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

[Cali_Democrat]

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

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

McClatchy Newspapers
By Jonathan S. Landay

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.

<snip>

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.

"There were two reasons why these interrogations were so persistent, and why extreme methods were used," the former senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.

"The main one is that everyone was worried about some kind of follow-up attack (after 9/11). But for most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld, especially, were also demanding proof of the links between al Qaida and Iraq that (former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed) Chalabi and others had told them were there."


Read the entire article....
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66622.html

So I guess this is why Abu Zubeida was waterboarded 83 times in one month and Khalid Sheik Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in one month.

Bush Administration officials desperately wanted to find an Iraq-Al Qaeda link so they could justify their war in Iraq.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Lerkfish]

2. why anyone would trust chalabi is beyond me in the first place

[WhiteTara]

3. and where is the devil

Chalabi? Fat, squishy little toad that he is. He seems to have dropped out of sight.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. Trying desparately to create links that they already said /insisted existed.

Proving again that they KNEW they were selling a pack of lies. Remember always that waterboarding was the preferred method to obtain FALSE CONFESSIONS.

I am actually just astounded that they didn't obtain the false confession they were looking for.

[ixion]

5. BS. Saddam and al Qaida are two separate beasts

so the information they got was simply what they wanted to hear, and THEY TORTURED people -- in our name and with our tax dollars -- to get this bogus information.

[Cali_Democrat]

6. Exactly

In the run up to the Iraq War, the Bush Administration kept on insisting publicly that there was a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

Behind the scenes, they knew they had no real evidence.

That's why they proceeded to torture relentlessly, right up until the first shots were fired in the Iraq War in March 2003.

They wanted that link and they wanted it badly.

[wildflower]

7. I really wish they'd rewrite this misleading headline

or at least add the words "that wasn't there."

[babylonsister]

9. Good point: AND LINK WASN'T FOUND. nt

[babylonsister]

8. And ultimately, no link was found. How 'bout that? EPIC fail. nt

[florida08]

10. Glad I checked

Was about to put this up. This should be on the Greatest Page. Not getting the attention it deserves. Here's a link:
I hope they prosecute all the way to the top. If we remember that was the mantra for invading after 9/11. "Piece of cake" stated George Tenet and when the WMD's were shown to be a sham they had to find another source.

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