The released CIA documents -- Enhanced interrogation techniques work

Remember back in April when Vice President Cheney specifically asked to have these memos released? Then the Obama administration claimed that to do so would compromise our security, so they had refused. But given the recent stories rolling out of the CIA it looks like they decided to fire back. They have been released now and Barry has nowhere to hide on this because the document do give irrefutable proof that enhanced interrogation techniques did work. From Captain Ed:

The waterboard has been used on three detainees….

Prior to the use of EITs, Abu Zubaydah provided information for [redacted] intelligence reports. Interrogators applied the waterboard to Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times during August 2002. [The report explains that each application of water is counted separately, and most of the 83 applications lasted less than ten seconds.] During the period between the end of the use of the waterboard and 30 April 2003, he provided information for approximately [redacted] intelligence reports. It is not possible to say definitively that the waterboard is the reason for Abu Zubaydah’s increased production, or if another factor, such as the length of detention, was the catalyst. Since the use of the waterboard, however, Abu Zubaydah has appeared to be cooperative.

With respect to Al-Nashiri, [redacted] reported two waterboard sessions in November 2002, after which the psychologist/interrogators determined that Al-Nashiri was compliant….Because of the litany of techniques used by different interrogators over a relatively short period of time, it is difficult to identify exactly why Al-Nashiri became more willing to provide information. However, following the use of EITs, he provided information about his most current operational planning and [redacted] as opposed to the historical information he provided before the use of EITs.

On the other hand, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, an accomplished resistor, provided only a few intelligence reports prior to the use of the waterboard, and analysis of that information revealed that much of it was outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete. As a means of less active resistance, at the beginning of their interrogation, detainees routinely provide information that they know is already known. Khalid Shaykh Muhammad received 183 applications of the waterboard in March 2003. …

He provided information that helped lead to the arrests of terrorists including Sayfullah Paracha and his son Uzair Paracha, businessmen who Khalid Shaykh Muhammad planned to use to smuggle explosives into the United States; Saleh Almari, a sleeper operative in New York; and Majid Khan, an operative who could enter the United States easily and was tasked to research attacks [redacted]. Khalid Shaykh Muhammad’s information also led to the investigation and prosecution of Iyman Faris, the truck driver arrested in early 2003 in Ohio.

Back in April Ali Soufan, an FBI interrogator, claimed that KSM (Khalid Shaykh Muhammed) didn't need to have the EITs (enhanced interrogation techniques) used on him. Soufan said KSM would have cracked under regular techniques. Reread the above on KSM, and the report specifically states that he wasn't cracking, and he wasn't giving interrogators anything relevent. Only after the EITs were used did KSM crack and give up his brothers in arms.

Captain Ed notes that this doesn't address whether EITs constitute torture, and that itself is a non-sequitor. No offense but the EITs utilized aren't illegal or unconstitutional. If people want to make the argument that techniques such as waterboarding is torture, that's their opinion, but it's hardly fact. Marcie and I addressed this issue in one of our more recent columns. Liberals and bleeding hearts tend to confuse waterboarding with water cure which is a torture method. Besides, do we really want to call this technique torture when we use it on our soldiers as a training method?

I know, I know. The bleeding hearts whine that it wasn't needed. To them all we had to do was "emote" with them, and "understand" their gripes. I think not. No gripe entitles these animals to blow up innocent men, women, and children by suicide bombers. Nor does it give them a license to fly planes into buildings, killing 2996 people. I know that some of these bleeding hearts will also point out that we ((GASP)) threatened the families of the terrorists like KSM.

Have these idiots ever heard of theatrics?

We could give a rat's @$$ less what we did or said to these terrorists provided it didn't violate the law. One interrogator was formally reprimanded for using a pistol during an interrogation (the report does not go into specifics how that pistol was used). But these Beltway idiots and their media cronies would have been the first ones screaming for Bush's head on a platter had these techniques not been used to stop an enemy determined to hit us again, and again.

We're in a war folks. We didn't start it. It was delivered to our doorstep in spades. The hyperventilating on the Left needs to stop over what we did. What we did prevented further attacks and saved lives. We'd prefer the bleeding hearts just thank the interrogators for doing their job. Of course that's like asking the Left to sincerely thank our soldiers for doing their job, and that's not happening anytime soon.

Publius II