Cheney Slams Obama’s Probe of CIA Interrogations
Calling it a “terrible decision” that undermines national security and devastates CIA morale, former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed the Obama administration’s probe of aggressive interrogation of terrorists. “It’s an outrageous political act that will do great damage, long-term, to our capacity to be able to have people take on difficult jobs, make difficult decisions, without having to worry about what the next administration is going to say,” Cheney told “FOX News Sunday” in a no-holds-barred interview.
In blunt, unsparing language, Cheney accused President Obama of setting a “terrible precedent” by allowing an “intensely partisan, politicized look back at the prior administration.”
He said the decision by Attorney General Eric Holder to launch a probe into alleged abuse of prisoners under the prior administration “offends the hell out of me,” as he seemed to question Obama’s fitness as commander-in-chief.
“I have serious doubts about his policies,” Cheney told FOX News’ Chris Wallace in Jackson Hole, Wyo. “Serious doubts, especially, about the extent to which he understands and is prepared to do what needs to be done to defend the nation.”
As evidence, Cheney pointed to Obama’s decision last week to assert White House control over a newly formed unit that will interrogate terrorists. The new arrangement shifts control of such interrogations away from the CIA and toward the FBI, although oversight will be exercised by the National Security Council, which is located in the White House and reports directly to the president.
CIA Report Hints at Impact of Interrogations on 9/11 Mastermind
Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-described architect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, looms large in a declassified CIA report on the use of enhanced interrogation techniques. The inspector general’s report, released this week, says Mohammed wasn’t much help before he was waterboarded but went on to become “one of the U.S. government’s key sources on Al Qaeda.” Such revelations have fueled the fiery debate over the effectiveness of the CIA’s tactics and whether the United States should condone methods that many deem torture.
But additional details of his interactions with interrogators may raise more questions than they answer — potentially saying more about the captive than his captors.
Intelligence officials described to the Washington Post a scene almost out of the halls of academia, with the once-resistant high-level detainee giving “terrorist tutorials” to them in a makeshift lecture hall. He even scolded one listener for poor note-taking and his inability to recall details of an earlier lecture.
The CIA report makes it clear that Mohammed wasn’t willing to divulge much before interrogators resorted to the controversial tactics.
“KSM, an accomplished resistor, provided only a few intelligence reports prior to the use of the waterboard, and analysis of that information revealed that much of it was outdated, inaccurate or incomplete,” the report said.
But after he was subjected to waterboarding — or simulated drowning — and prolonged sleep deprivation, among other harsh interrogation techniques, Mohammed began to cooperate and apparently even enjoy revealing secrets.
Mohammed “seemed to relish the opportunity, sometimes for hours on end, to discuss the inner workings of Al Qaeda and the group’s plans, ideology and operatives,” a person familiar with the sessions told the Washington Post. “He’d even use a chalkboard at times.”
While it is impossible to know for sure whether less coercive techniques would have gained the same information, those who defend the tactics believe the results are clear.
White House Sets Up New Terror Interrogation Team
August 24, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
President Barack Obama has decided to set up a new, elite terrorist interrogation team, but will limit the techniques it can employ to those already approved for military use — a restriction sure to chafe some who believe tougher tactics should be allowed against America’s most determined adversaries.
The announcement comes on the same day that the Justice Department is expected to release a CIA Inspector General report from 2004 that details some of the most extreme interrogation techniques used under the Bush administration, including the use of a mock execution and a power drill to intimidate Al Qaeda operatives.
New Terror Interrogation Team at FBI: A Shift for Intelligence
Of all the elements of the new terrorism interrogation teams set up by President Barack Obama and announced this morning, among the most important is the fact it will be headquartered at the Federal Bureau of Investigation rather than at the rival Central Intelligence Agency.
The new units will include personnel from a wide range of intelligence and law enforcement agencies, according to White House officials. But by bringing the interrogation units into the FBI, it moves them more definitively out from the world of black ops, where they have resided since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Although the FBI has long been the agency responsible for domestic counterterrorism, its bureaucratic DNA has historically focused on gathering information and evidence to be used in federal prosecutions. The CIA, on the other hand, has traditionally been tasked to gather intelligence by any means necessary.
Techniques Worked – May Have Prevented Los Angeles Terror Attack
April 21, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.
“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.
You ask how?
CIA Waterboarding Produced Intel That Stopped Attack on Los Angeles from Townhall.com
“Soon, you will know.”
That is the ominous statement an uncooperative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, told his Central Intelligence Agency interrogators when they initially asked him, after he had been captured, about additional planned al-Qaida attacks on the United States.
In March 2003, KSM became the third and final terrorist ever waterboarded by the CIA. The other two were Abu Zubaydah and Rahim Al-Nashiri.
On Tuesday, the CIA confirmed to that it stands by assertions credited to the agency in z 2005 memo that subjecting KSM to “enhanced techniques” of interrogation including waterboarding caused him to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to stop a planned 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles.
The previously classified memo was released by President Obama last week.
Before they were waterboarded, both KSM and Abu Zubaydah did not believe Americans had the will to stop al-Qaida, the 2005 Justice Department memo says, citing information from the CIA.
“Both KSM and Zubaydah had ‘expressed their belief that the general U.S. population was ‘weak,’ lacked resilience and would be unable to ‘do what was necessary’ to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their goals,’” said the memo. “Indeed, before the CIA used enhanced techniques in its interrogation of KSM, KSM resisted giving any answers to questions about future attacks, simply noting, ‘Soon, you will know.’”
After he was waterboarded, KSM provided the CIA with information that allowed the U.S. government to close down a terror cell already “tasked” with flying a jet into a building in Los Angeles.
