CIA Battled FBI And Condi (!) Over Torture Tactics

On Day Two of the Post-Reagan Period, the Abu Ghraib torture story, as predicted, is back where it merits at the top of the news agenda. Newsweek’s just-released story on the scandal by Michael Hirsh, John Barry and Daniel Klaidman reveals bloody turf battles inside the Bush Administration. Shortly after 9/11 White House lawyers proposed implementing specific interrogation techniques including “water-boarding” (drowning) and “mock burials" (simulated executions).

This is quite depressing, shameful material. The only silver lining here is reading how the FBI and – believe it or not—Condi Rice – reportedly offered stiff resistance to the policy of abuse which was spearheaded by the CIA, and lawyers for Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. According to Newsweek, the bitter struggle can be traced back to November 2001 when a senior Al Qaeda operative, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, was captured in Afghanistan:

At the time of al-Libi's capture on Nov. 11, 2001, the questioning of detainees was still the FBI's province. For years the bureau's "bin Laden team" had sought to win suspects over with a carrots-and-no-sticks approach: favors in exchange for cooperation. One terrorist, in return for talking, even wangled a heart transplant for his child…With al-Libi, too, the initial approach was to read him his rights like any arrestee, one former member of the FBI team told NEWSWEEK. "He was basically cooperating with us."

…The handling of al-Libi touched off a long-running battle over interrogation tactics inside the administration. It is a struggle that continued right up until the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in April—and it extended into the White House, with Condoleezza Rice's National Security Council pitted against lawyers for the White House counsel and the vice president...

After CIA Director George Tenet reportedly intervened directly with Bush on behalf of his agency taking over the fate of such high-profile prisoners, al-Libi was handed over to the CIA and then “rendered” to Egypt i.e. shipped out to Hosni Mubarak’s goons for some torture sessions:

al-Libi was handed over to the CIA. "They duct-taped his mouth, cinched him up and sent him to Cairo" for more-fearsome Egyptian interrogations, says the ex-FBI official. "At the airport the CIA case officer goes up to him and says, 'You're going to Cairo, you know. Before you get there I'm going to find your mother and I'm going to f--- her.' So we lost that fight." (A CIA official said he had no comment.)… So [the CIA] began experimenting with methods like water-boarding and open-handed slapping. The CIA also asked to use "mock burial," in which a top Qaeda captive would be led to believe he was going to be buried alive.

As I wrote a few weeks ago on this blog, dunking prisoners until they risked drowning and staging mock executions were two torture techniques routinely used by the secret police of Latin American military dictatorships. Nor are they methods unknown to U.S, personnel. Way back in 1979 the great journalist A.J. Langguth published his classic "Hidden Terrors" that masterfully revealed the “training” role that American police advisors like Dan Mitrione played in popularizing such methods in Brazil and Uruguay (and which wound up costing Mitrione his life after he was kidnapped and executed by leftist guerrillas).

I strongly recommend you click on this link where some used copies of Langguth’s book are still available. This is the best $10 you’ll ever invest. I don’t want to give away the story, but Langguth – 25 years ago—penetrates deep into the American psyche and the way Mitrione, his friends and family, rationalized or simply blinked at his role in this dark chapter of history.

History now repeats itself. And I am standing by my prediction that this scandal will continue unfolding right through to the November election. My own experience in Latin America has taught me that there is something very haunting, disturbing and indelible about torture. It evokes emotions that cannot be easily laundered out in a few routine news cycles.

The Washington Post, which has been way out in front on this crucial story, has now secured and published the entire 50-page August 1, 2002 memo from White House counsel Alberto Gonzalez "legalizing" proposed torture methods. Read it here , it's going to be an historic document. If nothing else, it blocks forever any possibility that Bush-pet Gonzalez will be named to the Supreme Court!

Comments

[tim]

The debate about when to justify torture first arose after 9-11 with a slew of sophist arguments and hypotheticals, all quite familiar to someone who has lived under a regime that tortures people routinely, as I have. This discussion is nauseating and merely gets people used to the idea. The Nation, which was then indulging itself in this dangerous exercise, should have known better.

In fact, not even the most reactionary die-hard supporter of Pinochet here in Chile would dare to publicly defend putting needles under prisoners' fingernails, as did the loathesome Alan Dershowitz. The fact that Americans allowed themselves to engage in this morally repugnant debate at all is a sad commentary on who we are and a direct antecedent to the shameful memorandum published today.

[Marc Cooper]

This is a good point Tim. At least the Latin Americans had a guilyt enough conscience to never attempt to legalize the torture even though they institutionalized it.

[rosedog]

Excellent round up of the front edges of the issue, Marc. I just read the first eight pages of the memo on the WaPo website. Extraordinary.

[El Julandron]

American psyche or American Psycho?

Wanna know more? Watch "24", ignoring the mcguffins of the story line and focusing on the overall mood, motivations and interpersonal relations.

[Jussi Hämäläinen]

So how many administration officials have resigned in protest over this?Documenting your objections and concerns in a paper trail is not what I'd call "stiff resistance",it's just CYA insurance.

[steve]

are there any prisoners left at abu ghraib? they've now released several thousand prisoners, right? and they dare to doubt the US is in Iraq to provide freedom!

[Jokes]

The CIA had an opening for an assassin. After all of the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were three finalists - two men and one woman. For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. You have to kill her." The first man said. "You cant be serious. I could never shoot my wife!"The agent replies, "Then you?re not the right man for this job."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the agent came out with tears in his eyes. "I tried, but I cant kill my wife." The agent replies, "You dont have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Finally, it was the womans turn. Only she was told to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one shot after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, "You guys didnt tell me the gun was loaded with blanks. So I had to beat him to death with the chair."