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‘We Could Have Done This the Right Way’

How Ali Soufan, an FBI agent, got Abu Zubaydah to talk without torture.

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  • Posted By: mjkoch @ 04/27/2009 4:27:15 PM

    As vile and immoral and even illegal as the incidents of torture may have been, our government awoke on September 11, 2001, to a horror that had never been experienced on our shores before. No one knew, during those horrific moments in New York, in Washington, DC, and in the skies over Pennsylvania who was attacking us, how many were attacking us and where they would be hitting us next.

    I do not excuse the methods used, but I understand that in an age of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons the urgency of finding out where the next attack might be and when it would occur overrode the common decency of some of our leaders. Our president's number-one priority is not the economy or universal healthcare, but instead it is the security and safety of the American people.

    The truth must be learned. Torture must forever and always be banned. However, trying to satisfy the bloodlust of the far left by putting Bush and Cheney in prison garb and chains will only divide the country and it will make our intelligence services doubt their government will stand behind them in a time of national emergency. We need to find out everything that happened and make sure it never happens again, but then President Obama needs to do the right thing and after all the facts are out offer a blank presidential pardon to all those who engaged in acts, however repulsive, abhorrent and immoral, that were meant to save the lives of perhaps millions of people.

    However despicable these acts of torture may have been, they were carried out against the people who planned the murders of 3,000 innocent men, women and children in September of 2001. While we must as a nation ensure that torture is never again a policy of our government, we do not need to shed any tears for the psychopaths who planned, funded and directed the terror and murder of September 11, 2001, and if, as President's Obama's national security director, Admiral Blair, has confirmed, that some of the enhanced interrogation methods prevented a few future 911s we should not allow those who saved the lives of so many to be castigated as evil men. Let's remember and never forget that the truly evil people were those who planned and carried out the murders of thousands, not the people who may have stepped over the bounds of our laws to prevent the deaths of more thousands.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 05/15/2009 4:18:09 PM

      I do not accept ignorance as an excuse. I know president cheney thinks we should but I do not. You can't pss down my back and tell me it is raining. It don't work like that....

      • Posted By: Jack999 @ 05/19/2009 10:37:09 PM

        Crime s Crime it doesn't Matter,Just a CRIME like allowing "Looting" Who does it for,even to Feeds the Hungry.

        • Posted By: Jack999 @ 05/19/2009 10:41:48 PM

          Worst still NO excuses and totally wrong, a Crime and federal Offense for,Supporting ,Protecting,Conspiracy with Criminals

    • Posted By: defender of justice @ 04/28/2009 5:07:08 PM

      The point is not whether torture works or not -- it may very well work -- but whether we as a country should be using it. When we signed treaties saying we wouldn't do it, that means WE DON'T DO IT. PERIOD. We are a country of laws. WE DO NOT TORTURE. I don't care if it's Hilter reincarnated. We don't do it.

      • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 05/15/2009 4:16:32 PM

        It was hitler. His name came up repeatedly during the Cheney administrations push to war with Iraq. I am so happy to be part of the country that understood the bulsht they were trying to pull over on us. Unfortunately, that didn't stop anythingl. The only thing we can do now is bring in justice, to bring those, especially at the top to justice, otherwise it will happen again.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 05/15/2009 4:13:34 PM

      it devalues America, plain and simple. And when it is used to somehow pry out a connection that does not exist to invade another country, then it is criminal, and those at the top especially that were part of that should be brought to justice.

    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 04/30/2009 12:01:14 PM

      "I do not excuse the methods used"

      That's precisely what your post is attempting to do.

    • Posted By: hadelaide @ 04/28/2009 10:01:13 AM

      mjkoch said: We need to find out everything that happened and make sure it never happens again, but then President Obama needs to do the right thing and after all the facts are out offer a blank presidential pardon to all those who engaged in acts, however repulsive, abhorrent and immoral, that were meant to save the lives of perhaps millions of people........."

      How can you make sure it never happens again if the perpetrators are not dealt with with the full extend of the law? There were laws in place to make sure that these kinds of events did not take place. It did not stop the powerful few from circumventing the law; they wrote their own laws to justify their actions. Saying that it was to protect the American people is the same cowardly excuse given by many dictators to vilify themselves. I lived through a coup d'etat where the military took over, tortured and executed 13 gov't officials including the President. This was done on live TV. After living through 10 years of wanton violations, disappearances, attempted coups and executions, lawlessness, etc., a bitter civil war ensured. The military henchman who became President was eventually captured by rebels; he was tortured violently. The rebels wanted to know the accounts he had set up in the US and Switzerland for stashing gov't money. We saw on TV how his ear was cut off, he screamed like a pig, he was naked and beaten, but he could not say where the accounts were. We believed that he did not know because other people handled the transactions for him.

      We fled to the US to begin a new life. As citizens, we hoped to put this kind of behavior behind us. Living these past years have renewed our nightmare of how one person can twist the law to suit his own purpose; can divert resources to justify his own nefarious and sadistic mind; can call evil good; justify the killing of innocent people as collateral damage. Our one consolation had been that the US is a country of laws and not men; that justice is blind and will seek the truth no matter the manipulation of the rich and powerful. We will wait and see if the evilness of a black dictator is just the same as that of a rich powerful white dictator.

    • Posted By: MrEnygma @ 04/27/2009 4:48:59 PM

      mjkoch, that is blatantly untrue. The Bush administration was given ample warnings of bin Laden's intent to attack America, and any smart individual would've looked back on his connection to the '93 WTC bombings as a good indicator of where he might strike. Following that, if you think of the fact that he wanted to bring the towers down but didn't, you'd think what he would use to make sure it did next time. The simple fact is, the attacks could've been averted with good ole common sense, without torture or violating civil liberties.

  • Posted By: Jack999 @ 05/19/2009 10:12:26 PM

    This another America foundng Father said about Jews:

    "The Jews work more effectively against us than the enemy's armies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we are engaged in. It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted them down as pests to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America."

    George Washington


    I'm Proud & fascinating to Know how wise Our forefathers Projections on the Jews. Amazing the accuracy,Hundred of Years Old to be the truth even before nazi holocaust .,

    Senator Joe Lieberman,another Jewish almost cost chaos to Obama Presidency,as example,Frankly We don't know what his real position are, as An Amercan Congress Or Representing Israel? He's nor a Democratic,Republican,Independence?,Another Great Manipulator, They should remove him from The Committee on Armed Services is a committee of the United States Senate empowered with legislative oversight of the nation's military, including the Department of Defense, military research and development, nuclear energy (as pertaining to national security), benefits for members of the military, the Selective Service System and other matters related to defense policy.

    History Don't Lie.

  • Posted By: Jack999 @ 05/19/2009 9:52:29 PM

    Mr. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States, published his diary in which he says:

    "Dr. Benjamin Franklin, a venerable figure weighed down by years and wisdom, leaned one hand on his staff, the other on the table and said, 'There is a greater menace to these United States of America than the strictly Roman....

    'This greater menace, gentlemen, is the Jew!

    'In whatever country Jews have settled in any great numbers they have lowered its moral tone; they have depreciated its commercial integrity; have segregated themselves; have not assimilated; have sneered at and tried to undermine the Christian religion upon which this nation is founded by objecting to its restrictions; have built up a state within a state, and when opposed have tried to strangle that country to death financially.

    .. 'If you do not exclude them from the United States in his Constitution, in less than two hundred years they will have swarmed here in such great numbers that they will dominate and devour the land, change our form of government for which we Americans have shed our blood, given our lives, our substance, jeopardized our liberty, and put into it our best thoughts.

  • Posted By: claudiabrown1 @ 05/06/2009 2:03:05 PM

    "Agency operatives were aiming to crack him with rough and unorthodox interrogation tactics???including stripping him nude, turning down the temperature and bombarding him with loud music. But one impassioned young FBI agent wanted nothing to do with it. He tried to stop them." Really? This is torture? Almost the same exact thing happened to me when I was giving birth. I was pretty much nude in a place where the average temperature is 60 (hospitals are crazy about the cold). And I would have welcomed the loud music as a diversion to the intense labor I was going thru, shooting a big headed boy out of my female area that is not intended to be used as a doggy door. Come on, I have seen the "torture tactics" and it is no more than what military recruits went through in training. Hazing, for any of you that know, is horribly physical and rough, and well, in a word, tortuous. But it did not kill any of us. In fact it may have saved our lives and made us stronger individuals. My husband and I both served this country over 25 years ago at a time when hazing was still pretty common and fierce. We handled all of what was given us. I have to say any person that might consider the above torture is really not qualified to judge how harsh methods are. It sounds as if these indivdiuals would promote, as adequate methods of torture, nuggies (sp) and indian burns. Come on already.

    • Posted By: whatisreal? @ 05/15/2009 4:06:08 PM

      The point is the FBI agent saw the direction was not impressed by the lack of skillbe the interogators. I sure hate working with people who do not know how do do their jobs and they make excuses for their lame attempts, and blame others.

      This is about our country's values, and how fuking stupid many people can be in undwermining them.

      I kick boxed for years and should I call that torture??? No, because I was not detained, and left in the hands of rookies that should be fired.

      Responsible and "patriotic" Americans shoulf fight for our values, that is what makes this country different and unique. That is what 'real' patriotism is about. not specifically being part of the military, or CIA, or becuase the president says what his definition of patriotism is.

      I am sorry, but you are missing the point entirely, and comparing it to something that is entirely irrelevent.

  • Posted By: SeattleGuy @ 05/06/2009 1:31:19 AM

    Even Krauthammer said in his op-ed piece last week, " you do what you have to do and, then, you take responsibility for it". My interpretation is that Bush/Cheney and all of their enablers need to confess there behavior. We need to discuss these issues intelligently. I can assure you that we will once again fall into line with regard to the Geneva Conventions and join the rest of the civilized World in condemning torture. Only pussies hide behind legal mumbo jumbo. Let's get past this. We have much bigger fish to fry at the present time, but we cannot let this unbridled power grab under the previous administration be the American standard.

  • Posted By: KristinaBrooker @ 05/03/2009 3:03:49 PM

    The Age of McCarthyism by: Ellen Schrecker

    "In 1946 motivated by his own obsession with the Red menace as well
    as the need to find a major postwar mission for the FBI, Hoover
    ordered the bureau to mount an intensive public relations campaign
    to alert the American people to the internal threat of communism."

    The quote makes light of another mission of the FBI the threat of
    communism, it also points out that the FBI made use of an enemy
    to the American people for funding. Perhaps partially the threat
    of internet users is again simply a prefered enemy to the FBI for
    employment tasks.

    Communism is simply that one should realize that one is oppressed
    and that one must produce out of the oppression.

    Also the computer is able to optimize directions and statistics in
    the economy.

    The FBI will run of of food and water, making use of opposing these
    therotical ideas as a task.

  • Posted By: KristinaBrooker @ 05/03/2009 3:03:00 PM

    Hey I control the interest rate. I did put the oil to $147, then $40,
    not $200 -it was a choice I made.

    Kristina Brooker (126 395 086)

  • Posted By: wqmchris @ 05/03/2009 9:37:27 AM

    There must be a misprint within this article. It is true that Mr. Soufan was a key investigator in the USS Cole bombing. Mr. John O'Neill was the lead FBI Inspector. The bombing and subsequent investigation took place in October 2000. Mr. John O'Neill perished on September 11, 2001 in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Your date of of 2002 must be a misprint.

  • Posted By: wqmchris @ 05/03/2009 9:29:33 AM

    There must have been a misprint with regard to this article. The information regarding Mr. Soufan as a key investigator and Mr. John O'Neill as the lead FBI agent on the USS Cole disaster is correct. Your dates are incorrect. This event took place on October 12, 2000, not in 2002. Mr. O'Neill perished in the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center.

  • Posted By: Aditya Mookerjee @ 04/30/2009 6:40:53 AM

    A great piece of journalism. I loved reading this piece. The United States became unreasonable in the eyes of the western world, because they were going against the ethos of their nation, when dealing with terrorism. Were slaves in the South, subject to such inhumane treatment, in the past, by some people? America is a great nation, and as a result, of some of the actions of particular Americans, she is being seen as morally weak.

  • Posted By: TimmyTim @ 04/29/2009 4:56:55 PM

    There's nothing in this article that hasn't already been documented at greater length and in greater detail nearly a year ago by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker and in her book "The Dark Side." If you read The New Yorker, you can learn what will be in Newsweek a year later! No wonder the magazine's going out of business.

  • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 04/29/2009 1:58:56 PM

    Another thread ruined by JohnGaltLakeTahoe's spamming.

    Thanks, jerk.

  • Posted By: tockcarey @ 04/29/2009 11:11:31 AM

    Torture and kill all terrorists! When you fight dogs, you fight like a dog! Stupid liberals who think that "America is better than that" should be the ones who are getting killed by these people. Go tell Nick Berg that it's wrong to torture these people, or waterboard them, or put a bag over their heads for 48 hours. Oh wait, you can't. Nick Berg got his head sawed off by these same animals who liberals try to protect. Kill them all!

    • Posted By: Osama Bin Login @ 04/29/2009 1:57:08 PM

      "Torture and kill all terrorists! "

      Thank you, Martin Bormann.

  • Posted By: SYWanda @ 04/29/2009 11:42:55 AM

    I think its great this guy is speaking out. What do you gain when you become your enemy? After 8 miserable years in hell under a tattered Constitution, we sure know what you lose when you become like the bad guy......I have to say I really hope Dick Cheney and his kind have to answer to God someday for his twisted thinking.

  • Posted By: tockcarey @ 04/29/2009 11:15:26 AM

    Hey JohnGaltLaketahoe, are you gay or what? Turrets syndrome or just a plain moron?!

  • Posted By: tockcarey @ 04/29/2009 11:08:32 AM

    when you fight dogs, you act like a dog! Go tell Nick Berg that it's wrong to put a bag over somebody's head for twenty four hours or that water boarding is torture. Oh yeah, that's right. You can't tell him because he got his head sawed off by the same dogs that all liberals try to protect. Throw that "we're America and we"re better than that" bullsh*t attitude out the window. Tell that Nick Berg's family that! When you catch these animals, torture the hell out of them and make it known that it;s what's going to happen if they get caught.

  • Posted By: NeoPoliticus @ 04/29/2009 2:33:41 AM

    Only a fool and a clown - like Soufan and our President - would say there is only one way to get to a Terrorist. We need to realize who the real enemies are - they aren't overseas - they are right here.

    • Posted By: seagroves @ 04/29/2009 9:44:51 AM

      Our biggest enemy is the ignorance and bravado of people who refuse to live in reality. This isn't a TV show on your favorite FOX network. Read and learn before you throw stones at your president and at the real heroes who refuse to drag America into the gutter. Eight years of your hero's incompetence and arrogance have brought our great nation to its lowest point in history; it's time we remember that we are not a terrorist state!!

  • Posted By: richmondva @ 04/29/2009 1:57:10 AM

    can't finish the article because a major fact is wrong...uss cole bombing was BEFORE september 11 2001 not after....really..how does the reporter not know that?

  • Posted By: defender of justice @ 04/28/2009 4:58:39 PM

    5) That revelation that we've engaged in waterboarding and held prisoners in secrect CIA prisions is not news. The photos leaked from Abu Ghraib also damaged US reputation. Are you suggesting that we never release any information for fear of damaging US reputation? What if we were secrectly exterminating civilians in Iraq? Should we never pursue the truth for fear of inciting riots? That attitude only enables more abuse.

    6) Many is not all. Would you not agree that perhaps many intelligence officials did not support the decision to use secret prisons and torture? And yes, intelligence gathering can still continue without using these harsh techniques. We don't torture. That's the point.

    7) No. Those who attended those briefings were not allowed to bring aides, were not allowed to bring writing materials, were not allowed to speak about the information, and were not allowed to object to the process. Had they done any of these they would have been arrested for revealing classified information. In short, members of congress were not allowed to use their powers of oversight. They were not allowed to check the power of the executive. They had no choice.

    8) I don't care. You are completely missing the point. We aren't refraining for torture for the benefit of the captives, we are refraining from torture because it matters to AMERICA that we don't torture. e signed international agreements saying that WE WOULD NOT TORTURE. We are better than torture. Why are you now ready to engage in a race to the bottom with our enemies. Our moral high ground is what distinguishes us from our enemies. Why are you so eager to give that up?

    9) Are you saying we should have tortured the Japanese? See point number 8

  • Posted By: defender of justice @ 04/28/2009 4:58:25 PM

    In response to neocon:

    1) This is a diversion. We aren't talking about torture in other parts of the world, we are talking about torture done by Americans. The fact is that America signed international treaties declaring that we would not engage in torture. It didn't say that we can torture our enemies as long as they previously engaged in torture far worse than what we were planning on doing. It didn't say we can torture in a time of war. It didn't say we can torture suspects as long as we think they know something that will prevent terrorist plots. It said we don't torture. Period.

    2) I agree, but if you are suggesting that waterboarding is not torture, then I have to disagree with you. The United Nations has defined waterboarding as torture, and we are a signatory those treaties.

    3) No. And no torture means no torture. Did you read US law differently? Is it torture if those same techniques were done to the two American journalists being held my North Korea? If you are going to argue that we should only be able to torture terrorists, then you are pushing the boundaries of what we agreed not to do. If you keep pushing boundaries further and further off, then it's not really a boundary now is it?

    4) That's kind of the point. Lawyers should not be authorizing torture.

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