TORTURE gave Bush propaganda to launch Iraq war-

[Bluerthanblue]

Sorry if this not news to anyone. I was reading about torture and came across information about "Ibn al Shaykh al Libbi" whose 'confessions' as a result of torture gave the Bush Adm. information that's said to have been instrumental in convincing Congress to authorize war on Iraq.

Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi was rendered to Egypt by the CIA in early 2002. While under torture, he "admitted" that Saddam Hussein had trained al Qaeda in chemical and biological weapons, information was later used in Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations justifying the invasion of Iraq.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/mariner/20090325.html

Despite the fact that NON 'torture' methods had been working on al-Libi, the CIA removed him from the custody of the military:

Shortly After December 19, 2001: CIA Station Chief Protests against FBI Interview of Al-Libi A CIA officer known as Rich B, who is now chief of the CIA’s station in Kabul, Afghanistan, objects to the FBI interviewing high-ranking al-Qaeda detainee Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi. The FBI obtained access to al-Libi after he was handed over to the US, and is obtaining some information from him about Zacarias Moussaoui and Richard Reid, who will be prosecuted in the US (see December 19, 2001). However, according to FBI agent Jack Cloonan, “for some reason, the CIA chief of station in Kabul is taking issue with our approach.” CIA Director George Tenet learns of Rich B’s complaints and insists that al-Libi be turned over to the CIA (see January-April 2002), which promptly puts him on a plane to Egypt (see January 2002 and after), where he is tortured and makes false statements (see February 2002). Rich B was in charge of the CIA’s bin Laden unit on 9/11 and has only recently become chief of its Kabul station. The FBI, which has long experience interviewing suspects, will continue in its attempts to use rapport-building techniques (see Mid-April 2002), whereas the CIA will employ harsher techniques, despite not having much experience with interviews (see Mid-April 2002).
Entity Tags: Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Rich B.
Timeline Tags: Complete

http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=ibn_al-shaykh_al-libi

Under pressure and feeling threatened, Al-Libi provided the CIA and other officials questioning him with a wealth of information about planned attacks in Yemen and around the world. Most significant however, al-Libi was the primary source for the faulty pre-war intelligence about Al Qaeda-Iraq links. Al-Libi specifically said that Iraq had been training members of Al Qaeda in the use of chemical and biological weapons, a claim cited by President Bush, Colin Powell, and many others as a justification for the war.

This bit of intelligence, gained by torture and used to justify a war, was found to be false after the invasion.

http://2parse.com/?p=17

Taking this into the equation as to how destructive the use of torture is, would it be too much of a stretch to say that US torture is at least partially responsible for the loss of countless men women and children in Iraq, as well as all the Military personnel who have died and been maimed in Iraq?

[supernova]

1. The torture itself was a means to an end

They wanted an Iraq invasion and were looking for "reasons" to justify it because in reality, there was no logical, practical reason for that war.

So they tortured in our name to backfill a reason.

What twisted people.

[Bluerthanblue]

2. but did the torture - misinformation' tip the scale in their favor?

we'll never know.

Bad information cost so many many people their lives, and continues to take a terrible toll.

:shrug:

They were getting good information without 'enhanced techniques'- why did they need to take it over the edge? Because they knew they could make him say whatever they wanted, and have a scape-goat?