Diary: Torture Update

I shared the following with you earlier:

2009 10 20 - The war on terror is a lie.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Proposed-Resolution--The-by-John-Scanlon-091016-236.html

Torture was used to build the lie. It is unreliable, counter-productive, and not a means to the truth. Torture was used to get Guantanamo detainees to confess and implicate others whether or not they and those they implicated were guilty. Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi's torture in Egypt produced the lie that Saddam Hussein trained al Qaeda in biological and chemical weapons (3). This lie, no doubt, stopped his torture and helped rationalize the Iraq war.

(3) 5/12/2009 Newsweek web exclusive http://www.newsweek.com/id/196818

"Death in Libya" by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball

Torture Update

Alleged terrorist Abu Zubaydah while subjected to torture/ waterboarding told his interrogators that al-Qaeda had links with Saddam Hussein and that there was a plot to attack Washington with a dirty bomb. Both claims are now recognized by the CIA to have been false. (a)

The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks." (b)

In 5/2009 Ali Soufan, a veteran FBI investigator, who interrogated senior al-Qaeda captives told the Senate Judiciary Committee that harsh interrogation techniques are "ineffective, slow and unreliable." He also disputed claims by former VP Cheney and others that these methods helped uncover major terrorist plots. Cheney had called for the release of two classified CIA memos that he says detail successes. Sen. Russ Feingold said he's seen the two documents and they don't prove Cheney's case. (c)

In 11/2010 British officials said there was no evidence to support claims by Bush that information extracted by waterboarding KSM Khalid Sheikh Mohammed saved British lives by foiling attacks on Heathrow Airport and Canary Wharf. In fact KSM was arrested a month after the Heathrow alert. British counter terrorism officials did say KSM provided "extremely valuable" information but that it mainly related to al-Qaida's structure. (a)

(a) 11/9/2010 Guardian UK -- British deny George Bush's claims that torture helped foil terror plots. By Richard Norton-Taylor and Ian Black

(b) 4/25/2009 SDUT p.A1 Military agency had doubts about "torture' effect.

The Guantanamo Effect by Laurel Fletcher and Eric Stover 2009

p.19 Pakistan President Musharraf wrote in his memoir that Pakistani troops took 689 Al Qaeda suspects into custody after 9/11, and subsequently turned over 369 to the CIA which paid "millions of dollars" in exchange.

p.87 In June 2008 the Supreme Court decided in Boumediene v Bush that Guantanamo detainees had a constitutional right to have a federal court adjudicate their petitions for habeas corpus.

p.88, 93, 96 Guantanamo has held 770 detainees. 520 have been released to the custody of other governments. Per DOD most detainees who had been transferred to detention in their home countries were subsequently released.

p.118 119 A senior CIA analyst with extensive Middle East experience assessed detainees at the base in summer 2002 and concluded in a top-secret report that approximately a third of the population- at that time 200 of the 600 detainees- had no connection to terrorism. Many, he said had been "caught in the dragnet. They were not fighters, they were not doing jihad. They should not have been there." Guantanamo's commander, Major General Dunlavey, agreed with him and later estimated that half the camp population was mistakenly detained. An FBI counterterrorism expert went even further and told a committee of the National Security Council that there were at most only 50 detainees worth holding at Guantanamo.

As of 10/2008 255 detainees remained at Guantanamo

Only 23 of 770 detainees have been charged with war crimes.

Miscellaneous

Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi -- Emir of Khaldan training camp in Afghanistan captured at the end of 2001 and rendered to Egypt

Per Andy Worthington in Rock Creed Free Press 5/2010 -- --he confessed that Saddam Hussein was helping al Qaeda obtain chemical weapons."

Abu Faraj al-Libbi -- KSM's successor seized 5/2005. He is a different al-Libbi.

Abu Zubaydah seized 3/28/2002

Zubaydah told his interrogators that al-Qaeda had links with Saddam Hussein and that there was a plot to attack Washington with a dirty bomb. Both claims are now recognized by the CIA to be false. (a)

Zubaydah's interrogations were taped. The tapes were subsequently destroyed and recently the Justice Dep opted not to prosecute those responsible for their destruction. (11/10/2010 SDUT).

KSM Khalid Sheikh Mohammed captured in Pakistan in March 2003. He is the self proclaimed mastermind of 9/11 who underwent waterboarding 183 times.