FBI's 9/11 Whistleblower Rowley: Real world torture at odds with Cheney's Hollywood 'reality'

[BradBlog]

Real World Facts, Real World Understanding Needed on Torture Issue
The harsh realities of torture and following orders are quite different from the fictional world of Hollywood's anti-terror warriors, says a noted former FBI Special Agent and 9/11 whistleblower...

-- Guest Blogged by Coleen Rowley

Back in December 2007, when I wrote "Torture is Wrong, Illegal and It Doesn't Work", I mentioned that "the FBI agent who reportedly had the best chance of foiling the 9/11 plot, Ali Soufan, the only Arabic-speaking agent in New York and one of only eight in the country, and who has since resigned from the FBI, could and should tell people the truth of how the CIA's tactics were counterproductive."

Well guess what?! HE FINALLY DID SO ON WEDNESDAY! The points Soufan makes are very instructive as our country begins to unravel the differences between the fictional world of Hollywood's "Jack Bauer", and the real world dilemmas and questions of morality and legality as faced by actual intelligence and law enforcement officers...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7096

Ed Note: Coleen Rowley worked as an FBI Special Agent and legal counsel for more than 20 years until retiring in 2004. Following 9/11, after blowing the whistle on failures at the FBI which led up to the attacks, she testified to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee about endemic problems facing the both the agency and the intelligence community. In 2002 she was one of three whistleblowers named TIME magazine's "Persons of the Year".

[NYC_SKP]

1. "My Tortured Decision", Wednesday NYT.

By whistleblower Ali Soufan:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/opinion/23soufan.html

Recommeded.

Bradblog Rocks!

[mmonk]

2. Recommended.

Thanks Brad.

[BradBlog]

3. Thanks backatacha both!

And for the record, Coleen thought the Soufan piece was important enough to include the entire piece inside her own.

[mmonk]

4. Yes, I saw it.

[Kaleko]

5. Important. K & double R.