Well, it works, but not for what our torture proponents would like us to believe. It works for what it's always worked for - to satisfy the ghoulish pleasure of sadists.
In the first public testimony of anyone directly involved, former bureau agent Ali Soufan is expected to directly contradict assertions by CIA officials and former Vice President Cheney that the "enhanced interrogation techniques" were successful in prying information out of al Qaeda detainees.[...]
Soufan, a star FBI agent fluent in Arabic and English, met Abu Zubaydah in Thailand, just days after the al Qaeda suspect was captured after a gun battle in Pakistan. Zubaydah was then the most important operative captured after the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government selected Soufan and another FBI agent, Steve Gaudin, because they were considered experts at getting al Qaeda suspects to crack.
Soufan will testify that within an hour of Abu Zubaydah's arrival at the secret prison, he was revealing parts of the 9/11 plot and had identified the mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Soufan has contended publicly that the FBI approach to interrogation had been so successful, George Tenet ordered that the gravely ill Zubaydah be kept alive.
[...]
A top Johns Hopkins surgeon was flown in to treat Zubaydah, and the two FBI agents helped nurse the terrorist into good health. The former operative tells ABC News that the intelligence continued to flow, as Soufan interviewed Zubaydah in the hospital while tending to his recovery. But that all ended when the CIA's team of specialists and a contractor arrived to take over interrogations.
[...]
The contractor, who has been identified by former intelligence officials as James E. Mitchell, was a former military psychologist. Mitchell, along with another psychologist, has been described to ABC News as an architect of the CIA's harsh interrogation plan.
[...]
When Mitchell arrived in Thailand, a source tells ABC News, the CIA ordered Soufan to follow the psychologist's plan for interrogation.
[...]
"It was imposed upon us," says the source. "And not only [at CIA] headquarters, they were getting requests specifically from the White House."
[...]
"We're the United States, we don't do this," Soufan is said to have told the CIA officers. According to the former operative, the CIA officer told Soufan, "It's coming from Alberto Gonzales."
[...]
Mitchell used a program that he told those present was called "force continuum," an ascending interrogation program that began with forced nudity, followed by loud music and white noise, temperature manipulation and sleep deprivation for up to 48 hours. According to one officer on the scene, Mitchell said the program was a "strategic approach to diminish his ability to resist" the interrogators.
Soufan, will testify that Zubaydah didn't begin resisting until Mitchell began his tactics.
Which included 83 waterboardings.
Soufan intends to tell the Senate on Wednesday that he "couldn't even dream that the United States would do something like that."
He might be lucky they didn’t arrange for him to be silenced.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!