Torturing Detainee May Have Produced False Terror Alerts

[tekisui]

Source: The Raw Story

As the nation struggles to make sense of a wave of new revelations regarding the "harsh interrogation techniques" brought to bear on detainees by the CIA, two very different narratives are shaping up to describe the treatment of captured al Qaeda member Abu Zubaydah in April and May of 2002.

On one hand, there is what might be called the "official" version, as presented in a timeline released by the Senate Intelligence Committee and summarized by the Washington Post. According to this version, Abu Zubaydah was subjected only to traditional interrogation methods until an August 1 memo from Justice Department lawyer Jay Bybee gave a green light for the use of waterboarding and other aggressive techniques.

On the other, there is a far more incriminating narrative that has been pieced together by various observers over the last several years. In this version, harsher methods were being applied to Abu Zubaydah as early as mid-April, and by mid-May he had been subjected to virtually every aggressive technique short of waterboarding.

This second version appears to be supported by a number of external facts. One is that in 2005, the CIA destroyed all videotapes of Abu Zubaydah's interrogation from prior to August 1, even though taping had begun in April.

There were also two peculiar episodes of heightened security alerts in the US in April and May, which were said at the time to have been based on information obtained from Abu Zubaydah. These vague and ultimately implausible threats gave a strong impression that Abu Zubaydah might have been inventing al Qaeda plots simply to satisfy his interrogators.

more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Was_Abu_Zubaydah_tortured_before_Bybee_0424.html

________________________________________________________________________

Dickie and the other torture apologist's arguments are so flawed and weak.

IF any good intelligence came from torture, it would be buried like a needle in a haystack with hundreds of pieces of bad intell from torture.

The tortured say what they think the torturers want to hear. 188 waterboardings on KSM, how is one supposed to know which 'confession' is valid?

[NNN0LHI]

1. Remember when they had us looking for terrorists wearing scuba gear?

I bet I know where that came from.

Don

[Warpy]

The election of 2004 produced all those false terra alerts

Remember how they came more and more frequently, whenever Stupid did something really egregious and then weekly leading up to election day? Remember how they disappeared right after election day?

All that torture produced was false confessions from broken men.

[Stephanie]

2. There you go

I remember working in midtown when the Citibank building was announced as a target based on four year old maps found on a seized computer. All of midtown Manhattan was shut down. Remember also they used convenient terror alerts to shut down Manhattan for the GOP convention. I have directly suffered under these lies as a Manhattan resident and I knew then that it was BS and now I am enraged.

[calimary]

3. You know what I remember?

I remember the coverage of the first Gulf War. When things were starting to unravel, rather quickly, ad US troops advanced through Kuwait, driving Iraqi invaders back across the border to their own country. We'd heard SO much about the much-vaunted and greatly-dreaded Republican Guards with whom Saddam surrounded himself and all that he held dear. We were all led to believe that the Iraqi army was ferocious beyond belief and would be formidable enemies to the last man. But as the Iraqi invaders realized the jig was up, they abandoned Kuwait leaving a trail of debris, stolen booty and an astounding amount of litter in almost a kind of highway behind them as they raced back to Iraq. US troops remained in pursuit. When they'd come upon a group of Iraqi soldiers, what always happened was the Iraqis spotted them and started running toward them, throwing down their guns as they approached, and fell down on their knees to surrender. They were eager to turn themselves over to the American "enemy." This happened again and again and again. And some troops later recalled these stories, marveling how it had happened so peacefully and easily, and repeatedly so.

Know why?

Because the Iraqis knew they were going to be treated humanely in American captivity. If it was Americans taking them prisoner, they knew their own terror would be ended, that they wouldn't be mistreated, they'd actually get fed regularly, they'd get looked over by legitimate doctors and their wounds would be properly dealt with, and they'd have a relatively clean and safe shelter in which to be housed where they wouldn't be under fire all the time and under the orders and dictates of Saddam and his God-forsaken nut case sadistic sons and lieutenants.

We won't see THAT again. I can't imagine that anyone in an adversarial position militarily would want to be taken into American custody. Not after all this. It will take years for the world community to trust us completely again. Especially if we do nothing about what has happened in our name, on our watch, and with our money. Our lofty-sounding claims of integrity and morals will just sound like so much bullshit.

When I think of the full measure of what these GOP/bush/cheney bastards have done to our country, I just wanna SCREAM!!! I hope they get what's coming to them. Every last miserable nanosecond of it.

[rgbecker]

4. It's already part of history! No surrenders during Iraq invasion of 2003.

Read the book "Fiasco". Only one surrender in whole war. One officer, without his troops. Could be the Iraqis had heard about the treatment of Abu Zubaydah in April and May of 2002. What goes around, comes around.

[justinaforjustice]

5. Thanks for Your Very Relevant Information.

Yup, Bush-Cheney have really endangered out troops. In World War II, thousands of German and Japanese troops surrendered quickly, rather than fighting to the death, to American troops because they knew they would not be mis-treated. The fact that America now has the reputation was treating prisoners of war brutally means that our soldiers are much more likely to be killed and, if captured, tortured by the enemy.

The U.S. was one of the chief drafters of the Geneva Conventions which proscribe torture and inhumane or humiliating treatment of prisoners. We did so in the attempt to protect our own soldiers from such treatment. Bush-Cheney's use of torture and the humiliation and cruel treatment they meted out to detainees makes it much more likely that our soldiers will be similarly treated if captured.

Bush and Cheney must be prosecuted for their war crimes and torture program. We must convict them to insure that their horrendous practices are never again employed by U.S. officials. To do anything less to be complicit in their crimes. President Obama, Attorney General Holder, please act to re-establish the rule of law in our country. Prosecute all the war criminals.