had been such a vigorous supporter of the gutting of that agency that followed the suggestions of the so-called Church Committee on which Mondale had served as a Senator . His comment was an isolated one and I merely listened . But the effects of the Church Committee recommendations were damaging to the CIA and the remedial work took years . Every forty years we may have to endure periodic reports like those produced under Senators Church and Feinstein that represent well intentioned reviews of the intelligence community . The suggested reforms speak of following our sense of justice and fairness and civility . The problem is obvious : Our enemies do not play fair and war is Hell . Any reforms of the intelligence universe cannot easily be effected . The idea of a transparent intelligence agency is an inherent contradiction . Moreover how can Congress talk openly of reforms without damaging our intelligence efforts? And politicians are among those least likely to be willing to accept the secrecy that is at the core of any well managed intelligence agency . Can we imagine a Congress that can keep the secrets? The new flurry of attacks on the intelligence community -- harmful and unnecessary-- will not have any more lasting impact than did the indictment of Helms or the work of the Church Committee . But there should be some quiet and thoughtful debate within our Congress about how it can supervise these vital intelligence programs . After all ,  our national intelligence work is existential .

SOLUTION:
As I read news reports detailing the Senate Committee Report on the CIA interrogation program after the September 2001 terrorist attacks