A New CIA Log Of Torture Communications

[Nonno]

"Ex-FBI agent Ali Soufan's account of the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah is roughly this: he and several other interrogators from both FBI and CIA objected to the application of torture techniques from at least April to June 2002 (after which point Soufan left the interrogation team) from a former SERE psychologist and CIA contractor named James Mitchell. Ultimately Mitchell's techniques -- the waterboard, the "confinement box" -- received the blessing of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel on August 1, 2002, though Abu Zubaydah was treated harshly before then.

NPR's Ari Shapiro adds significant new information to that picture. According to Shapiro, Mitchell was in frequent contact with the CIA's Counterterrorist Center from the site at which Abu Zubaydah was being held, asking for approval for the use of his techniques, and the ACLU yesterday obtained a document to support the claim. Counterterrorist Center officials apparently ran the gauntlet for approving the techniques up to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales.

The source says nearly every day, Mitchell would sit at his computer and write a top secret cable to the CIA's counterterrorism center. Each day, Mitchell would request permission to use enhanced interrogation techniques on Zubaydah. The source says the CIA would then forward the request to the White House, where White House counsel Alberto Gonzales would sign off on the technique. That would provide the Administration's legal blessing for Mitchell to increase the pressure on Zubaydah in the next interrogation.

A new document is consistent with the source's account.

Late May 19, the CIA sent the ACLU a spreadsheet as part of a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act. The log shows the number of top secret cables that went from Zubaydah's black site prison to CIA headquarters each day. Through the spring and summer of 2002, the log shows someone sent headquarters several cables a day.

Now, note that Gonzales at the time wasn't the attorney general. He wasn't the chief legal official for the government. He was the president's lawyer, powerless to bless the actions of a federal agency like the CIA. (Shapiro quotes a number of ex-officials who establish that point.) A separate CIA-White House channel in the spring of 2002 would, at the least, contextualize the CIA's efforts at getting the approval of the Justice Department for the harsh interrogation regimen -- though it's unclear what legal butt-covering Gonzales would have been able to provide in the first place. Gonzales didn't respond to NPR, according to Shapiro."

More at: ATTACKERMAN » A New CIA Log Of Torture Communications

 

[citizen_fear]

"Ex-FBI agent Ali Soufan's account of the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah is roughly this: he and several other interrogators from both FBI and CIA objected to the application of torture techniques from at least April to June 2002 (after which point Soufan left the interrogation team) from a former SERE psychologist and CIA contractor named James Mitchell. Ultimately Mitchell's techniques -- the waterboard, the "confinement box" -- received the blessing of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel on August 1, 2002, though Abu Zubaydah was treated harshly before then.

NPR's Ari Shapiro adds significant new information to that picture. According to Shapiro, Mitchell was in frequent contact with the CIA's Counterterrorist Center from the site at which Abu Zubaydah was being held, asking for approval for the use of his techniques, and the ACLU yesterday obtained a document to support the claim. Counterterrorist Center officials apparently ran the gauntlet for approving the techniques up to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales.

The source says nearly every day, Mitchell would sit at his computer and write a top secret cable to the CIA's counterterrorism center. Each day, Mitchell would request permission to use enhanced interrogation techniques on Zubaydah. The source says the CIA would then forward the request to the White House, where White House counsel Alberto Gonzales would sign off on the technique. That would provide the Administration's legal blessing for Mitchell to increase the pressure on Zubaydah in the next interrogation.

A new document is consistent with the source's account.

Late May 19, the CIA sent the ACLU a spreadsheet as part of a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act. The log shows the number of top secret cables that went from Zubaydah's black site prison to CIA headquarters each day. Through the spring and summer of 2002, the log shows someone sent headquarters several cables a day.

Now, note that Gonzales at the time wasn't the attorney general. He wasn't the chief legal official for the government. He was the president's lawyer, powerless to bless the actions of a federal agency like the CIA. (Shapiro quotes a number of ex-officials who establish that point.) A separate CIA-White House channel in the spring of 2002 would, at the least, contextualize the CIA's efforts at getting the approval of the Justice Department for the harsh interrogation regimen -- though it's unclear what legal butt-covering Gonzales would have been able to provide in the first place. Gonzales didn't respond to NPR, according to Shapiro."

More at: ATTACKERMAN » A New CIA Log Of Torture Communications

Why would he respond to NPR? It's a democratic illusion of reality.

 

[PsyOps]

So, let me get this straight. You have one FBI guy (a Muslim) coming out with this, claiming other agents objected “to the application of torture techniques”, yet these other agents have yet to come out say so. And the ACLU is the sole carrier of this new information? And the ACLU got this info from a “source”. There is no corroborating information.

You do realize this, considered along with the Pelosi debacle, is going no where right notknow?

 

[Lenny]

Does ones Religous faith have anything to do with their capability to be a law enforcement agent?

Psssst. It does influence their perceptions and interpretation in complex situations.

 

[Larry Gude]

You made sure to point out the FBI agent was a Muslim, does this have anything to do with whether or not the story is valid?

There were other FBI and CIA agents mentioned, are we assuming they were also Muslim?

Wait how did you find out he is Muslim? His faith is not mentioned anywhere in the article, probably because it wasnt important (the fact he was an FBI agent is). Did you come to this realization because of his name? Nevermind its Arabic (which does not mean Muslim), nevermind there are quite a few Arabs that follow faiths other than Islam, should we use the same reasoning on Gonzalez? If so he's a friggin Illegal Alien.

Does ones Religous faith have anything to do with their capability to be a law enforcement agent?

All FBI agents see everything the same. None have differing views based on who they are and where they came from of their faith ot schooling. Same thing goes for our politicians. All of them have the exact same motivation, thought process and way of viewing issues regardless of who they are, where they came from or any of that stuff. LA, NYC, SOMD, it's all the same. Same for police, FBI, CIA...