One Former Official Ready to Bust Others for Torture - by emptywheel

[kpete]

One Former Official Ready to Bust Others for Torture
By: emptywheel Sunday July 19, 2009 5:44 am

......................

The WaPo has a story today that proves my point. It is basically a summary of information already out there, supplemented by one "former US official" involved in the torture discussions who seems prepared to do just what I said--implicate the architects of the torture program.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/18/AR2009071802065_pf.html

The former official describes how, when interrogators in Thailand determined Abu Zubaydah was fully compliant, those in DC harangued them into further torture.

"Headquarters was sending daily harangues, cables, e-mails insisting that waterboarding continue for 30 days because another attack was believed to be imminent," the former official said. "Headquarters said it would be on the team's back if an attack happened. They said to the interrogation team, 'You've lost your spine.' "

Mitchell and Jessen now found themselves in the same position as Soufan, Shumate and others.

..................

"The program was fully put together, vetted and run by the counterterrorism folks at the agency," the former U.S. official said. "CIA headquarters was involved directly in every detail of interrogation. Permission had to be obtained before every technique was used, and the dialogue was very heavy. There were cables and also an IM system. All Mitchell's communications were with the Counterterrorist Center."

In Bangkok, word circulated among those at the secret site that the tactics had been approved "downtown" -- agency jargon for the White House.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/18/AR2009071802065_pf.html

more:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/07/19/one-former-official-ready-to-bust-others-for-torture/

[chill_wind]

1. K & R n/t

[bluesmail]

2. She's right. (Emptywheel) When you get the lessers talking

they probably will implicate the people at the top eventually. (Wheels of justice turn slowly).

[alfredo]

18. It's the same method used against organized crime.

[Spazito]

3. Emptywheel's blog is on my must check list...

Her perspective on legal issues, as well as other ones, always add to one's knowledge base, imo.

[druidity33]

14. i visit

FDL and Emptywheel everyday. TPM too.

[Wednesdays]

4. K&R

:kick:

[bobthedrummer]

5. Thank you, again, kpete. K&R +

a link to another of your active threads.

"Internal Rifts on Road to Torment-Interviews Offer More Nuanced Look At Roles of CIA Contractors" (started 7-19-09)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6101849

Why are so many of our military killing themselves????

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. And this is HOW you build the case

yep, we might see prosecution of the principals before I die...

[bleever]

7. The name "Cheney" doesn't appear once in the article,

but that's because it goes without saying that all the fingers point back to him.

[Mrs. Overall]

8. K&R

[newtothegame]

9. Uh, whatever happened to the 100's of insiders that were just waiting until Jan 20...

to come out of the woodwork with all their stories of atrocities? 6 months tomorrow.

[glitch]

10. Must be the fear of the "left behinds" keeping them mum. nt

[Libertas1776]

11. Please

by all means, BUST away.

[wroberts189]

12. another easy knr +32

[Senator]

13. Sound More Like Blame-Shift Than Bust

But there was this sad bit of irony about the "greatest success" of the waronterra:

On the agents' first night in Thailand, Abu Zubaida went into septic shock because of his wounds and was rushed to a local hospital. Gaudin and Soufan dabbed his lips with ice, told him to ask God for strength and cleaned him up after he soiled himself, according to official documents and interviews.

At his bedside, Gaudin asked Soufan to show Abu Zubaida a photograph of Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, an Egyptian suspect in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. The two agents had photos of terrorism suspects on a handheld computer, and Gaudin accidentally displayed the wrong photo.

Abu Zubaida said: "This is Mukhtar. This is the mastermind of 9/11."

Not drowning torture, not sleep abuse, not even sugar-free cookies ... wrong photo.

Of course cheney will claim that septic shock is as mild as getting too big a whiff of cesspool air -- and not the result of a forced 2000 mile journey 3 days after being shot in the stomach -- and chide Obama for not trying to exploit the gutshot/travel technique on those evildoers who stubbornly remain "seemingly innocent."

--

[ThomWV]

15. "Headquarters" had a name - that is the first SOB that has to go to prison, Headquarters.

[bobthedrummer]

16. "Prisoner Abuse: Patterns From The Past" (National Security Archive)

Electronic Briefing Book 122
"Cheney Informed Of 'Objectionable' Interrogation Guides In 1992"
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB122/index.htm

[Laura PourMeADrink]

17. HMMMM....Where has Richard Clarke been lately???