Friday, April 24, 2009

Real World Reasons Against Torture

By Coleen Rowley
April 24, 2009

Back in December 2007, when I wrote "Torture is Wrong, Illegal and It Doesn't Work," I mentioned that "the FBI agent who reportedly had the best chance of foiling the 9/11 plot, Ali Soufan, the only Arabic-speaking agent in New York and one of only eight in the country, and who has since resigned from the FBI, could and should tell people the truth of how the CIA's tactics were counterproductive."

Read on.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The CIA, NSA and FBI UBLU have still not explained their pre-9/11 conduct. We know the given excuses (Gorelick wall, risk aversion, FBI computer problems, lack of funding) do not make sense.

CIA: Withheld information about al Qaeda operatives (al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi) for 20 months.

NSA: Failed to use FISA or alert the FBI in relation to the same al Qaeda operatives.

FBI UBLU: Withheld information about the same operatives from the Cole investigators, one of whom was Soufan.

James Bamford has covered the NSA's bizarre conduct in his book The Shadow Factory and in the Nova program The Spy Factory.

Here is Lawrence's Wright's discussion (from The Looming Tower) of Soufan's obstructed investigation:

Because there was a preexisting indictment for bin Laden in New York, and al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi were his associates, the bureau already had the authority to follow the suspects, wiretap their apartment, intercept their communications, clone their computer, investigate their contacts--all the essential steps that might have prevented 9/11. (pg. 330-331)

Soufan wondered why money was leaving Yemen when a major operation was about to take place. Could there be another operation under way that he didn’t know about? Soufan queried the CIA, asking for information about Khallad and whether there might have been an al-Qaeda meeting in the region. The agency did not respond to his clearly stated request. The fact that the CIA withheld information about the mastermind of the Cole bombing and the meeting in Malaysia, when directly asked by the FBI, amounted to obstruction of justice in the death of seventeen American sailors. Much more tragic consequences were on the horizon. (page 329)

Then the CIA chief drew Soufan aside and handed him a manila envelope. Inside were three surveillance photos and a complete report about the Malaysia meeting-the very material Soufan had been asking for, which the CIA had denied him until now. The wall had come down. When Soufan realized that the agency and some people in the bureau had known for more than a year and a half that two of the hijackers were in the country, he ran into the bathroom and retched. (page 362)The public was sold on the notion that the government simply had to have police state powers to prevent terrorist attacks.
In fact, Tenet and Hayden are key advocates of the torture program. Yet both men failed to use legal means before 9/11 that would have prevented the attacks.

Sun Apr 26, 03:37:00 PM 2009
1stProtestinTheStreet said...

If you do nothing else for your Country today,

SIGN THE PETITION To Prosecute Them For Torture

Sign The Petitions To Prosecute Them For Torture at:

http://ANGRYVoters.org

.

Wed Apr 29, 03:10:00 PM 2009

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