Hey, Our Bad

It's so fortunate for us Americans that Uncle Dick authorized the use of torture to get all the data he could out of those Islamic terrorists. we got those guys before they could unleash Weapons of Mass Destruction on our society. Here's one story...

A former CIA high-value detainee, who provided bogus information that was cited by the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war, has died in a Libyan prison, an apparent suicide, according to a Libyan newspaper.

A researcher for Human Rights Watch, who met Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli late last month, said a contact in Libya had confirmed the death.

Libi was captured fleeing Afghanistan in late 2001, and he vanished into the secret detention system run by the Bush administration. He became the unnamed source, according to Senate investigators, behind Bush administration claims in 2002 and 2003 that Iraq had provided training in chemical and biological weapons to al-Qaeda operatives. The claim was most famously delivered by then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in his address to the United Nations in February 2003.

Powell later called the speech a "blot" on his record, saying he was not given all available intelligence and analysis within the government. The Defense Intelligence Agency and some analysts at the CIA had questioned the veracity of Libi's testimony, which was obtained after the prisoner was transferred to Egyptian custody for questioning by the CIA, according to Senate investigators.

In their book "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," Michael Isikoff and David Corn said Libi made up the story about Iraqi training after he was beaten and subjected to a "mock burial" by his Egyptian interrogators, who put him in a cramped box for 17 hours. Libi recanted the story after being returned to CIA custody in 2004.

Yes, I can see why Darth Cheney feels absolutely confident that our government ought to retain these "aggressive interrogation" techniques, since you never know when you're going to have to make up WMD intelligence to support a preventive war. I just don't feel safe knowing that secret prisons and waterboarding aren't options anymore.

In a more serious note, I am comforted that there are combat arms field officers who understand that torture doesn't work, even if the right-wing commentators don't.

Comments

[NVH]

He recanted once back into CIA custody....because all we did was waterboard him.

See J. two things, one 10 out of 10 times that guy wanted out of Egypt to GITMO so bad, he'd pick waterboarding over being buried alive and the dozen other things they do in Egyptian prisons. And don't rise above all this torture stuff, we've picked a couple of bad things, we're doing them because we needed to, not anymore anyway, and we're done, so we played the game. Now release the other two memos and vindicate the methods for that timeframe and be done with it.
Two, Cheney is NOT abandoning his men in the field like former administrations have done. He doesn't care about policy changes, he just acts like he does to get the air time so he can say that he is particularly pissed that Obama and his self righteous punk asses are going after the very people that crafted this policy, which is now changed. Release the memos, be done with it, stop witch hunting. The American public does not need to hold accountable public servants who were doing their duty at the time as best they could to protect this country, and if you hang them, then hang the DEMS on the intel committee who sat back and watched it happen saying they couldn't do anything...come on, gotta respect Darth for not leaving his men behind...

[Grung_e_Gene]

I'm not for initial prosecutions being used against those who did the techniques. I'm for those who never sullied their puffy asses in the field for one night and crafted all sorts of imaginary scenarios wherein torture was the only choice, to be tried first.

The architects of these policies are truly despicable.

As for the effectiveness angle, would a torture supporter please tell me if they believe all of the people who admitted to being witches and having danced with the devil by the pale moonlight actually were witches?

[NVH]

Ok, but at the witch trials intellectual authority on deduced from books and other intellectuals as truth, just a couple generations later, you had guys saying wait and minute, prove they are witches and show me how they do those things you accuse them of. Thus we arrive to present day to find the reverse happening, the "withches" admit to doing what they, that being bombings, flying planes into buildings, etc and now they have the power to resist common questioning techniques that maybe weren't so present back in the 1600s. So we add a couple face slaps and for the really bad guys ( I guess there were three for sure ) we poor water over their face wrapped in saran wrap to loosen them up a bit. No doubt, some went to far, got screwed, but they deserved it because they took pictures of it. So while torture does NOT provide proven factual intelligence, Harsh interrogation techniques serve a purpose when administered correctly under controlled conditions. And in the ticking time bomb scenario, just rip the lamp cord out of the wall and attach to testicles, who knows, you'll probably get a lead out of it anyway...Jack Bauer always seems to...