There was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn't, or couldn't have been, gained from regular tactics. In addition, I saw that using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions --- all of which are still classified.We have some idea as to nature of the backfiring, as when Khaled Sheikh Muhammed "confessed" to a plot to destroy a building that had not been built at the time of his capture.
Those who allow the occasional bit of paranoid speculation to color their worldview tend to suspect that false confessions were the point of Bush administration torture. I've told the following Cold War-vintage joke before, but it's worth another recounting:
THE BEAR JOKE
The head of the CIA, the head of the KGB and the head of the Mossad go hunting in the forest. They engage in a competition: The person who bags a bear the quickest wins.
The CIA guy heads into the forest first. Using infrared scanners, night-vision goggles, real-time satellite imagery and many more high-tech gadgets, he locates a bear, stuns him with an audio-based non-lethal weapon, airlifts the creature back to base camp, and has him worked on by a team of experts in psycho-pharmacology -- who soon have the bear convinced that he is, in fact, the Empress Eugenie.
The entire process takes three days.
The KGB guy goes next. He calls in a missile strike and blows up a quarter of the forest. After the inferno dies down, he explores the fallen trees and finally uncovers the carcass of a dead bear, which he hauls back to camp.
That destroy-and-search process takes less than 48 hours.
The Mossad guy goes out. He's in the forest for about 30 minutes. Then he comes back -- holding a rabbit. The rabbit, alive, has had the crap beat out of him.
The Mossad guy triumphantly exclaims: "He confessed! He IS a bear!"
1 comment:
I have real trouble with the selective nature of the release of the torture stuff. I think the entire thing deserves a commission that can look at EVERYTHING.
That way, Cheney can slink back to his cave and we can clear the air on this once and for all.
I'm assuming Holder will do his job although the Justice Department has been dysfunctional for so long that I can't imagine it has the resources it needs that it could be a long time before stuff sees daylight.
I'd like a bi-partisan commission frankly and I'd put McCain in as the Republican in charge because he's got credibility on this.
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