Posted on 12/29/2005 3:44:26 PM PST by aculeus
The CIA's controversial program of having terrorist suspects captured and questioned on foreign soil began under President Bill Clinton, a former US agent says.
Michael Scheuer, a 22-year veteran of the CIA who resigned last year, told yesterday's issue of the German newspaper Die Zeit that the US administration had been looking in the mid-1990s for a way to combat the terrorist threat and circumvent the cumbersome US legal system.
"President Clinton, his national security adviser Sandy Berger and his terrorism adviser Richard Clark ordered the CIA in the autumn of 1995 to destroy al-Qaeda," the newspaper quoted Mr Scheuer as saying.
"We asked the president what we should do with the people we capture. Clinton said, 'That's up to you."'
Mr Scheuer, who headed the CIA unit that tracked Osama bin Laden from 1996 to 1999, said he developed and led the "renditions" program, which included moving prisoners without due legal process to countries with no strict human rights protections.
"In Cairo, people are not treated like they are in Milwaukee. The Clinton administration asked us if we believed that the prisoners were being treated in accordance with local law. And we answered, 'Yes, we're fairly sure."'
At the time, he said, the CIA did not arrest or imprison anyone itself.
"That was done by the local police or secret services," he said, adding that the prisoners were never taken to US soil. "President Clinton did not want that."
He said the program changed under Mr Clinton's successor, George Bush, after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
"We started putting people in our own institutions - in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo. The Bush Administration wanted to capture people itself but made the same mistake as the Clinton administration by not treating these people as prisoners of war."
He accused Europeans of being hypocritical in criticising the US for its anti-terrorism tactics while benefiting from them.
"All the information we received from interrogations and documents, everything that had to do with Spain, Italy, Germany, France, England was passed on."
In the US, the Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the case of an alleged "dirty bomber", Jose Padilla, saying that a lower court had no right to tell the Bush Administration whether he should be tried in a criminal court or by a military tribunal.
The US Solicitor-General, Paul Clement, asked the court to overturn a ruling by an appellate court last week that essentially blocked Padilla, 35, from being transferred from a military brig in South Carolina to a federal prison in Miami.
The three-judge panel had said it was concerned the Justice Department might have decided to prosecute Padilla to prevent a Supreme Court ruling on Mr Bush's claim that he can designate American citizens as "enemy combatants" and imprison them indefinitely without charge.
Agence France-Presse, Los Angeles Times
I read this earlier, thanks for posting it here.
Yes. The Clinton method was more effective. Certainly prevented 9/11, didn't it?
I'm really surprised no investigative journalist like Mary Mapes found this little gem. ...maybe they did. ...they probably did and didn't report it.
Was any of this...WOULD any of this had been reported by the NY SLIMES as it was now??
Where's the OUTRAGE over the leak in the first place!!
DAB
Then why didn't he use this program to give Bin Laden to the Saudi's when Sudan offered him up on a platter?
We need to ask Slick about that.
We also need to ask Little Dickie Clarke what he knew of this program and why he hasn't mentioned it as an ABC News analyst.
Democrats are conveniently amnesiac.
Yes.... Paging Richard freakin Clarke!
Makes me wonder if this is what the SandBurglar was stealing from the archives.
Good post. Sadly we know how far these type reports shall go.
Some of the conservative bloggers might pick it up. I also believe a few media types scan FR for leads
Well, BJ Clinton sure did a lousy job of it!
I agree about believability, here.
Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, Hillary!
Why else would Michael Scheuer, a 22-year veteran of the CIA WHO RESIGNED LAST YEAR, tell a GERMAN newspaper what the CIA did, does.
Did he fly in from France, or Disneyland- and the supersecret vacation of SpyMommy and Famous Daddy Wilson?
"We asked the president what we should do with the people we capture. Clinton said, 'That's up to you."'"
This article basically says that Sandy Burgler and Richard Clark were making decisions that the President should have made.
Why is this not all over the national news?
I never heard this before. This is big, real big.
Spineless Clinton strikes again.
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