Rumsfeld: Bin Laden Info From Gitmo Detainees Was Not Obtained Through ‘Harsh Treatment’

[kpete]

Source: Think Progress

Rumsfeld: Bin Laden Info From Gitmo Detainees Was Not Obtained Through ‘Harsh Treatment’ Or ‘Waterboarding’

The New York Times reported today that some of the information that led U.S. intelligence officials to ultimately determine Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts was obtained from detainees at Guantanamo Bay:

.............

Dick Cheney said today that “it wouldn’t be surprising” the intel came from Bush’s torture program. However, there is currently no evidence to suggest that the detainees that provided the information that led to bin Laden were subject to torture. And Bush Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who presumably has some knowledge about what went on at Gitmo, today threw some cold water on this theory:

*****“The United States Department of Defense did not do waterboarding for interrogation purposes to anyone. It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantanamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding.”

Without any evidence, and without Rumsfeld’s blessing, it seems like conservatives are going to have to work a little bit harder at trying to take credit for bin Laden’s death.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/02/rumsfeld-bin-laden-gitmo/

[SoapBox]

1. Put this war criminal, lying dirt bag on trial...

...what a scum this bafoon is...

[Iliyah]

2. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

look at the gopers padding themselves on the back for a job well done, how sweet - NOT

[cstanleytech]

9. Sadly it most likely wont happen

Now this is a suggestion but it might be best to focus on our working to make sure that our government never again does this in the future, it wont be easy nor will it be fast but maybe one day if we work at it we can achieve it.

[chbrad2]

3. Evidence? Ha!

They don't need or want to see the facts on this. The Cons have made up their mind that this operation's success belongs on G.W.'s mantle. I have to give up on them giving President Obama any credit.

[underpants]

4. He is admitted that torture didn't work

In other words, while the CIA may have learned the courier’s nickname earlier, they didn’t learn his true name until “four years ago”–so late 2006 at the earliest. And they didn’t learn where the courier operated until around 2009.

From these dates we can conclude that either KSM shielded the courier’s identity entirely until close to 2007, or he told his interrogators that there was a courier who might be protecting bin Laden early in his detention but they were never able to force him to give the courier’s true name or his location, at least not until three or four years after the waterboarding of KSM ended. That’s either a sign of the rank incompetence of KSM’s interrogators (that is, that they missed the significance of a courier protecting OBL), or a sign he was able to withstand whatever treatment they used with him.

Marcy reads the Cheney statement saying he "assumes" that torture led to bin Laden differently because he "admits he doesn’t know where the intelligence came from." She's spot on in pointing out that the failure of Cheney to take full credit for the torture policy he loves so much, and spent so much time propagandizing. She says, since he "can’t claim definitively that the intelligence came from it, is a pretty good tell that he can’t say it did." She also points out that Donald Rumsfeld, who would have every reason to crow that the policies he supported had a good outcome, will only go so far as to say the intelligence might have come from detainees at Guantanamo.

Note clearly that neither of these two endorsing the idea that the waterboarding of KSM nine years ago—all 183 incidents of it—led to the name and location of the courier, which current intelligence officials say they learned in the last four years. It's not even clear that KSM's interrogators were even interested then in obtaining information about the couriers. The timeline, and every report that says the specific information on the courier was obtained in recent years at Guantanamo make the KSM waterboarding story incredible.

Dick Cheney still says "We need to keep in place those policies that made it possible for us to succeed in this case," meaning torture. He's still wrong.



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/02/972427/-Waterboarding-did-not-reveal-OsamabinLadentrail

[ScottLand]

5. I think they're just trying to use this as an opportunity to

legitimize their war crimes to the American people. Faux viewers will believe it if Cheney says waterboarding led to the killing of OBL.

[Redford]

6. Yep

[Ineeda]

18. Peter King claimed just that on O'Liely tonight.. n/t

[robinlynne]

7. but Rumsfeld seems to be taking the credit here.....

[Jefferson23]

8. Keep lying out loud, one day if we're all lucky, off to the Hague for these schmucks. n/t

[yellowcanine]

10. Oh dang. And the wingnuts were having such fun with this meme. Heh.

:rofl:

What will widdle Sean say now?

[Mr. Sparkle]

11. lol and the latest republican talking point falls flat on its ass.

Do these people ever get tired of been wrong?

[freshwest]

16. Ah, but that's the beauty of it. They're never 'wrong,' because they are 'right.' They believe that!

It's just that simple. That's where their minds got stuck...

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[w4rma]

13. Therefore torture doesn't work. (nt)

[AsahinaKimi]

14. I think he would like to justify waterboarding..

but its still torture.. and wrong. Sorry Rummy, no one buys your crap.

[freshwest]

15. Shut up already!

[EFerrari]

17. We don't even know if "info from Gitmo" had anything to do with this.

It's more likely someone in the Pakstani government or some part of that government gave him up.

[Phlem]

19. Let's just

water board him and find out if he's telling the truth!

:eyes:

Why is he even opening that hole.

-p