From Senate testimony that occurred today:
A former federal agent who was involved in the interrogation of terrorism suspects said in congressional testimony Wednesday that the harsh techniques used by the Bush administration were ineffective and unreliable.Ali Soufan told a Senate judicial committee that al-Qaeda operatives were trained to resist the harsh methods, including waterboarding, and argued that conventional interrogations were much more reliable in extracting information.
'I strongly believe that it is a mistake to use what has become known as enhanced interrogation techniques,' said Soufan, who was a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 'A major problem with it is it is ineffective. Al-Qaeda are trained to resist torture.'
Soufan was involved in the questioning of Abu Zubaydah, an alleged top al-Qaeda operative captured in 2002 and still held at the US military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The CIA has acknowledged waterboarding Zubaydah, and memos released last month by the White House said the technique was used on him dozens of times.
Soufan said that he and other agents were able to gain useful information of Zubaydah through conventional interrogations, but when the CIA began waterboarding, Zubaydah stopped talking.
Dick Cheney wanted the effectiveness of torture to be publicized - well - here it is.
Whether it was legal or illegal will continue to be debated. In either case, it wasn't effective.
And Bush and Cheney lied when they said it was effective. Bush said it was effective and cited Zubaydah as an example. The man who was there said no, Bush lied.
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Comments (7)
I guess the most ample evidence begins and ends with someone saying that Dick Cheney is slithering through the weeds, gleefully waiting for these memos to be released so that the American people can see what a great patriot he was. The last time I checked, GW and Dick had almost 8 years to figure out which "legacy burnishing" memos they wanted leaked and which damaging tales they wanted to remain classified. If there's so much in the record that needs to come to light, why wasn't any of it released on January 19, 2009? I mean honestly, are there really people in the world who believe that Dick Cheney, the guy who had the Naval Observatory blurred on Goggle Earth, is now, in his semi-retirement, a beacon of truth, justice, and full-disclosure? You're living in a dream world!
1. Posted by Allen | May 13, 2009 3:16 PM
Posted on May 13, 2009 15:16
just because someone said something you agree with, does not make it true, lee. and given that it is democrats that are setting the witness list, of course the witnesses are going to say things that back up what the democrats want.
i'm more interested in what the full document trail proves.
2. Posted by ke_future | May 13, 2009 3:38 PM
Posted on May 13, 2009 15:38
"The full document trail" -- you're referring to the documents that Cheney didn't have destroyed, right?
We have a first-hand, highly credible, expert eyewitness testimony taken under oath.
3. Posted by Lee Ward | May 13, 2009 3:45 PM
Posted on May 13, 2009 15:45
Documents he had destroyed? If they're destroyed how did you know about them?
No, I believe ke is referring to the documents Cheney has called for declassification that prove his point, and the White House has gone mum on and not responded.
It's incredibly easy to work with only one side of the issue, it's slightly more difficult to do so when both sides are revealed.
That interview with Liz Cheney you should check out, it was interesting I think.
4. Posted by Heralder | May 13, 2009 4:01 PM
Posted on May 13, 2009 16:01
Heralder, How does Liz Cheney know so much? Did daddy tell her? If so, there goes the secret law BS out the window. And Bush and Cheney had plenty of time to declassify all kinds of documents, but they didn't. Now Cheney wants the open to the public. I say yes, open them up, including all his private testimony, energy meetings, etc.
5. Posted by Allen | May 13, 2009 5:28 PM
Posted on May 13, 2009 17:28
Dick Cheney wanted the effectiveness of torture to be publicized - well - here it is.
You're right, it's over, that's the only evidence we need, it didn't work. Of course when Obama's own National Intelligence director says the exact opposite:
From the NYTimes:
we should just ignore it. Keep up the good work lee.
6. Posted by J.R. | May 13, 2009 6:09 PM
Posted on May 13, 2009 18:09
Heralder, How does Liz Cheney know so much? Did daddy tell her? If so, there goes the secret law BS out the window.
Liz Cheney was the second-ranking US diplomat in the Mideast from 2005 to 2008, so I think it's safe to assume that she was in a position to know quite a bit.
7. Posted by OregonMuse | May 13, 2009 7:43 PM
Posted on May 13, 2009 19:43