DemocracyNow had an interesting program this morning. All about the CIA’s use of a private psychiatric firm to oversee torture. In the course of the discussion, an interesting point was made by Katherine Eban author of the “Rorschach and Awe” article published in Vanity Fair a while back. Here’s an excerpt from that article:
Abu Zubaydah was a mess. It was early April 2002, and the al-Qaeda lieutenant had been shot in the groin during a firefight in Pakistan, then captured by the Special Forces and flown to a safe house in Thailand. Now he was experiencing life as America's first high-value detainee in the wake of 9/11. A medical team and a cluster of F.B.I. and C.I.A. agents stood vigil, all fearing that the next attack on America could happen at any moment. It didn't matter that Zubaydah was unable to eat, drink, sit up, or control his bowels. They wanted him to talk.
A C.I.A. interrogation team was expected but hadn't yet arrived. But the F.B.I. agents who had been nursing his wounds and cleaning him after he'd soiled himself asked Zubaydah what he knew. The detainee said something about a plot against an ally, then began slipping into sepsis. He was probably going to die.
The team cabled the morsel of intelligence to C.I.A. headquarters, where it was received with delight by Director George Tenet. "I want to congratulate our officers on the ground," he told a gathering of agents at Langley. When someone explained that the F.B.I. had obtained the information, Tenet blew up and demanded that the C.I.A. get there immediately, say those who were later told of the meeting. Tenet's instructions were clear: Zubaydah was to be kept alive at all costs. (Through his publisher, George Tenet declined to be interviewed.)
Zubaydah was stabilized at the nearest hospital, and the F.B.I. continued its questioning using its typical rapport-building techniques. An agent showed him photographs of suspected al-Qaeda members until Zubaydah finally spoke up, blurting out that "Moktar," or Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, had planned 9/11. He then proceeded to lay out the details of the plot. America learned the truth of how 9/11 was organized because a detainee had come to trust his captors after they treated him humanely.
It was an extraordinary success story. But it was one that would evaporate with the arrival of the C.I.A's interrogation team. At the direction of an accompanying psychologist, the team planned to conduct a psychic demolition in which they'd get Zubaydah to reveal everything by severing his sense of personality and scaring him almost to death.
…
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x297712 This morning's DemocracyNow discussion is online here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/21/the_story_of_mitchell_jessen_associatesSo, information was coming out of the FBI’s LEGAL interrogation of Zubaydah and then the head of CIA hears this and sends in the torturers. At that point, information stops.
Now, the article implies Tenet acted out of interagency jealousy. But I wonder. You see, I’m a fan of the work of Nafeez Ahmed and Nafeez has documented many, many instances where what we call “al Qaeda” was used by US/Saudi oil interests throughout the Near East. He’s written several books on the subject, but here’s a good hour long talk he gave a few years back where he outlines his ideas:
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/23955So, if the Saudi GID and/or parts of the CIA were involved in using “al Qaeda” for their purposes, one could imagine Tenant becoming quite disturbed if he heard that high “al Qaeda” operatives were talking to FBI law enforcement types.
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