Soufan: Bush lied

[babylonsister]

Run time: 02:24 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEprLHeBjNY   Posted on YouTube: May 13, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 13, 2009 By DU Member: babylonsister Views on DU: 1572

 
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/13/whitehouse-soufan-torture/

Interrogator Ali Soufan: Bush Told ‘Half-Truth’ About Zubaydah’s Interrogation


In 2006, President Bush proudly described the “alternative set of procedures” used on detainee Abu Zubaydah to extract “information that could save innocent lives.” “I can say the procedures were tough, and they were safe, and lawful, and necessary,” Bush said.

During today’s judiciary subcommittee hearing on torture, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) questioned former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan, who led a successful interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. Whitehouse read a portion of Bush’s speech describing Zubaydah’s interrogation, and asked Soufan whether it was an “accurate” depiction. Soufan said it appeared Bush had been told “half-truths,” and agreed with Whitehouse that he then repeated these “half-truths”:

WHITEHOUSE: Does that statement accurately reflect the interrogation of Abu Zubydah?

SOUFAN: Well, the environment that he’s talking about, yes, it reflects, you know, he was injured, he required medical care. But I think the president — my own personal opinion here, based on my recollection — he was told probably half-truth.

WHITEHOUSE: And repeated half-truth obviously. The statement as presented does not conform to what you know to be the case from your experience on hand.

SOUFAN: Yes. Yes sir. Yes sir.

Whitehouse also read a portion of the May, 2005 OLC memo that claimed that Zubaydah “identified Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the mastermind of the Sep. 11 attacks” only “once enhanced techniques were employed.” Whitehouse asked Soufan if this was accurate:

WHITEHOUSE: From your position at the actual interrogation of Abu Zubaydah you know that statement not to be true?

SOUFAN: Yes sir.

Indeed, Soufan and his team nursed extracted valuable information from Zubaydah — including, most importantly, the identify of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — while nursing him back to health. “We were able to get the information about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a couple of days,” Soufan told Newsweek. “We didn’t have to do any of this {torture}. We could have done this the right way.”

[annabanana]

1. I really really hope someone posts Soufan's whole opening statement

It was breathtaking.

[rschop]

3. Soufan's opening statement

Here is the information you wanted:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/senate-judiciary-hearing-on-torture/#comment-157070

[rschop]

4. Even more horrific than torture

But beyond torture, Soufan is important because of his detailed knowledge of what went on at the FBI and CIA prior to 9/11 that had allowed these attacks to take place.

His information is so explosive that all mention of him was virtually stripped out of the 9/11 Commission report and even the DOJ IG report, when in fact he was lead investigator on the Cole bombing and knew more than anyone outside of FBI Agent Steve Bongardt, his assistant on this investigation, on what occurred that had prevented the FBI from stopping these attacks.

He is noted just once in the DOJ IG report as the NY FBI Agent that spoke fluent Arabic who flew out to talk to the FBI/CIA joint source in February 2001, to show the source the passport photo he had been given by the Yemen authorities of Walid Bin Attash, Khallad, the master mind of the Cole bombing. All of the CIA people involved including the CIA Bin Laden unit, the Yemen CIA station, and even the handler for the joint source kept secret the fact that on January 4, 2001, just one month before, Khallad had been positively identified by this same FBI/CIA source from a photo taken of him at the Kuala Lumpur meeting in January 2000, actually planning the Cole bombing with Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi.

It was at this point in time when the criminal actions at the CIA started in earnest to keep all information on this Kuala Lumpur meeting secret from the FBI Cole criminal investigators and to also keep secret the names of the people who had attended this meeting. This information that all three known al Qaeda terrorists Khallad, Mihdhar and Hazmi were at this meeting planning the Cole bombing was kept secret from the FBI Cole investigators until after the attacks on 9/11. Since the planning for the Cole bombing and the attacks on 9/11 took place at this same meeting, keeping this information secret from the FBI in a wide ranging criminal conspiracy led directly to the al Qaeda terrorists carrying out the successful attacks on 9/11.

But what is so horrific is that the CIA kept this information secret even when the CIA knew both Mihdhar and Hazmi were inside of the US on August 22-23, 2001, and knew these two al Qaeda terrorists were just about to take part in a massive attack that would kill thousands of Americans. The email from Tom Wilshire deputy chief of the CIA Bin Laden unit to his managers at the CTC on July 23, 2001 proves that not only did he know this but all of his CTC managers knew this. His email also confirms that when they forbid him from giving the information on the Kuala Lumpur meeting to the FBI, and allowed him to continue to hide the photograph of Khallad taken at the Kuala Lumpur meeting, a photo that directly connected Mihdhar and Hazmi to the planning of the Cole bombing, the CIA was all fully aware that their actions would result in allowing Wilshire and FBI HQ IOS agents he had been working with to shut down FBI Agent Steve Bongardt’s investigation of Mihdhar and Hazmi. The CIA must have known that by shutting down the only investigation that could have found Mihdhar and Hazmi in time to prevent this attack, that thousands of Americans would perish in the attacks that these terrorists were about to take part in. See web site www.eventson911.com for the US government’s own source documents that back up all of this information. GO FIGURE!

[annabanana]

5. explosive as all hell!. . . . n/t

[rschop]

6. Soufan, congressional hearings part two

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/soufans-narrative/

[beachmom]

2. He did not say Bush lied. He said Bush was lied to.

The transcript proves it. Not sure why Think Progress felt they needed to embellish.