Torture of Mentally Ill Prisoner Led Administration To Pursue False Leads
Torture of Mentally Ill Prisoner Led Administration To Pursue False Leads
In his new book “The One Percent Doctrine,†Ron Suskind details the story of Abu Zubaydah - a man President Bush once described as “one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States.†Suskind writes that Bush made this claim despite CIA and FBI analysis that showed Zubaydah was “mentally ill and nothing like the pivotal figure they supposed him to be.†(“This guy is insane, [a] certifiable, split personality,†the FBI’s top al-Qaeda analyst said.)
Nevertheless, “under White House and Justice Department direction, the CIA would make him its first test subject for harsh interrogation techniques.†Ultimately, his story became an example of how torture doesn’t work.
From the Washington Post’s review of the book:
Bush “was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth,†Suskind writes, and he asked one briefer, “Do some of these harsh methods really work?â€
Interrogators did their best to find out, Suskind reports. They strapped Abu Zubaydah to a water-board, which reproduces the agony of drowning. They threatened him with certain death. They withheld medication. They bombarded him with deafening noise and harsh lights, depriving him of sleep.
Under that duress, he began to speak of plots of every variety — against shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, water systems, nuclear plants, apartment buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty. With each new tale, “thousands of uniformed men and women raced in a panic to each…target.” And so, Suskind writes, “the United States would torture a mentally disturbed man and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered.”
The answer to your question, President Bush, is “no.â€
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Bush is the person who is really mentally ill, so shame on his father for putting his dull-witted boy into the White House!
June 20th, 2006 at 2:01 pmBushCo is so desperate that they would do this for even the chance of a photo op or sounbite.
It’s long past time to shut them down.
There must be 50 Ways To Dump The Dubya
June 20th, 2006 at 2:01 pmFLy on the wall reports this was said:
“No sir these methods do not work, but what the heck, its fun to torture these sandni**ers, my dad abused me as a child, so I am working out my issues on this guy”
June 20th, 2006 at 2:07 pmDon’t forget Suskind’s wonderful and prescient article on the Bush Administration originally published in Esquire and now at this link.
June 20th, 2006 at 2:16 pmThe methods used by the USA GOP have incited the terrorists in Iraq to design an ambush on american troops only to obtain two live prisoners and torture them to death. Great strategery, Bush, Cheney, Condoleeza and Rumsfeld bringing down the Geneva treaties.
June 20th, 2006 at 2:16 pmThat is typically the problem with torture. A person will admit to anything, or make up stories to stop the abuse.
June 20th, 2006 at 2:17 pmThis is so sick, I am beyond words.
June 20th, 2006 at 2:18 pmOne Calorie Evil. Not Good Enough -Dr. Evil
June 20th, 2006 at 2:21 pmTorture does not work
Link
June 20th, 2006 at 2:22 pmWWJT?
Who Would Jesus Torture?
-GSD
June 20th, 2006 at 2:26 pm#11 I know who the Devil would torture soon. Bush & Cronies.
June 20th, 2006 at 2:28 pmThose fu##ing c##k suckers claim to be bringing freedom to Iraq and closing down the torture chambers of Saddam, while they do the same themselves.
June 20th, 2006 at 2:28 pmy’know, I didn’t really have a choice about being on the left. I had no other option, really.
June 20th, 2006 at 2:38 pmI guess that kinda kills the idea that knowledge of the abuse at Abu Graib was limited to the facility… and the female officer kinda took one for the team…
June 20th, 2006 at 2:44 pmIt is terrible what the insurgents did to Pfc. Thomas Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Mencchaca who were just found after apparently being tortured before being killed. BUT, is it any wonder that this is how our captured soldiers are treated when we do the SAME thing?
Heckuva job, Bush, Cheny, Rumsfeld, Rice.
June 20th, 2006 at 3:00 pmI understand this all stems from Bush, but should we not also hold the folks at the FBI and CIA accountable for not standing up to him?!?! Somebody needed to have said: “Mr. President, we have tortured a mentally-ill man at your command and it has produced absolutely nothing.”
OTOH, perhaps talking to Suskind was the only recourse these folks felt they had.
June 20th, 2006 at 3:02 pmThis is an example of the group-think of this mentally ill White House. Among them there is no conscience, no sense of morality, no compassion, only their brutally cold, inhuman partisanship. People are to be exploited and expended, after serving a particular, political aim.
June 20th, 2006 at 3:03 pmIt’s hard to fathom that the GOP is so politically self-centered that in their reign of this government, they avert their eyes to the gross atrocities committed by their leaders.
How about this one from the article:
June 20th, 2006 at 3:13 pmLet me put it this way, the major technological leader and world super-power at the time, while fighting terrorism, happened to torture Jesus (If you actually buy the stuff written in the Bible.)
June 20th, 2006 at 3:20 pmUnder that duress, he began to speak of plots of every variety — against shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, water systems, nuclear plants, apartment buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty. With each new tale, “thousands of uniformed men and women raced in a panic to each…target.†And so, Suskind writes, “the United States would torture a mentally disturbed man and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered.â€
Was the mentally disturbed guy bush or the guy being tortured that created the tales. I mean, not to be rude, or politically incorrect, but it is kinda confusing because bush is also a little perterbedf, I mean confused, I mean he mis-remembers sometimes he screams at aides and stuff I mean, you know what I mean.
June 20th, 2006 at 3:34 pm[…] - Interrogation of mentally ill Al Qaeda suspect, Abu Zubaydah, led U.S. to follow plenty of false leads, according to Ron Suskind’s new book, “The One Percent Doctrine.” (Think Progress) […]
June 20th, 2006 at 3:34 pmI really do believe that torture has been on their minds from the beginning. (See Richard Clarkes’ book: Against All Enemies. In the first few madhouse days after 9/11 he overhears the neocons grotesquely joking about what they would like to do to the terrorists.)
Deep in Bush’s sock drawer are the videos from Gitmo, from Abu Ghraib. I think he remembers the hazing by the Skull and Bones with fondness.
June 20th, 2006 at 3:36 pmWhat, you mean everything we’ve learned about terrorism from watching 24 is wrong? I am shocked. Jack Bauer wouldn’t lie to us. Never!
June 20th, 2006 at 4:02 pmActually it sounds like just the ticket for Darth Cheney, King dumbya and all the other PNAC leaders.
June 20th, 2006 at 4:02 pmBush is a sociopath and megalomaniac. He is very very very mentally ill. If a doctor was to diagnose Bush could he be removed from office?
June 20th, 2006 at 4:03 pmOh my god, I am sick over this. I can’t even express it. What have we become?
June 20th, 2006 at 4:04 pmThere is something incrediblely horrible about being part of a country that will torture a mentally ill man. Can we start kicking dogs and setting cats on fire next? This is vicious senseless cruelty on a helpless person without any mental defenses. This is on a moral level with beating small children.
June 20th, 2006 at 4:04 pmIf this government sinks any lower they will have to start digging in the sewers.
In one briefing Bush asked his advisor, “What about the time Jack Bauer shot that guy in the knee, and he told us where the bomb was hidden? Could we prevent a terrorist attack that way?”
Later Cheney said, “It’s no accident we haven’t been hit again,” and grinned his sly crooked grin.
June 20th, 2006 at 4:05 pmCan we start kicking dogs and setting cats on fire next?
Ask Bill Frist. Meeeow!
June 20th, 2006 at 4:06 pmHey “Skeptic” - Bush had no problem executing the mentally ill. Why would he have a problem torturing them? Especially if he is getting completely invalid information from the tortured schizophrenic, which can be used as fuel to aid the “fight AlQaeda” fire.
What the hell is happening in our country?
BTW, I found a quote from this book review very disturbing.
Bush is more concerned about “losing face” than following the laws or doing what is morally correct. Oh, and let’s not forget that Zubaydah “disappeared” from CiA custody after being tortured in this secret prison (according to Human Rights Watch). Disgusting.
I am so saddened and disgusted by what our government is doing.
June 20th, 2006 at 4:39 pmI didn’t vote for George Bush. I didn’t vote for George Bush. He killed a record number of Americans as governor of Texas; some mentally ill, some whose trials had such gaping holes that an oil truck could go through easily. Yes, I know a Texas Governor has very little real power, but he didn’t even try to see justice done.
Why should that ( series of expletives withheld ) Bush even care about losing face? The whole world knew him as a spineless brainless puppet!!
I am appalled that he even calls himself a Christian, I don’t call him a Christian, normally I call him “that whited sepulchre” or worse.
June 20th, 2006 at 4:48 pm#10
Comment by Tobey Tall
#17
Comment by DrSinker
Wow, guys. I cant believe this from TP bloggers. Why are we discussing here: the inefficiency of torture or that it is the lowest, most nefarious thing done to any being?
June 20th, 2006 at 4:57 pmIf torture give results, then it would be OK?
no, that people who torture thinking that it will provide information are more than cruel, they are STUPID!
June 20th, 2006 at 5:05 pmPost 33 Juan > Nobody believes that torture is OK for any reason, even if it did work to get information! Those who are tortured will confess to anthing under torture, so those who torture others do it for their own sick pleasure! Rumsfeld should get a firing squad for what he has done!
June 20th, 2006 at 5:07 pmIn answer to your question, Zookeeper, we are a country in the control of CLOWNS!
June 20th, 2006 at 5:08 pm#36 - I have always hated clowns.
June 20th, 2006 at 5:12 pm[…] Think Progress […]
June 20th, 2006 at 5:21 pm#34 and #35 Agreed. That was what I wanted to point out.
June 20th, 2006 at 5:33 pmSo they torture this mentally ill guy, and every time he makes up some story about a terror plot, they send SWAT teams running to the location?
That would make a GREAT episode of 24!
June 20th, 2006 at 5:54 pmWe don’t torture…….WE FREEDOM TICKLE!!
June 20th, 2006 at 7:09 pmIf torturing a mentally ill man is “compassionate” conservatism, I’d hate to see conservatism when it’s pissed off.
June 20th, 2006 at 9:01 pm[…] Torture of Mentally Ill Prisoner Led Administration To Pursue Think Progress, DC - 20 hours ago one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States. Suskind writes that Bush made this claim despite CIA and FBI […]
June 21st, 2006 at 10:28 amThe Concept that the USA etc takes people who resist their invasion prisoner & detaines them as either Unlawfull Combatants / POW has the Requirement that the IRAQ Resisters of Invasion Take Prisoner USA etc forces when they are captured , and not killing them!
The USA etc also would like them to not Torture them!
Fair is Fair : If the USA would Undertake that the UN administer Prisoners taken by USA / UK , Coalition of the Willing forces, of those Iraq captured & UN Guard & Feed etc them , & not Allow USA etc to Torture Them THen…
IRAQ Would be Expected to treat POW held by them with Dignity…
But as Iraq Has had USA etc forces Blow Up their Mosques Suni/ Shia etc that had been used to hold possibly their POW or AWOL forces seeking refuge from this murderous war …
What Can IRAQ DO -
They Could Have the UN RUN POW PRISONS FOR PEOPLE HELD BY IRAQ RESISTANCE BUT THAT WOULD REQUIRE THAT THERE BE A DEVELOPMENT OF RULES OF WAR TO TAKE IN THE TYPE OF FIGHTING IN IRAQ, MEANING WHEN IRAQ HAS OVERRUN USA FORCES THEY REQUIRE USA FORCES TO RAISE WHITE FLAG & BE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY BY IRAQ RESISTANCE FORCES WHO THEN RAISE A RED FLAG (EG)
& THEN SUMMON UN FORCES TO THE SCENE TO TAKE CUSTODY OF THEM.
THIS WOULD ALSO REQUIRE THAT WEAPONS THEY WERE EQUIPED WITH BE SURRENDERED TO IRAQ RESISTANCE FORCES & NOT BE KEPT BY UN.
DURING THIS PERIOD OF SUBMISSION THERE MUST BE NO ATTEMPT BY USA COALITION FORCES OR PUPPET IRAQ GOVERNMENT / CONTRACT FORCES TO RELEASE THEM BY FORCE, AFTER THEY HAVE SUBMITTED!
TO ENCOURAGE COMPLIANCE WITH THE ABOVE THE UN WOULD HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT BECAUSE THERE WOULD BE VERY LITTLE TRUST BETWEEN THE IRAQ RESISTANCE & THEIR FOE THAT RULES OF WAR WOULD HAVE TO DEVELOP TO FIT THIS WAR THAT IT WAS OKAY FOR IRAQ RESISTANCE FORCES TO PLACE BOMBS ON THE PERSON OF THE PRISONER, UNTILL UN GUARDS TAKE CUSTODY ,TO ENSURE USA FORCES WOULD NOT SEEK TO REGAIN THEIR MEN ,&/ OR MAKE AN INDELABLE MARK ON THE PRISONER THAT REQUIRED THEIR DETENTION BY UN PRISON.
THIS WOULD ALSO REQUIRE UN TO STATE THEY WOULD BE DETAINED TILL THE WAR WAS OVER WHEN ALL POW WOULD BE RELEASED POST HASTE WITHOUT HINDERANCE, AFTER AN AGREEMENT HAS BEEN REACHED TO ACCOUNT FOR PRISONER MALTREATMENT WITH A JOINT COURT TO TRY THEM IN IRAQ.
THIS SHOULD ALLOW FOR HUMANE TREATMENT OF USA POW & OF IRAQ POW- A VAST IMPROVEMENT.
June 22nd, 2006 at 9:58 amThis is nothing.
Noone here mentions that they do EVERY SINGLE DAY to tens of thousands of helpless mentally ill boys, whose only crime is being ill, and whose brains are not allowed to heal. Female “doctors”, actualluy sick slime, peer through tiny 3 inch tall slats into dungeon 4 x 6cells so small and closed in with NO windows and only a tall steel door with a tiny closed slat, that the ill go psychotic, as any human would in there.
And the doctors participate in that filth and torture. The Jewish and Christian people have allowed it for decades and are far worse than anything George Bush does, and Democrats do it as much.
Noone does anything about it and it happens in almost every major county in this country. They torture them in Supermax like cells and solitary confinement cells (torture chambers) that could only be designed by the sickest Christian minds who have ever lived.
This article is nothing compared to what they do to those boys and how they brain damage them. And nobody calls anyone to stop it. We tried and all the publishers, broadcast people, legislators, Congress, Rabbis, and Pastors laughed at us. Its gone on for decades and it never stops. THAT is torture. At least this guy had his stop. These guys screams go unheard.
September 19th, 2006 at 11:12 pmYou people making a big deal out of this”a mentally ill man tortured another mentally ill man” so what is the big deal here
February 19th, 2007 at 5:19 pm