CIA told Zubaydah they mistook him for a high-level al Qaeda operative.
CIA told Zubaydah they mistook him for a high-level al Qaeda operative.
According to new transcripts from of a 2007 Combatant Status Review Tribunal held at Guantanamo Bay, detainee Abu Zubaydah said that his CIA captors told him after he was subjected to torture that “they had mistakenly thought he was the No. 3 man in the organization’s hierarchy and a partner of Osama bin Laden.” “They told me, ‘Sorry, we discover that you are not Number 3, not a partner, not even a fighter,’” Zubaydah said. Zubaydah, who was subjected to waterboarding 83 times in one month, also said that he nearly died in prison:
Abu Zubaida, a nom de guerre for Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, told the 2007 panel of military officers at the detention facility in Cuba that “doctors told me that I nearly died four times” and that he endured “months of suffering and torture” on the false premise that he was an al-Qaeda leader.
Despite President Bush’s rhetoric, Zubaydah’s torture “foiled no plots,” a point that one of his interrogators confirmed during a congressional hearing last May. The portion of the 2007 Combatant Review Status hearing transcript in which Majid Khan — an alleged associate of Khalid Sheik Mohammad — discussed his treatment at CIA black sites was “blacked out for eight consecutive pages.”
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Isn’t that what the FBI interrogators already knew from a few conversations, long before the CIA took over and started torturing?
June 16th, 2009 at 9:56 amSo this is what Bush sold the country’s soul for?
June 16th, 2009 at 9:56 amThe Republican rebuttal: “U CANT TRUST HIM HE IZ TEH TERRORMIST WHO KILLED 100 HUNDRED TROOPS!!!!!”
June 16th, 2009 at 10:02 amAccording to our trolls, he is certainly a terrorist, and his torture and near deaths saved lives and stopped plots.
Come on, little creatures, let’s hear it all again. Or is he lying? Or is the CIA lying? Or are the doctors lying? Or is it that everyone is lying? — except Bush… apparently he cannot tell a lie….?
June 16th, 2009 at 10:03 amHey, Shit happens, right?
I mean, the dude’s a raghaid. Even if’n he warn’t planning nuttin then, he woulda, later, if’n we’d let him.
Sheeee-it! If’n we start believin’ every lyin’ raghaid that tells us they wuz torchered, we’ll never get nuttin done widdem barbarians…
(must I say “/snark”?)
June 16th, 2009 at 10:04 amBushCo has done what I never beleived possible. They have made me ashamed of my country.
That reason alone is why I spent hundreds of hours last year campaigning for hope and change.
PEACE
June 16th, 2009 at 10:04 amBush supporters?
Torture apologists?
ARE YOU PROUD???
June 16th, 2009 at 10:06 amBushCo has done what I never beleived possible. They have made me ashamed of my country.
You weren’t alive or paying attention 40 years ago, then.
I have been ashamed, not so much of the country, but of the cowardice of the people in confronting the evil they have permitted to flourish, and in whose name it has propagated across the planet.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:08 amI hope the Obama administration CHANGES the way this is being held away from the light of day.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:09 amAnd CHANGES their stance on White House visitor logs.
And INSISTS
INSISTS on a public health care option, instead of caving to industry for purposes of ‘moving to the center’…
June 16th, 2009 at 10:10 amThis is how right-wing nationalists, especially those who get religion in their politics, behave in every country where the right wing has been given leeway.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:12 amOh no free republic is down! Whereever will I get my daily dose of crazy?
June 16th, 2009 at 10:20 amI’m sure one of the trolls will be along shortly to share his
June 16th, 2009 at 10:26 amCIA told Zubaydah they mistook him for a high-level al Qaeda operative.
– - Our bad. But then, we mistook Bush/Cheney for competent leaders.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:29 amWe probably won’t see many trolls today. They’re all in NY protesting the Letterman show and trying to get Dave fired. They know what’s important (snark, punctured by eye roll).
On topic, when are we going to start seeing some prosecutions of the Bush gang? I’ve seen people convicted of murder with less evidence. What do they need-pictures of Bush and Cheney holding up their driver’s licenses and a newspaper with a date on it while they are waterboarding and beating up prisoners and Karl Rove giggles in the background???
June 16th, 2009 at 10:31 amRantingTommy, I’m just sitting here working away trying to ignore the noise of fellow workers. Thought I’d check in at TP and saw your name and DING. I’ll play rantingtommies tunes to drown out the chatter. Great tunes tommy.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:31 amA government does not torture to get information: it tortures to instill fear in the populace. It does not matter that torture creates terrorists; it matters that torture serves to keep the general population under submission.
Terrorists, and the casualties they inflict, are a small price to pay for the ruling elite to remain in power indefinitely.
Our government did not torture because it had to prevent future attacks, it tortured because it wanted to. If torture was a necessary and only method to prevent future attacks, to stop the “ticking time bomb” then the man who killed the abortion doctor should have been tortured the minute he claimed that other killings were going to take place around the country. It was, after all, the ticking time bomb scenario.
But he is white, and none of the hate-jocks were calling for his torture to prevent the murders of doctors around the country.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:34 amThanks for the compliment. I’ve been away since Thursday afternoon. No PC or internet riding through 7 states on a motorcycle. Nice to be back. Great ride though (except for the 4.5 hour thunderstorm ride from ATL to Greensboro)
June 16th, 2009 at 10:38 amOh no free republic is down! Whereever will I get my daily dose of crazy?
June 16th, 2009 at 10:39 amjoeyramonesmom Says:
We probably won’t see many trolls today. They’re all in NY protesting the Letterman show and trying to get Dave fired. They know what’s important
OT, but good to know that they are interested in journalistic integrity, and desiring to see that even comedians do not go too far when commenting on politicians or their families.
Good to know that they will not ever tolerate any entertainer with a public forum saying things that cross the line, particualrly things like calls for the failure of the POTUS and such…. oh… wait…..? ….
June 16th, 2009 at 10:40 amHELP SAVE AMERICA.
KILL THE GOP BEFORE THEY KILL YOU.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:43 amthis is unacceptable
you sound more like a right winger with calls for violence
i have to flag you
June 16th, 2009 at 10:46 amSo what is the wingnut defense going to be? Maybe that “this was a single isolated mistake, and one innocent suffering does not invalidate the prorgam. His suffering, though he was innocent, was necessary for the greater good of the mission.”
Of course, what’s “one innocent person”? Or two, for that matter? In fact, since we are talking about “saving thousands of American lives”, what’s a few dozen innocnets “accidentally” scooped up in the process? Their sacrafice has “made us safer”. Right?
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, unless you’re talking about some socialized thing or taxes or stuff like that…..
Come on… I really want to hear the justifications….
June 16th, 2009 at 10:46 ami have to flag you
THANKS!
As if TP gives a shit.
KILL THE GOP BEFORE THEY KILL YOU.
The GOP is a political party, not a specific group of named people.
And that party deserves to die, PERIOD.
(p.s. don’t be such a jazz pussy)
June 16th, 2009 at 10:49 amIf I was a pussy, I’d be a right winger or someone calling for violence on a blog.
Get over yourself, pansy.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:53 amDNFP sounds like he could fit in nicely with the Weather Underground or the Black Panthers.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:56 amIt’s just a right winger that is trying to make liberals look bad by pretending to be a liberal and then calling for violence
It’s a pretty transparent ruse. I guess it thinks it’s being clever.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:59 amDon’t embarass the DECIDER by making his interrogators look bad. The DECIDER’s policies have kept America safe (except for the WTC and 4500 american troops , who don’t really matter anyway). For Obama to dispense with the methods and policies of the DECIDER is to risk handing over this country to the TERRORISTS. BE VERY AFRAID.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:00 amDNFP – I flagged you also. B.S. on “it’s a party, not a person.” If somebody said “The Democrats must die,” would you think that was ok too? Or how about “Liberals must die?” Bottom line is that calling for violence, no matter who it’s directed at, is still a call for violence.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:01 am(yawn)
June 16th, 2009 at 11:09 amAnother day, another “name jack”.
So, DNFP, what did you call my preference in music?
He thinks jazz is “pussy”. Most right wingers make a stab at my music when they find out I’m a musician. They are so binary though, that they think I only play jazz. I was a heavy metal guitarist in the 80s, but that is beyond their comprehension. (I graduated to jazz as I learned more about music and was able to move up)
June 16th, 2009 at 11:11 amLet me get this straight:
#2 in AQ = 183 waterboardings
#3 in AQ = 83 waterboardings.
They had an equation for torture based on rank? WTF?
June 16th, 2009 at 11:33 amMaybe if they’d given him some cookies and had a nice chat, they’d have gotten that information a bit more efficiently.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:43 amAccording to new transcripts from of a 2007 Combatant Status Review Tribunal held at Guantanamo Bay, detainee Abu Zubaydah said that his CIA captors told him after he was subjected to torture that “they had mistakenly thought he was the No. 3 man in the organization’s hierarchy and a partner of Osama bin Laden.” “They told me, ‘Sorry, we discover that you are not Number 3, not a partner, not even a fighter,
Another example of the bumbling fools we so ironically refer to as an intelligence agency . These people couldn’t organize a one car funeral and prove it on a daily basis
June 16th, 2009 at 12:12 pmRantingTommy Says:
this is unacceptable
you sound more like a right winger with calls for violence
Not at all. Being a Republican is a perverted lifestyle choice. They can just stop doing it. Then the GOP dies.
Sure, I understand that somebody might have certain sick urges to foment war, abuse and poverty, but they should keep such behavior in the privacy of their own homes instead of parading their Republican-ness around where other peoples’ children might see it.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:16 pmAnd isn’t it obvious that as a lack of any proceedure for due process (not american courts, not treated as soldiers, etc),
that even after this was known, he still was held prisoner – his only crime being someone who was falsely imprisoned ?
And I wonder what he, his family, and his neighors think of the USA now.
And if he is the poster child of how good Gitmo is, I wonder how many of the other detainees have done nothing.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:56 pmNo takers. I guess the trolls will choose to ignore this little factoid, seeing as how it is a MAJOR hole in their entire “torture is justified” and “they’re all terrorists” arguments.
Willful ignorance is compliance.
Come out, come out trolls….. on every other friggin’ thread on this topic all of you have been very vocal and repetitious about your high moral ground position.
Let’s hear the moral justificaitons here.
The silence speaks volumes….
June 16th, 2009 at 1:41 pmMapleStreet Says:
And if he is the poster child of how good Gitmo is, I wonder how many of the other detainees have done nothing.
i think a more revealing question would be, “How many (or what percentage) of the detainees were undeniably terrorists at the time of their incarceration?”
I am confident that the numbers on this would be very, very disgusting…..
June 16th, 2009 at 1:43 pmYeah I’m sure this all makes Mr. Zubayda feel much better. Just a mistake? It never ceases to amaze me the screwed up things people do to one another.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:15 pmLet me guess, trolls…the CIA interrogators were liberal so they wanted to discredit the Bush administration…
so knee-jerk sheep-like it hurts…
June 16th, 2009 at 2:30 pmIt also appears that we invited the Chinese over to Gitmo to torture the Uighurs for us.
Maybe instead of closing Gitmo we could make it a one-stop shop for abusing dissidents by dictators the world over. We could use the money, and they could use the efficiency that factory production models provide.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:50 pmAccording to new transcripts from of a 2007 Combatant Status Review Tribunal held at Guantanamo Bay, detainee Abu Zubaydah said that his CIA captors told him after he was subjected to torture that “they had mistakenly thought he was the No. 3 man in the organization’s hierarchy and a partner of Osama bin Laden.” “They told me, ‘Sorry, we discover that you are not Number 3, not a partner, not even a fighter,’” Zubaydah said. Zubaydah, who was subjected to waterboarding 83 times in one month, also said that he nearly died in prison:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What did Cheney/Bush do to my country? You would expect this behavior in the third world. This country had principles and took pride in our laws, now I am not sure what it is.
F–k Cheney/Bush, they have corrupted and perverted everything they touched. I am sick!!!!
June 16th, 2009 at 8:42 pm