Did Al Qaeda trick W into invading Iraq?

The pseudonymous Omar Nasiri claims to be a real life "Morocco mole" inside Al Qaeda. He has attracted a great deal of attention in the U.K. with his televised assertion that Osama and the boys deliberately planted "evidence" designed to goad Bush into an invasion of Iraq. From the Guardian:

The claim was made by Omar Nasiri, a pseudonym for a Moroccan who says he spent seven years working for European security and intelligence agencies, including MI5. He said Ibn Sheikh al-Libi, who ran training camps in Afghanistan, told his US interrogators that al-Qaida had been training Iraqis.

Libi was captured in November 2001 and taken to Egypt where he was allegedly tortured. Asked on BBC2's Newsnight whether Libi or other jihadists would have told the truth if they were tortured, Nasiri replies: "Never".

Asked whether he thought Libi had deliberately planted information to get the US to fight Iraq, Nasiri said: "Exactly".

At first glance, the scenario seems questionable. The Bushites obviously wanted to go into Iraq well before September 11, 2001; their reasons for doing so had much to do with oil and little to do with anything said by any captured informants. The whole "They tricked us!" meme seems like an all-too convenient rationalization for a failed military adventure.

On the other hand, Michael Scheur, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, vouches for Nasiri -- who, of course, now has a book out. (See here.)

Was Libi tortured? Apparently so. At the time of his capture, Jack Coonan -- an FBI anti-terrorism expert in Pakistan -- advised his captors to keep the interrogation on a by-the-book basis. That advice went unheeded:

To Cloonan's dismay, the C.I.A. reportedly rendered Libi to Egypt. He was seen boarding a plane in Afghanistan, restrained by handcuffs and ankle cuffs, his mouth covered by duct tape. Cloonan, who retired from the F.B.I. in 2002, said, "At least we got information in ways that wouldn't shock the conscience of the court. And no one will have to seek revenge for what I did." He added, "We need to show the world that we can lead, and not just by military might."

After Libi was taken to Egypt, the F.B.I. lost track of him. Yet he evidently played a crucial background role in Secretary of State Colin Powell's momentous address to the United Nations Security Council in February, 2003, which argued the case for a preëmptive war against Iraq. In his speech, Powell did not refer to Libi by name, but he announced to the world that "a senior terrorist operative" who "was responsible for one of Al Qaeda's training camps in Afghanistan" had told U.S. authorities that Saddam Hussein had offered to train two Al Qaeda operatives in the use of "chemical or biological weapons."

Last summer, Newsweek reported that Libi, who was eventually transferred from Egypt to Guantánamo Bay, was the source of the incendiary charge cited by Powell, and that he had recanted.

So apparently Nasiri's claims do have validity. And it should be noted that the CIA and the DIA apparently argued (behind the scenes) that Libi deliberately spilled false info on a variety of topics. When he described how Iraqi agents gave Al Qaeda members CBW training, the details of his story did not track with independently-acquired data. From a Senate report published two months ago:

In January 2004, al-Libi recanted his allegations about CBW training and many of his other claims about Iraq's links to al Qa'ida. He told debriefers that, to the best of his knowledge, al-Qa'ida never sent any individuals into Iraq for any kind of support in chemical or biological weapons. Al-libi told debriefers that he fabricated information while in U.S. custody to receive better treatment and in response to threats of being transferred to a foreign intelligence service which he believed would torture him...He said that later, while he was being debriefed by a (REDACTED) foreign intelligence service, he fabricated more information in response to physical abuse and threats of torture. The foreign government service denies using any pressure during al-Libi's interrogation. In February 2004, the CIA reissued the debriefing reports from al-Libi to note that he had recanted information. A CIA officer explained that while CIA believes al-Libi fabricated information, the CIA cannot determine whether, or what portions of, the original statements or the later recants are true of false.

Even so, we should not allow the Republicans to hide behind the "They tricked us!" excuse, since the American intelligence community questioned Libi's data all along.

I question Nasiri's assertion that Libi would have withstood torture. Qutb, Zawahiri and any number of other Salafist extremists in Egyptian prisons broke down under brutal treatment. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Prisoners are tortured not to secure the truth, but to secure testimony that the captors want to hear.

Did Libi trick the neocons -- or did they use Libi to trick us?