The following questions must have occurred to participants and others in the administration. Why were they -- Rice, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Tenet, and Ashcroft -- the ultimate source for the choreography of torture? There is a long history and literature, as well, on effective interrogation techniques. Were they conversant with that history and body of literature? Were they experienced interrogators? As the ultimate source of "approval" for techniques and sequences used in critical interrogations, what quality of results would be expected from these individuals?
It simply makes no sense to argue that invaluable information was available from these prisoners yet interrogation "rookies" were put in charge as the ultimate authorities on techniques used to extract that information.
Obedience to Authority
What was behind the willingness of this top ranking group to participate in torture? What went on in their minds as they did so? One can only imagine.
Cheney and the other participants are political survivors, if nothing else. How did they reconcile the notion of survival with their actions? Did they think that this would be a secret in perpetuity? Did they delude themselves that the Iraq war would end with such success that no one would care?
Former CIA Director and Medal of Freedom recipient George Tenet (Image - receiving the medal)) provides an important clue. In response to top agent Coleman's charge that Abu Zubaydah was "insane, certified, a split personality," Tenet called the agent and others who agreed "junior Freudians" who didn't know what they were talking about.
But Ron Suskind got a different version of Tenet's thoughts on the "first al Qaeda prisoner captured after 9/11."
… one day, when CIA Director George Tenet reminds Bush that Zubaida was not such a top leader after all, Bush reportedly says to him, "I said he was important. You're not going to let me lose face on this, are you?" Tenet replies, "No sir, Mr. President. Suskind, 2006, pp. 99-100, also see Cooperative History Research Commons
Did Tenet and the rest of them do what they did in the service of a man who demanded their loyalty to preserve his war, his reputation, and his sense of control?
It all started with a prisoner who was mentally ill, by a very reliable account, and then it expanded into a collaborative effort involving Cheney and the most senior Bush appointees in the intimate details of torture.
It didn't matter to the senior officials if the detainee was mentally ill and a spent vessel in terms of new information. His capacity to deliver information in a reliable fashion was not an issue. They needed a "mastermind." It didn't matter that the officials were involved in morally repellant and illegal acts of torture. All that mattered was the opinion of President George W. Bush "I said he was important."
That's all it took.
END
N.B. Abu Zubaydah is a major source of information in the 911 Commission Report.
