CIA Torturers Wanted Abu Zubaydah To Think He Was Being Buried Alive

emptywheel:

CIA's torturers asked DOJ to let them use mock burials.

Read the whole story: emptywheel

Comments

[cervantesknight]

11:17 AM on 03/03/2010

The Calculating Leading the Blind
Blind conservative citizens; the truth was in plain sight, rustling beneath your feet like leaves. Regardless, not only did you vote for Bush in 2000 you kept him in office in 2004. As the first felon to serve as president, Bush's embarrassing ignorance was the ideal match for draft dodging Cheney's visceral skulking. Cheney was there for Nixon, Reagan, George the 1st and George the 2nd and all of them were involved in the same greasy abuse of presidential power. Yet despite their criminality, if a candidate is pro-life, you will vote for them also regardless of the consequences.

[jerryatthebeach]

09:00 AM on 02/26/2010

What ever it takes to get a terrorist to talk...

[lungfish]

02:56 PM on 02/27/2010

As it turns out the case against Zubayda is falling apart. They have repeatedly had to withdraw claims about him, against him and against others based on information obtained from him. The idea that he was at all a terrorist is nearly refuted and the gov retractions are the proof.
I am all for catching terrorists but here is an example of torture not working and instead of revealing that the man was a liar, it caught up more innocent people in the Gov net. Worse, the Gov was unable to distinguish truth from fiction and wanted to up the stress, increase the torture on Mr. Zubayda. It appears that Mr. Zubayda is barely competent and that the case against him has nearly completely unraveled.....
Lets see Mr. Cheney take responsibility for THAT....

[Tresco]

05:15 AM on 02/26/2010

So that's what they call a "Texas Funeral".

[audit]

04:58 AM on 02/26/2010

- one taliban leader is picked up in Pakistan, two days later , 8 more are arrested? you think probably a plea bargain has gained his cooperation? Keep dreaming.about the day Bush and CHeney will stand trial.

[AmericanDreamWarrior]

03:54 AM on 02/26/2010

Anyone with a lick of sense and a drop of moral conscience knows that torture doesn't work. Anyone that wants to continue torturing has a Marquis de Sade like sadism and needs some serious help or removed from society so they can't harm anyone anymore.

Its time to restore the honor of America/Americans! Prosecute those that torture AND those that fascilitated them. Past, present and future. I'm tired of being ashamed and morally horrified!

[ThankGodhesgone]

01:17 AM on 02/26/2010

Yet after mock burial was specifically excluded as a torture technique, CIA torturers went on to threaten detainees with a power drill and a gun. In other words, someone at that CIA had already been told, specifically, that they could not use the threat of imminent death on detainees. But on at least two occasions, they did so anyway.

Is this what is called 'enhanced interrogation'? Nice words to describe something that no one could deny is torture.

Is this what this country stands for? Mock burials, power drills (kneecappping I suppose?) and guns pointed to their heads? What is missing here is also the threats to harm the terrorists families.

Cheny and Bush, as well as the lawyers who wrote memos supporting such actions should be punished to the furthest exent of the law.

[theguyfromchesapeake]

12:41 AM on 02/26/2010

I think he should be given his trial, and if found guilty, THEN bury him alive. Wrapped head-to-toe in a full length pigskin and emblazoned with a HUGE Star of David on it to boot! Oh, and make sure he has his Koran tossed in for good measure. The only thing better in all that would be to learn that his '72 virgins' are all clones of Rosie O'Donnell! Man, thought is TOO SWEET to contemplate...

[lungfish]

11:19 PM on 02/25/2010

As it turns out, the governments case against Zubayda is falling apart..... so what did torture really get them?
I don't like or support the idea of an America that tortures, or pretends to torture, or wants the other guy to believe he's being totured..... We can do a lot better than that and we can deal with criminals, that is what terrorists are, far more effectively than we do without resorting to barbarism. I don't care what the criminal does, I care about what the civilized do.... and civilized people don't need to torture.

[realpolitic]

10:24 PM on 02/25/2010

Cheney says waterboarding works. Zubaydah was waterboarded dozens of times and they still would have liked to threaten him with being buried alive. It sounds more like waterboarding does not work in the slightest.

[Sam1969]

10:35 PM on 02/25/2010

So waterboarding did not work, let’s try keeping him under water for a few hours, which should do the trick!

[realpolitic]

10:45 PM on 02/25/2010

Yes, then he'll talk.

[omobob]

09:43 PM on 02/25/2010

We are either a Nation of laws or a lawless Nation. As in presumed innocence to be proven in a court of law. There are no special cases under the law that make it alright to skip the trail and start with the sentencing. Its the law.

[Sam1969]

10:38 PM on 02/25/2010

Let’s go for presumed guilty and house him in a hog lot and see how much he wants to say then.

[drudgeman1]

09:34 PM on 02/25/2010

Oh, how cruel we treated that peace loving muslim...

[spandautoseattle]

08:00 PM on 02/25/2010

Now it's established that torture was in deed used, and as US-policy, so there's no need anymore to use verbal detours as: "presumably", "alleged", "assumed" etc.
That leaves the open question (still): Where are the DOJ-investigations? Laws were broken. National and international laws.
Where are the DOJ-investigations?

[RTIII]

11:00 AM on 02/27/2010

Call and write Obama AND Holder.

I do as often as I remember to do so.

Recently (this past week) when doing so, I asked one of the White house comment-line people how many calls they were getting about the Justice Department either not doing its job or doing a HORRIBLE job (as we saw with the decision that it was merely "bad advice" to torture). In Other Words, was I the only person complaining or were my comments fairly common? The person said that they had not taken any such calls "that I can remember." ...and these people are busy non-stop from the moment they start work to the moment they take off in the evening...

So, get out there and MAKE SOME NOISE!
.

[ReedYoung]

06:22 PM on 02/25/2010

"Whereas the Bybee Two Techniques memo approves ten techniques, Mitchell and Jessen recommended twelve. In other words, Mitchell and Jessen asked for two techniques to be approved that did not get specific approval...

Curiously, the DOJ’s IG Report on torture says the CIA asked for 10 torture techniques to be included in its OLC memo, not 12."

Clearly somebody has been trying to cover up something.

[cstmrsrvc]

03:18 PM on 02/25/2010

CIA TORTURERS ,,,,,,seriously Huffers,,,, unless you stop with the shameless America bashing , you credibility is that of an Obama healthcare bill

[Franklin1776]

05:05 PM on 02/25/2010

Torture is what terrorists do, not Americans.

[sviolette]

06:01 PM on 02/25/2010

Amreican terrorists do it too. It doesn't matter who is doing it, it's wrong.

[CAHertzfe]

06:26 PM on 02/25/2010

Don't you mean REAL Americans? Not those flag waving, "USA" yelling fools.

[ReedYoung]

06:20 PM on 02/25/2010

Mitchell and Jessen were contractors, hired by rogue CIA or Cheney / Bush political hacks, or both. So, we're not painting CIA with a broad brush, you're just ignorant of the facts of torture by military and espionage contractors.

[Mike949]

02:52 PM on 02/25/2010

I continue to be amazed at the extent HP will go to make America look bad in order to further a political agenda. This stuff plays great for inflaming hatred for our Country.

[sugarmoes]

02:56 PM on 02/25/2010

Why do you advocate breaking the law or hastily changing the law (haha) to match the tactics of the very people/enemies you denounce?

HP didn't torture people. The Bush White House moved heaven and earth so they could though.

Civilized people expect better.

Why do you expect the press to turn a blind eye toward war crimes and crimes against humanity?

That (turning a blind eye) is what let the Bush White House get away with perpetrating these crimes in the first place.

It's time to clean up the mess (i.e. bring the perpetrators before the law and let justice be served).

[Mike949]

03:16 PM on 02/25/2010

I am not in favor of torture however I don't consider threatening to bury someone torture. I don't want to get into a debate about what is and what isn't.

It simply seems as if people don't realize this is war and people want to destroy us.

When there is another attack, I will not blame whoever is President for it. We can only do whatever is in our power to stop it but how do you defend yourself against someone who is willing to kill themselves to kill you.

[ReedYoung]

06:21 PM on 02/25/2010

Denial of proven facts is bad for our country.