BREAKING: Report: Abusive tactics were used to find Iraq-al Qaida link

[IndianaGreen]

Report: Abusive tactics were used to find Iraq-al Qaida link

By Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration put relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. No evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.

The use of abusive interrogation — widely considered torture — as part of Bush's quest for a rationale to invade Iraq came to light as the Senate issued a major report tracing the origin of the abuses and President Barack Obama opened the door to prosecuting former U.S. officials for approving them.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and others who advocated the use of sleep deprivation, isolation and stress positions and waterboarding, which simulates drowning, insist that they were legal.

A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the interrogation issue said that Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld demanded that intelligence agencies and interrogators find evidence of al Qaida-Iraq collaboration.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66622.html

[Beetwasher]

1. Drip Drip Drip

Prosecutions are coming.

[AwakeAtLast]

7. They're running out of fingers....

:D

[K Gardner]

13. Drip? It's more like a faucet opening full throttle. The stories will be flowing now.

[merh]

2. Weren't tortured confessions used in the 9/11 report?

[cliffordu]

3. Can they still hang people in the hague???

I cannot stand these motherfuckers.....

[struggle4progress]

12. There's no capital punishment in the civilized world

[cliffordu]

15. So..This will have to be a domestic kind of justice. Good.

[struggle4progress]

17. Frankly, I don't expect domestic justice. We may have to hope the civilized world takes this up.

[cliffordu]

19. Yes, you are probably correct. A cage in the docket at the Hague might have

to be enough.

[jefferson_dem]

4. Good Gawd. I hate these fuckers. Check this out -

"There was constant pressure on the intelligence agencies and the interrogators to do whatever it took to get that information out of the detainees, especially the few high-value ones we had, and when people kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people to push harder," he continued.

"Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people were told repeatedly, by CIA . . . and by others, that there wasn't any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam, and that no such ties were likely because the two were fundamentally enemies, not allies."

Senior administration officials, however, "blew that off and kept insisting that we'd overlooked something, that the interrogators weren't pushing hard enough, that there had to be something more we could do to get that information," he said.

[denem]

5. Rats meet the Titanic

[Captain Hilts]

6. And they still didn't find one . nt

[debbierlus]

8. Kick & Recommend

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. Bad headline. No links existed. Should be "used to look for"

[AtomicKitten]

10. Pandora's box is opening up and Shooter is cranky. n/t

[Schema Thing]

11. Saw this one coming.

4k Americans dead from faulty intelligence based on torture.

[MarjorieG]

14. Based on knowlingly bad intel to justify Iraq at all costs, so we could privatize the oil.

[gauguin57]

16. Crap. Torturing people to prove a PNAC/Rumsfeld fantasy.

Those guys are the DEVIL, man.

[islandgirl808]

18. omg this makes me sick

sick and scared that karma will bite America in the ass if nothing is done about those monsters. :scared:

[mvd]

20. No surprise

More reason for Holder to investigate. And for Obama to say screw moving on instead of seeming reluctant to look back. After all, Holder is tied to Obama's admin. He picked him.

[Cali_Democrat]

21. All those torture sessions so they could squeeze out a "confession" to justify their Iraq War

An Iraq War that has cost us dearly in blood and treasure.

Not exactly shocking considering this is the Bush Crime Family we're talking about.

[sampsonblk]

22. These people are EVIL

Lets not forget that our party allowed this to happen. We need to demand better leaders in our party. This shameful episode happened in full view.

Unfortunately, there were many who were more concerned about winning the next election than about doing the right thing.

[populistdriven]

23. it all makes sense now, but they knew the link was a lie - thats why they tortured

[Kablooie]

24. Well, that sure paid off in dividends, didn't it, Dick?

[RobertSeattle]

25. Torture was used to Protect Bush/Cheney - not to Protect US

They hoped for a "confession" that there were Saddam/Al Queda links.

[RagAss]

26. I can hear an echo from the distant past...."I am not a crook"....n/m