Bush officials reportedly pushed interrogators to link Saddam, al- Qaida [email protected] Published Wednesday, Apr. 22, 2009
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al-Qaida and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist. Such information would have provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime. The use of abusive interrogation – widely considered torture – as part of Bush's quest for a rationale to invade Iraq came to light as the Senate issued a major report tracing the origin of the abuses and President Barack Obama opened the door to prosecuting former U.S. officials for approving them. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and others who advocated the use of sleep deprivation, isolation and stress positions and waterboarding, which simulates drowning, insist that they were legal. A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the interrogation issue said that Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanded that the interrogators find evidence of al- Qaida-Iraq collaboration. "There were two reasons why these interrogations were so persistent, and why extreme methods were used," the former senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. "The main one is that everyone was worried about some kind of follow- up attack (after 9/11). But for most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld, especially, were also demanding proof of the links between al-Qaida and Iraq that (former Iraqi exile leader Ahmad) Chalabi and others had told them were there." It was during this period that CIA interrogators waterboarded two alleged top al-Qaida detainees repeatedly – Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times in August 2002 and Khalid Sheik Mohammed 183 times in March 2003 – according to a newly released Justice Department document. "There was constant pressure on the intelligence agencies and the interrogators to do whatever it took to get that information out of the detainees, especially the few high-value ones we had, and when people kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people to push harder," the former intelligence official continued. "Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people were told repeatedly, by CIA … and by others, that there wasn't any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam, and that no such ties were likely because the two were fundamentally enemies, not allies." Senior administration officials, however, "blew that off and kept insisting that we'd overlooked something, that the interrogators weren't pushing hard enough, that there had to be something more we could do to get that information," he said. A former U.S. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Charles Burney, told Army investigators in 2006 that interrogators at the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility were under "pressure" to produce evidence of ties between al-Qaida and Iraq. "While we were there, a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al-Qaida and Iraq and we were not successful in establishing a link," Burney told staff of the Army inspector general. "The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link … there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results." Excerpts from Burney's interview appeared in a full, declassified report on a two-year investigation into detainee abuse released Tuesday by the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., called Burney's statement "very significant." "I think it's obvious that the administration was scrambling then to try to find a connection, a link (between al-Qaida and Iraq)," Levin said in a conference call with reporters. "They made out links where they didn't exist." A senior Guantánamo Bay interrogator, David Becker, told the committee that only "a couple of nebulous links" between al-Qaida and Iraq were uncovered during interrogations of unidentified detainees, the report said. Others in the interrogation operation "agreed there was pressure to produce intelligence, but did not recall pressure to identify links between Iraq and al-Qaida," the report said. The report, the executive summary of which was released in November, found that Rumsfeld, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and other former senior Bush administration officials were responsible for the abusive interrogation techniques used at Guantánamo and in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Apr 23, 6:28 pm, Keith In Tampa <[email protected]> wrote: > Part of your assessment is correct Sean. We don't torture. As the recent > Memoranda produced by the Obama Administration last week establishes, there > was no one tortured. > > There were enhanced interrogation techniques utilized, which was beneficial > in obtaining information that saved yours, mine and possibly hundreds of > thousands of Americans' lives. > > You and every other American owes President Bush and his Administration a > debt of gratitude. > > Thank you for starting to realize and see the big picture. Hopefully, those > who are so filled with partisan, hateful ideology will start seeing what > actually transpired. > > Keith In Tampa > > On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 5:43 PM, VT VirtualTruth < > > [email protected]> wrote: > > > I am sick in my heart by the depth of betrayal of the American Ideal > > by the Bush Administration > > > April 23, 2009 > > Sean Lewis > > > We don't torture. > > We don't torture. > > We don't torture. > > > The United States does not torture. > > > Then it changed to, we tortured but it > > was to protect the country and under strict > > control. > > > Then it changed to a few rouge individuals > > tortured, but we caught it. > > > Then it changed to we tortured but > > it was only high value individuals and > > the Intel prevented terror attacks. > > > Now we find we tortured, it was an organized > > program, that was developed out of the Bush > > White House, it was done to offer cover for > > the torture program that began BEFORE the > > written program for 'enhanced interrogation' > > was developed, and the real reason for torture > > was to provide back fill intelligence to provide > > a link between Saddam and 9/11 and not to protect > > America for terror attacks from Al qaida or Bin Laden. > > > I can only imagine what we will discover over the next > > few weeks, months and years... > > > For this country to regain the prestige squandered and > > misused by the Bush Administration, the American people > > must demand the Bush Administration be brought to justice > > for breaking both National and International Laws especially > > if they pertain to War Crimes. > > > This can not be a partisan inquiry it must be a ground swell > > from the American people that even the Republicans can not > > ignore. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. 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