Liz Cheney's Aggressive Defense of her Father's Torture Policy Doesn't Square with the Facts

Watch Liz Cheney's interview with Norah O'Donnell, MSNBC, then read and ponder this article from Blog for Arizona that cites the New York Times article by FBI agent Ali Soufan, at the center of the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, who claims that Al Qaida plots were uncovered by traditional interrogation, not by torture. Soufan further reveals that contractors, not CIA agents requested the use of harsh techniques.

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FBI Interrogator: torture did not produce actionable intelligence

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In a remarkable opinion in the New York Times today, My Tortured Decision, FBI supervisory special agent Ali Soufan addresses the claim that torture produced actionable intelligence. According to him, traditional interrogation methods proved far more effective.

One of the most striking parts of the memos is the false premises on which they are based. The first, dated August 2002, grants authorization to use harsh interrogation techniques on a high-ranking terrorist, Abu Zubaydah, on the grounds that previous methods hadn’t been working. The next three memos cite the successes of those methods as a justification for their continued use.

It is inaccurate, however, to say that Abu Zubaydah had been uncooperative. Along with another F.B.I. agent, and with several C.I.A. officers present, I questioned him from March to June 2002, before the harsh techniques were introduced later in August. Under traditional interrogation methods, he provided us with important actionable intelligence.

We discovered, for example, that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Abu Zubaydah also told us about Jose Padilla, the so-called dirty bomber. This experience fit what I had found throughout my counterterrorism career: traditional interrogation techniques are successful in identifying operatives, uncovering plots and saving lives.

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. The short sightedness behind the use of these techniques ignored the unreliability of the methods, the nature of the threat, the mentality and modus operandi of the terrorists, and due process.

Defenders of these techniques have claimed that they got Abu Zubaydah to give up information leading to the capture of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a top aide to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and Mr. Padilla. This is false. The information that led to Mr. Shibh’s capture came primarily from a different terrorist operative who was interviewed using traditional methods. As for Mr. Padilla, the dates just don’t add up: the harsh techniques were approved in the memo of August 2002, Mr. Padilla had been arrested that May.

For the rest of the story go to BlogforArizona.