Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The first time was for information. The next 182 times, not so much.


WASHINGTON — The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

Remember how I was curious about how the need for 183 and 83 waterboarding sessions on two prisoners lined up with a former agent's claim that Abu Zubaydah gave everything up after his first session? Seems that those next 82 times in Zubaydah's case were not for information, but to get him to say that Al Qaedah had ties with Iraq so that we could invade. This is exactly analogous with how torture is generally used by oppressive regimes throughout history -- not to gather reliable information, but to force false confessions.

I guess that explains it.

Posted via web from Aught he has to know it with.

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