Former US Interrogator: Torture Policy Has Killed Thousands Of US Soldiers

Amy Goodman: Writing under the pseudonym Matthew Alexander, a former special intelligence operations officer, who led an interrogations team in Iraq two years ago, has written a stunning op-ed in the Washington Post called "I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq." In it, he details his direct experience with torture practices put into effect in Iraq in 2006. He conducted more than 300 interrogations and supervised more than a thousand and was awarded a Bronze Star for his achievements in Iraq.

In the article, he says torture techniques used in Iraq consistently failed to produce actionable intelligence and that methods outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, which rest on confidence building, consistently worked and gave the interrogators access to critical information.

He writes: "My team of interrogators had successfully hunted down one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq and the mastermind of the campaign of suicide bombings that had helped plunge Iraq into civil war. But instead of celebrating our success, my mind was consumed with the unfinished business of our mission: fixing the deeply flawed, ineffective and un-American way the U.S. military conducts interrogations in Iraq. I'm still alarmed about that today."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[sammy333]

Apparently Sen Diane Feinstein did not get the memo since she and Schumer kept supporting supporting torture. These fake democrats (war supporters and profiteers) need to be kicked out from their Senate and committee chair seats.

[Sarahjan]

Neither the world nor the Almighty God will forgive America until the nation impeaches Bush et al and brings justice to those tortured by the US state.
May peace and justice prevail.

[helonias]

Jesus is none to happy either

And his dads not going to bless us

[frost12]

SUPPORTERS OF TORTURE DISREGARD THE WELFARE OF OUR TROOPS

[StillAmused]

Consider that the White House "torture memo" -- creating a flimsy bypass around the Geneva Conventions and established U.S. military policy -- was drafted BEFORE the invasion of Iraq.

Evidence of excited, sweaty and perverse intentions, anyone?

These have been some dark, sick, evil mofos infesting the Executive branch.

[PhilipTaylor]

Thanks BUSH and CHENEY for the damage to our boys and girls and men and women!

We must not let any FACTION of ANY PARTY stop us from becoming an ETHICAL country.

We must use it to regain our Ethical Standing and MOSTLY to protect our troops who may be captured and tortured because we allow it.

We must IGNORE anyone who tries to block this GOAL!

It is a weak person that suggests America must TORTURE in any way!

[TAIsabel]

Do I have a vote for proceedings at The Hague?

[wadenelson1]

For those of you who don't read the entire story, here's the key sentence

>...the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq.

[karinova]

No, I thought the best part was when he mentions the guy they captured who says he thought they were going to torture him, and when they DIDN'T, he figured everything his ter rro rist handlers had told him about the Americans was a lie, and decided to cooperate.

[BSERIUS]

well since you got the gender wrong , and Feinstein and Barack say we don't torture... No Credibility here

[CyrusBeaucephus]

Chew on that wingnuts

[colibri1]

And it's killed even more Iraqis, Afghans, etc, etc.

(And for you Americans, most of the world doesn't think that's a good thing.)

[hopeless277]

No one can tell me that Bush/Cheney did not want all this to happen. Iraq? Oil, nothing more, nothing less. Torture? False confessions to terrorism to justify troops in Iraq to protect the oil companies. Katrina? Drive the poor from New Orlleans. Financial crash? Loot the treasury and give the money to their financial friends. Afganistan? First step to Iraq. It's the Shock Doctrine every day. What is really sad is that the Dems are all in on the crimes too. And now with Obama wanting to keep a 'residual' force in Iraq, well, he's just like Bush at this point.

[vinny]

can you say CIA? note how the operative plugs the shrine bombing again... for some reason this is an important part of the story even though the book is about torture...

[lovable]

SOMEONE PLEASE EMAIL THIS ARTICLE TO CNN/POLITICO/ MSNBC / FOX - tell them stop with the sarah palin stuff and give us real news

THIS SHOULD BE ON THE TV MSM NEWS.

[Igetitnow]

DITTO!!!!

[lovable]

i want this man to go on hannity and colmes / and oreilly and on all the fox shows and include ollie north and explain this to them. he is a expert and he was there. not the made up opinions of hannity and oreilly . I WANT THIS MAN ON MSM AND CABLE. TELLING THIS STORY.
but the meddia wont do it. they are more interested about the next story of sarah airhead palin

[pgoody]

He was on Countdown last night.

[BartLA]

Here's what I have to say about torture. Imagine someone is going to torture you. You refuse to cooperate or validate anything - whether true or not. The torture begins. How fast does your resolve fade and how soon till you start admitting things you didn't even do, or name names, or whatever, just to make it stop.

Besides being unethical, I just can't imagine it's all that reliable.