The Fruits of Torture: How Powell Got Duped by the CIA

[naughtycakes]

A chilling indictment on the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld torture policy written by a 30-year CIA analyst based largely on reports from Colin Powell's then-chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson.

Ray McGovern: How Colin Powell Got Duped by the CIA / Anatomy of a Crime

Surrogates of Vice President Dick Cheney were insisting on giving prominence to highly dubious reports of operational ties between al-Qaeda and Iraq, but on this particular issue (unlike the phantom WMD) CIA and State department intelligence analysts had stood firm in the face of heavy pressure. Indeed, the CIA ombudsman saw fit to tell Congress that never in his 32 years as a CIA analyst had he witnessed a more aggressive “hammering” on analysts to change their minds and give credence to reporting that was trash.

How was it, then, that Secretary Powell ended up citing a “sinister nexus between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist network” to depict a relationship that did not exist?

According to Col. Wilkerson, just days before trying to sell the invasion of Iraq to the United Nations, his boss Colin Powell had decided not to regurgitate the dubious allegations about Saddam Hussein’s ties to al-Qaeda. Just in the nick of time, however, top CIA officials produced a “bombshell” report alleging such ties. The information was more than a year old and apparently extricated via torture, but Powell took the bait.

Enter Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi, an Al Qaeda operative captured 15 months earlier, who a year later recanted all the information he had given the CIA under torture, after they handed him over to Egypt for some more torture, and then ended up in Lybia, where he conveniently hung himself in his cell.

CIA interrogators elicited some “cooperation” from al-Libi through a combination of rough treatment and threats that he would be turned over to Egyptian intelligence with even greater experience in the torture business.

By June 2002, al-Libi had told the CIA that Iraq had “provided” unspecified chemical and biological weapons training for two al-Qaeda operatives, an allegation that soon found its way into other U.S. intelligence reports. Al-Libi’s claim was well received even though the DIA was highly suspicious.

Why were those suspicions swept under the rug? Because the whole point of these interrogations were NOT to find out the truth, they were to find - at all costs - a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

“…as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002 — well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion — its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but on discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq to al-Qaeda.

“So furious was this effort on one particular detainee, even when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney’s office that their detainee ‘was compliant’ (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP’s office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa’ida-Baghdad contacts yet.

“As far as al-Libi is concerned, his harsh interrogation ceased after, under waterboarding in Egypt, he ‘revealed’ such contacts. Of course later we learned that al-Libi revealed these contacts only to get the torture to stop.”

 

[Wok]

Powell is just another RINO, Obama cock gobbling terror ass kisser. Oh, and your link is not credible. It is from a lefty blog.

 

[KRCummings]

I honestly don't see much difference between that article and the nice little Looney Tunes cartoon Powell showed the UN.
There's just nothing to back it up.
Blogs and internet newsletters are ruining this country.

 

[naughtycakes]

Powell is just another RINO, Obama cock gobbling terror ass kisser. Oh, and your link is not credible. It is from a lefty blog.

Doh!

I honestly don't see much difference between that article and the nice little Looney Tunes cartoon Powell showed the UN.
There's just nothing to back it up.
Blogs and internet newsletters are ruining this country.

Did you read the article?

 

[Saint Peter]

Naughty gets me hot enough to fuck when she shows her political side.

 

[unregistered]

 

[unregistered]

 

[The_Trouvere]

Powell is just another RINO, Obama cock gobbling terror ass kisser. Oh, and your link is not credible. It is from a lefty blog.

"Retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Powell’s chief of staff" is listed as a source. If he was misquoted, I am sure we will hear from him. If he was quoted correctly, as I am confident he was, we will hear more about this from him and other sources.

I would love for Collin Powell to write a memoir in which he tells how he felt when he learned that he had in effect been ordered to lie to the United Nations General Assembly about weapons of mass destruction.

The wingnuts on the Literotica General Board think that anyone who disagrees with their reactionary politics lies. Nevertheless, Powell has far more prestige and credibility than George W. Bush, or Dick Cheney.

 

[hogjack]

The American Dream includes torture - an inalienable right - so if you are against torture, you are against America!

 

[hogjack]

Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld torture policy

Is consentual adult male fisting really a policy?

 

[Wok]

"Retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Powell’s chief of staff" is listed as a source. If he was misquoted, I am sure we will hear from him. If he was quoted correctly, as I am confident he was, we will hear more about this from him and other sources.

I would love for Collin Powell to write a memoir in which he tells how he felt when he learned that he had in effect been ordered to lie to the United Nations General Assembly about weapons of mass destruction.

The wingnuts on the Literotica General Board think that anyone who disagrees with their reactionary politics lies. Nevertheless, Powell has far more prestige and credibility than George W. Bush, or Dick Cheney.

Bullshit. Powell is nothing but a no-good Lenin ball licker.

 

[unregistered]

 

[The_Trouvere]

Bullshit. Powell is nothing but a no-good Lenin ball licker.

Says you. Your scatological dismissal of one of the most honored man in the United States is typical of Republicans today and helps to explain why the GOP is losing support.

 

[The_Trouvere]

I've never seen any generosity shown by the numb nuts here at Lit towards anything they construe as a conservative source.

By "numb nuts" I assume you mean Democrats. I have linked to an article in The Wall Street Journal. If you missed it, here it is:
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/

 

[Wok]

Says you. Your scatological dismissal of one of the most honored man in the United States is typical of Republicans today and helps to explain why the GOP is losing support.

Yes, says me. he also deserves his scatological dismissal because he ran into the arms of the terror supporters.

 

[hogjack]

a no-good Lenin ball licker.

John or Vladimir Ilyich?

Seriously, those balls are long gone unless they were preserved for scientific purposes.

 

[Wok]

John or Vladimir Ilyich?

Seriously, those balls are long gone unless they were preserved for scientific purposes.

Asshat.

 

[naughtycakes]

Naughty gets me hot enough to fuck when she shows her political side.

*preens*

Probably 90% fantasy. This passage makes it runner up for the biggest bullshit statement of the day:

“Were there no others from the State Department with you at CIA headquarters on Feb. 1, 2003. Was the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), State’s very professional, incorruptible intelligence unit, not represented?

Right behind Obummer telling us his new CAFE standards are going to save us money. Ahahahaha...

Why is this "probably 90% fantasy"? Who is it that you don't believe? The writer, a 30-year CIA analyst? Or Colin Powell's then-chief of staff, a retired Army Colonel?

If it's bullshit, then one of them must be lying, so whose integrity are you questioning?

And how does this have absolutely anything to do with Obama?

Oh, that's right, you can only process information in the most basic terms.

 

[The_Trouvere]

Yes, says me. he also deserves his scatological dismissal because he ran into the arms of the terror supporters.

Who are the terror supporters?

 

[hogjack]

Asshat.

Jealous!

 

[unregistered]

 

[The_Trouvere]

*preens*

Why is this "probably 90% fantasy"? Who is it that you don't believe? The writer, a 30-year CIA analyst? Or Colin Powell's then-chief of staff, a retired Army Colonel?

If it's bullshit, then one of them must be lying, so whose integrity are you questioning?

And how does this have absolutely anything to do with Obama?

Oh, that's right, you can only process information in the most basic terms.

The minds of the wingnuts here are so ossified that they cannot process facts that conflict with their prejudices.

 

[naughtycakes]

Is consentual adult male fisting really a policy?

It's just a practice until it becomes systemic.

I've never seen any generosity shown by the numb nuts here at Lit towards anything they construe as a conservative source.

You seem to be implying that Col. Wilkerson is a liberal. How did you come to that conclusion?

Is it because you think that anybody who doesn't agree with Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld is a liberal? That's extremely small minded, even for you.

 

[hogjack]

It's just a practice until it becomes systemic.

Have you seen former Vice President Dick Cheney's hands? They're HUGE!

WHen he fists it's GOTTA hurt. There's no way it feels good. If he keeled over mid-fist it would be uncomfortable until the paramedics arrived.

 

[Wok]

Who are the terror supporters?

All the commie flower child Starbucks sipping hippies.