Senate Intelligence Chair: Information That Led To Bin Laden’s Killing Did Not Come From Torture

[democracy1st]

Run time: 01:42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy2NkJ8fsek   Posted on YouTube: May 03, 2011 By YouTube Member: thinkprogress5 Views on YouTube: 70   Posted on DU: May 03, 2011 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 846

 
Bush loyalists have been “irked” over the past 24 hours that they are not getting credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden, arguing that their torture program helped bring about intelligence that led to the mission. Karl Rove said “the tools that President Bush put into place –- GITMO, rendition, enhanced interrogation” led to the successful operation. Similarly, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the mission “rested heavily on some of those controversial policies” from the Bush era.

Today, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) rejected these assertions. She was asked by a reporter whether the intelligence that led to the killing was the result of waterboarding and other harsh treatment of detainees. She responded:

We are in the process of a big study on the detention and interrogation of the detainees on the Intelligence Committee. The Republicans have pulled out of the study. So this has been carried out by the Democratic staff essentially. They have gone through more than 3 million emails, cables, pieces of paper looking for this.

To date, the answer to your question is no. Nothing has been found to indicate this came out of Guantanamo. And people were questioned, but there were no positive answers as to the identity of this number one courier.

Asked a few minutes later whether she considers the Bin Laden killing any kind of “vindication” of the Bush-era torture program, Feinstein said, “Absolutely not. I do not.” She continued, “I happen to know a good deal about how those interrogations were conducted, and in my view, nothing justifies the kind of procedures that were used.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/03/feinstein-intel-torture-bin-laden/


The Big Lie: Torture Got Bin Laden

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/05/the-republican-spin.html

[sasha031]

1. even Rummy said it wasn't torture

[louis-t]

2. Question: If the intel they got in 2003 was sooooo good

why didn't bush get him then? Why did they shut down the bin Laden group in 2005? Were they that incompetant? (yes, they were.)

[KansDem]

3. I think it all goes back to why Bush invaded Iraq

Control of oil.

And with a boogieman out there raising the fear level in the US, it was much easier to bullshit Americans into unnecessary wars to control that oil.

Remember how ineffective Bush was in the first few years of the Afghan war? It kept Osama bin Boogieman alive...

[louis-t]

4. It WAS a ship of fools.

Rummy had no business being Secretary of Bush Wars. I mean Defense.

[EC]

5. Feinstein just has to do something

with that hairdo...it's been bothering me for years...it makes her look really old.