Bush's Torture Rationale Debunked

The Washington Post ^ | March 30, 2009 | Dan Froomkin

[worst-case scenario]

Abu Zubaida was the alpha and omega of the Bush administration's argument for torture.

That's why Sunday's front-page Washington Post story by Peter Finn and Joby Warrick is such a blow to the last remaining torture apologists.

Finn and Warrick reported that "not a single significant plot was foiled" as a result of Zubaida's brutal treatment -- and that, quite to the contrary, his false confessions "triggered a series of alerts and sent hundreds of CIA and FBI investigators scurrying in pursuit of phantoms."

Zubaida was the first detainee to be tortured at the direct instruction of the White House. Then he was President George W. Bush's Exhibit A in defense of the "enhanced interrogation" procedures that constituted torture. And he continues to be held up as a justification for torture by its most ardent defenders.

But as author Ron Suskind reported almost three years ago -- and as The Post now confirms -- almost all the key assertions the Bush administration made about Zubaida were wrong.

[worst-case scenario]

Froomkin says that this article tomorrow will give PROOF that torture actually produced NO helpful intelligence.

Did he run this article today to get a head start on the Sabbath Gasbag Circuit? Maybe knock some other issue (*cough* Obama's oil spill) off the top billing?

Or what?

[dfwgator]

[highlander_UW]

The unproved assumption is that water boarding is torture. Now maybe we wish to ultimately declare it as such...but it doesn't become torture just because leftists decide so. Leftists have a long history in changing them meaning of words. Gay used to be happy...now it has nothing to do with one’s mood, it has to do with one’s perversion, for example.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Having Obama as President is torture.

[Steamburg]

When all that’s fit to print about their pet pretender is bad news, they fall back to irrelevant Bush Bashing. Lazy Libtards.

[highlander_UW]

Having Obama as President is torture.

Obama is a hate crime perpetrated on the American people by the democrats.

[Pox]

Once again, referring to interrogation techniques as torture is simply another attempt by cowards to remove an effective tool from the arsenal of freedom.

If reality reflected the irrational beliefs of these morons, I just might possibly sympathize with their positions, but I don’t see that happening in my lifetime.

[skr]

Different people have different threshholds; good information was obtained from others using waterboarding.

[elpadre]

and what kind of credibility do Finn and Warrick have??

[RWGinger]

This is THE question
“and what kind of credibility do Finn and Warrick have?? “

just because they say it doesn’t mean anything

This is merely an attempt to get the heat off the POS 0dumbo

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I’d like to see investigative reporters look into the Kenyan’s background. College transcripts, details about his senate campaigns, drugs, his birth certificate, ACORN association, Bill Ayres, and other misfits he ran with.

[marron]

One of the first things Obama did was stipulate that “enhanced” interrogations would be done by a group that answered directly to him.

Which sound like he is continuing the Bush policy.

[re_nortex]

WAPO. Harumph. That’s all I need to know...end of story.

[CyberAnt]

Hmmmm ..?? Wasn't it Cheney who said that when the admin released the “torture” info .. most of the SUCCESSES WERE REDACTED (blacked out).

Meaning .. that the admin didn't want people to know how successful the program had been. Cheney even said that the info given by one of the high-up terrorists WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN DISMANTLING SEVERAL OTHER PLOTS AGAINST AMERICA.

These people are just appeasers .. and they always will be .. it's just more of “... if we're nice to the terrorists, then they will be required to be nice to us.”

You can't get much more ignorant than that!!!

[Ge0ffrey]

The article reads:

In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida’s tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations.

So who are these “former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations”?

And what does “closely followed the interrogations” mean?

[muawiyah]

Quite frankly I think it would be quite pleasurable to torture the writer. Wonder if that could be arranged.

Probably wouldn't stop any big conspiracies, but it'd give pause to the next "postie" who decided his take on foreign affairs and national defense is more important than mine.

[BuckeyeTexan]

The author’s analysis and conclusions are bunk. The DOJ will not declassify the documents that prove exactly which AQ plots were foiled and how many American lives were saved as result of the Bush-Cheney policies. Until those documents are released, everything else is mere speculation and politically motivated.

Release the proof, if you dare ...

[muawiyah]

The comments section at the WarshPost for this story is closed and has been since April 4.

This article is getting kinda' old.

BTW, for what it's worth, Froomkin has not had anything published under his byline since that time.

Another "postie" of note, Dana Priest, hasn't had anything published under her byline for quite some time as well.

Things are afoot at the WarshPost ~ strange things, secret things, people coming and going, just disappearing without notice of any kind.

Just waiting for it to IMPLODE.

[worst-case scenario]

I wondered if that was the rationale fornot only releasing the story tomorrow, but Froomkin running this press release today.

Do you think it will work?

[Little Ray]

Then I guess we didn’t torture ‘em hard enough.
Next time we need to use hot irons and dentist drills...