“CIA Man Retracts Claim on Waterboarding”
Yup, thats the headline the lefties are jumping all over today from Foreign Policy. The article purports:
Well, it’s official now: John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn’t know what he was talking about.
Of course there is more than meets the eye on this story. The fact of the matter is that Kiriakou says he “didn’t know what he was talking about” because he wasn’t in the room when the waterboarding took place. The whole piece uses over 900 words to assert that the success of waterboarding is in question because Kiriakou used second hand information to come to the conclusion that waterboarding doesn’t work, but completely ignores the fact that the interrogators themselves confirmed KSM broke because of waterboarding and the declassified documents prove that attacks were prevented because of the information that was extracted.
Marc Thiessen, author of Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack
I have spoken to the people who — unlike Kirakou — were in the room for the interrogations of Zubaydah, KSM and other terrorists held by the CIA. And in Courting Disaster, I meticulously document the evidence for the efficacy of the CIA interrogation program — based not on Kirakou’s claims, but on the testimony of the actual interrogators, interviews with top CIA and other intelligence officials, the evidence presented in the CIA inspector general’s report, and other top-secret documents declassified by the Obama administration. I urge you to read it and judge for yourself. The evidence is overwhelming.
Before these documents were released, there was room for debate on the efficacy of CIA interrogations — because the facts had not been declassified. No longer. Yet the critics will continue to attempt to muddy the waters and use Kirakopu as “proof” of their claim the interrogations did not work. They will do so because if they admit that the interrogations worked, that means that the consequence of their position would have been another 9/11. They have to argue that a) enhanced interrogation is wrong and b) it did not work, because if the latter is not true then the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women, and children would have been the price of their approach.
The left can squeal all they want on this matter. KSM broke because of this interrogation method and if this method was not in place at the time we would have suffered more attacks. Now that we read Miranda rights to enemy combatants we should not be surprised when the next attack attempt is successful. Why? Because we will have no idea its coming.
i forgot to send my previous message check MESSARA at afghanistan war blo onlast hour first blog
From Thiessen’s interview with CNN’s Amanpour (paraphrased): These techniques as applied by the CIA produced intelligence that stopped a terrorist attacks to blow up our consulate in Karachi, to blow up our marine camp in Djibouti, an Al Quaed attempt to hijack an airplane to Heathrow and fly it into
buildings in downtown London and a plan to fly an airplane into Library Tower in Los Angeles.
Video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jR9KmtD5jw
I’m 100 pages into “Courting Disaster”. It is excellent! It’s on my highly recommend list.
I wouldn’t give them credit for thinking that far ahead. What doesn’t allow them to admit it worked is Bush/Cheney.
Without enhanced interrogation, Padilla would have been out on the steets left to murder men, women and children. As they innocently lived their normal lives their apartment building or a hotel they were staying in…crushed them to death.
Because of the left’s mental illness regarding our former Pres. and VP, they can’t find it in their hearts to be greatful that many people’s lives were spared because someone did what he had to do.
@Wordsmith:
Mine’s on the way, ordered it from that link you left the other day. Can’t wait, have read lots of positive comments on the book.
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Missy,
There’s so much in there, I have to force myself to put it down and prioritize my day’s tasks. Remember all the liberal counter-points when the OLC memos were released and Cheney started coming out about releasing all the info? Thiessen picks those apart, including Ali Soufan’s statements. Apparently Soufan’s own FBI partner disagrees with Soufan, too.
And the amount of intell and captures leading to more intell, leading to more captures as well as plots foiled….can’t be stressed enough! It’s so easy to grow complacent and to be dismissive when nothing happens. The reason nothing’s happened is directly because of the CIA interrogations!
Waterboarding was the key to freeing the jihadis’ willingness to talk! After Zubaydah was waterboarded, he actually thanked his interrogator and said, “You must do this to all the brothers!”. That’s because it lifted a burden from him and he was able to talk freely. Apparently, his religious beliefs required him to resist up to a breaking point. Waterboarding was that breaking point and it freed him of his sense of religious moral obligation to not speak. His particular Islamic teachings allows him to speak from that point forward.
And waterboarding wasn’t used by the CIA (on only 3 terrorists) to extract confessions or get information. It was to obtain cooperation, after which de-briefing can then commence to gather information. So all the talk about “they’ll tell you anything and say anything you want them to say when tortured” is a misunderstanding of the purpose of enhanced interrogations.
But now that the OLC memos have been released and the details of the techniques used, the arguments about whether to use waterboarding or not is moot. Its effectiveness is permanently damaged because not only does al Qaeda know that actual drowning will not take place, but they also know specifically what to train against (guys like KSM have had intensive counter-interrogation training). They now know the limits of just how far we are willing and able to go morally and legally. Before the release, before the press leaks, there was the fear of the unknown and the mystique surrounding the CIA black sites and interrogations. Abd al-Hadi, when captured, didn’t have to undergo enhanced interrogations because he was scared to death by all the rumors and propaganda exaggerating CIA “torture”. Now the power of that mystique is gone; but the CIA reputation and the Bush administration’s reputation on this is still damaged in the court of public opinion belief. And al Qaeda can breathe a sigh of relief and laughter that President Obama has banned “torture”, i.e. enhanced interrogations.
This leaves us blind to developments such as the growth of al Qaeda in Yemen and the underwear bomber. We got lucky.
American lives are at stake and we have hamstrung our CIA due to misguided notions regarding “enhanced interrogations”.
This was completely ignored for years. There was never any discussion of the different stages involved, perhaps because it may have been still classified yet, the exaggerated water drip step managed to get plenty of ink. Your postings are the first I’ve read about moving onto the de-briefing phase is in here and I see a lot of stuff in my travels through the web.
Even though the majority approve of waterboarding terrorists, this information would help more of the public understand that our agents and the Bush administration weren’t the ghouls the press and left made them out to be. We’ve been left with the impression of agents standing around a half drowned terrorist with agents screaming questions at them.
Part of the problem is, the CIA agents themselves can’t discuss to defend themselves in the public arena, and set the record straight.
Reposting this link and excerpt for the benefit of those who missed it in the other thread:
“Non-aggressive”, being the traditional interrogation approach, building trust and buddy-reliance relationship, favored by Soufan and agreed about by most everyone as effective and desirable.
That article is adapted from some of what appears in “Courting Disaster”.
Well, the information is declassified now yet we have John Kiriakou, mentioned in Curt’s post, still trying to discredit the truth, the lies about what was done that saved lives will never go away.
I wondered what Kiriakou’s motives were, why would he change his story, stab his colleagues in the back, then found he went to work for Kerry on the Foreign Relations Committee. He’s following in the footsteps of his boss.
He claimed that when he found out Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times, not just once, he changed his opinion. In the first place shouldn’t he have doubted that it took one drip to crack Zubaydah?
like you said Wordsmith if they are in the open they are no more able to to used their expertises and tactics to get the terrorist to open they must be supported and because they realy are the protecters of millions americans and others countrys appreciate their support on intelligence whe are talking about thoses who wont rest until they gain the power of the whole world by outnumbering our population and terrorising our owns and killing as many brutaly,thoses Cia where kill doing their job with courage not being known by the public those hidden Heros thank you.
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