Terrorist Confession: Tainted by Torture...a true shame!

[ray of light]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/1/74956/92971

Khalid Sheik Mohammed is a bad guy, and an actual al Qadea leader, not lackey, like so many of the other "enemy conbatants" have turned out to be. But unfortunately, his confession will be tained by the fact that:

he was subject to "extraordinary rendition" (Bush-speak for kidnapping and extradition to countries practiced in the art of torture);
he was subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques" (torture), most famously by "water-boarding" (Bush parlance for similated drowning); and
the 9/11 Commission has found that he is prone to delusions of grandeur.
Recalling Moussaoui, an al Qaeda flunky who exagerrated his role so that he could achieve martyrdom via the death penalty, the 9/11 Commission described KSM as envisioning

a spectacle of destruction with KSM as the self-cast star--the superterrorist.
Ufortuantely (because KSM could have been a great candidate for a good, old-fashioned civilian trial--remember, the U.S. Attorney obtained an indictment against him in January 1996), this is a pattern of the Bush Administration when it's under attack--most recently for the U.S Attorney massacre. Raise the terror threat level, trot out some of the bad guys, and give grandiose descriptions of the evil they planned or perpetrated. Unlike Lindh, Hamdan, Moussaoui, Hamdi, and others who turned out to be nobodies, KSM is a somebody.

More at the link. Please recommend. And please support Jesselyn Radack especially since this mission as a truth teller was forced upon her.

[ShortnFiery]

1. How convenient that these bastards can USE the information tortured out of prisoners

to convict them in secret courts.

I'm so ashamed of my Country for this. :cry: :grr: :thumbsdown:

[ray of light]

4. Some would argue that the torture saved us from another terror attack.

But we would have been saved equally as well by dealing with him in a legitimate way and by following the same prosecutorial investigations we've always legitimately done.

[ShortnFiery]

6. Bullshit! There have been career CIA operatives interviewed who

claim time and time again: TORTURE does NOT glean the interrogator reliable information. One career operative said directly that he did NOT EVER have the need to torture a prisoner.

The nasty USA swaggering collective "psyche" has seemingly been polluted by watching too much fantasy programming such as "24."

I've worked within the intelligence field. Most of the work during interrogations is painstakingly boring - you ESTABLISH a relationship with the prisoner and *work through* procedures and techniques that will provide you with raw information that you THEN must verify though other sources OR by collaborating with other colleagues (their interrogation data).

Interrogation is a very sophisticated procedure best done by talented operatives, NOT bruisers with IQs of 90. :thumbsdown:

Again, torture at it's best outcome, is unreliable. Plus after you resort to any form of coercion, you have ruined any future opportunity to build a relationship with the prisoner. Therefore, you will have to torture them every time you wish to glean future information.

Torture techniques are piss poor tactics that are only VALIDLY successful (truth is revealed) in works of FICTION and the small minds of authoritarian loving peoples.

[ray of light]

9. problem is...

how do we convince others that the other way is a myth?

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. The timing of the 'Breaking News!' from the Pentagon was

perfectly synchronized.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. what is really chilling

is to read wingers on message boards crow about this--they think torturing someone brings out the truth and is a great idea. Makes me ill.

[nolies32fouettes]

7. Sometimes it may. But what if they're innocent?

AND what if they could have been tried for murder and given a life sentence? Now they can't.

[lisby]

5. When I saw the headline on CNN

and then read what he confessed to, my first thought was, "Well, there's a classic example of a confession produced by torture." He may as well have added in there that several of his guards were secretly meeting a Dark Man and seven witches in the woods for an orgy that gave them the powers to kill Goody Wibley's cow.

Lisby

[nolies32fouettes]

8. excellent comments on that thread.

[ray of light]

10. kick