yawn zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz On Dec 6, 4:47 am, Liberal mike 532 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Former U.S. Interrogator: Torture Policy Has Led to More Deaths than > 9/11 Attackshttp://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/109792/ > "How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me," > says the author of How to Break a Terrorist. , a former > special intelligence operations officer, who led an interrogations > team in Iraq two years ago, has written a stunning op-ed in the > Washington Post called "I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq." In > it, he details his direct experience with torture practices put into > effect in Iraq in 2006. He conducted more than 300 interrogations and > supervised more than a thousand and was awarded a Bronze Star for his > achievements in Iraq. > > In the article, he says torture techniques used in Iraq consistently > failed to produce actionable intelligence and that methods outlined in > the U.S. Army Field Manual, which rest on confidence building, > consistently worked and gave the interrogators access to critical > information. > > He writes: "My team of interrogators had successfully hunted down one > > of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation, Abu Musab al- > Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and the mastermind of the > campaign of suicide bombings that had helped plunge Iraq into civil > war. But instead of celebrating our success, my mind was consumed with > the unfinished business of our mission: fixing the deeply flawed, > ineffective and un-American way the U.S. military conducts > interrogations in Iraq. I'm still alarmed about that today." > > He goes on to say that the number of Americans killed in Iraq because > of the U.S. military's use of torture is more than 3,000. He writes: > "It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and > casualties in [Iraq] have come at the hands of foreigners who joined > the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. > soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be > definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the > number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that > torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count > American soldiers as Americans." > > Well, the former interrogator has just written a book. It's called How > to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not > Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq. The publication > date for the book was delayed for six weeks due to the Pentagon's > vetting of it. The soldier is writing under a pseudonym for security > reasons. He joins us now in our firehouse studio in one of his first > national broadcast interviews. > > We welcome you to Democracy Now! > > Matthew Alexander: Thanks for having me. > > AG: It's good to have you with us. Why don't you want to use your > name? > > MA: It's just basic security concerns. You know, al-Qaida has promised > reprisals for the killing of Zarqawi. So it's just to protect myself > and my family. But, you know, after the death of Zarqawi, the response > was actually, I thought, quite limited. It was less than what I would > expect. And I think it goes to show how much even people within his > own organization disliked him. > > AG: Why was it so hard to get your book out of the Pentagon? I mean, > you've got the book. You have to hand it in to be vetted, but they > wouldn't release it. > > MA: Yeah, you know, I turned it in in the middle of July, and they're > supposed to do the review within 30 days, and they didn't do that. I > missed the first printing date. When they finally did come back with a > review of the book after two months, they had extracted an > extraordinary amount of material. There was 93 redactions made. I sued > -- you know, I sued the Department of Defense first to review the book > and then to argue the redactions, because they had redacted obvious > unclassified material, things that I had taken straight out of the > unclassified field manual and also some items that were directly off > the Army's own Web site. So, eventually they acquiesced on 80 of the > 93 redactions. And if you -- when you read the book, you'll see that > the redactions within -- some of the redactions are still in the book, > because we had to go to print before we had the results of the appeal. > > AG: So why don't you talk about your time in Iraq? You were a chief > interrogator. Explain how it works. And what is a " 'gator"? > > MA: A 'gator, an interrogator, I mean, their job within the mission is > to extract information from detainees, intelligence -- useful > intelligence information. And it's a timely art. It's one in which > we're always under a lot of pressure to produce results quickly, > because intelligence is very time sensitive. > > And when I was in Iraq, I was in charge of a team of interrogators > assigned to a task force, and our mission was to find Zarqawi. We > believed at that time, at least our leadership believed, that if we > could kill Zarqawi, we could slow down the path toward civil war. > > AG: Explain who he is, who he was. > > MA: Well, Zarqawi, he was an extremist. You know, he got his start as > a thug in Jordan, where he spent some time in prison. He had spent > time in Afghanistan, two tours in Afghanistan. And he had come back to > Iraq prior to our invasion to set up a resistance. And he was also the > author of the civil war in Iraq. He was the one behind the bombing of > the Golden Dome mosque that started the civil war between Sunni and > Shia. And it was his idea that if they targeted Shia civilians in > suicide bombing attacks that he could bog American forces down in a > civil war and force us to leave. > > 12345Next page ยป --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
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