BigAl
1st April 2010, 08:23 PM
For what it's worth. For the moment, this is single-sourced news or maybe it's a late and lame April 1st joke.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/040110a.html
The Justice Department has quietly recanted nearly every major claim the Bush administration made about Abu Zubaydah, the alleged al-Qaeda leader who was the first suspected terrorist subjected to the torture of aterboarding and other White House-approved “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
The Justice Department has now backed away from the Bush administration’s more extreme claims in a 109-page court document filed in U.S. District Court in Washington last September in response to 213 discovery requests from Zubaydah's attorneys in his habeas corpus case, which demands evidence to support his continued detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(The government document was declassified last week with minor redactions. Upon learning of its availability, I arranged to buy a copy.)
In the filing, the Justice Department asked the judge presiding over the case to deny virtually every discovery request sought by Zubaydah’s attorneys, explaining, in some instances, that the U.S. government no longer relied upon the explosive allegations that President Bush and other top officials made about Zubaydah after he was captured and tortured in 2002.
...
In a federal court filing, Justice backed away from the Bush administration’s statements that Zubaydah had helped plan the 9/11 attacks and was a close confidant to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, as well as even earlier claims from the Clinton administration that he was directly involved in planning the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa.
The U.S. government’s retreat underscores yet another problem with President George W. Bush’s use of torture. Besides its illegality and immorality, torture can be applied to suspected terrorists who have been falsely identified and who thus don’t possess the expected information, which can lead frustrated interrogators to escalate the torture until the subject provides something, whether true or not.
...
Terrorist suspicions about Zubaydah predated the 9/11 attacks. Indeed, in the infamous Aug. 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Brief titled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US," he was identified as bin Laden's "lieutenant" and alleged to have "helped facilitate" the plot to detonate a bomb at LAX.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/040110a.html
The Justice Department has quietly recanted nearly every major claim the Bush administration made about Abu Zubaydah, the alleged al-Qaeda leader who was the first suspected terrorist subjected to the torture of aterboarding and other White House-approved “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
The Justice Department has now backed away from the Bush administration’s more extreme claims in a 109-page court document filed in U.S. District Court in Washington last September in response to 213 discovery requests from Zubaydah's attorneys in his habeas corpus case, which demands evidence to support his continued detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(The government document was declassified last week with minor redactions. Upon learning of its availability, I arranged to buy a copy.)
In the filing, the Justice Department asked the judge presiding over the case to deny virtually every discovery request sought by Zubaydah’s attorneys, explaining, in some instances, that the U.S. government no longer relied upon the explosive allegations that President Bush and other top officials made about Zubaydah after he was captured and tortured in 2002.
...
In a federal court filing, Justice backed away from the Bush administration’s statements that Zubaydah had helped plan the 9/11 attacks and was a close confidant to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, as well as even earlier claims from the Clinton administration that he was directly involved in planning the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa.
The U.S. government’s retreat underscores yet another problem with President George W. Bush’s use of torture. Besides its illegality and immorality, torture can be applied to suspected terrorists who have been falsely identified and who thus don’t possess the expected information, which can lead frustrated interrogators to escalate the torture until the subject provides something, whether true or not.
...
Terrorist suspicions about Zubaydah predated the 9/11 attacks. Indeed, in the infamous Aug. 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Brief titled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US," he was identified as bin Laden's "lieutenant" and alleged to have "helped facilitate" the plot to detonate a bomb at LAX.