On May 6, 3:01 pm, Travis <baconl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> [[ I personally support the Military and CIA using whatever means and
> methods available to extract vital information from terrorists. ]]
>
> *Time to Thank "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"*
>
> Posted By *Alan W. Dowd* On May 6, 2011
>
> The successes of the CIA and other intelligence agencies, the old saying
> goes, are never known and the failures are never forgotten. The takedown of
> Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALs, who were guided onto their target by the work
> of hundreds of intelligence officers around the world, is a welcome
> exception to this rule. In a similar way, the successful strike on bin Laden
> forces us to take a fresh look at the notion that enhanced interrogation
> techniques (EITs) are not useful or effective. If recent comments from
> high-level officials are any indication, EITs played an important part in
> the hunt for and elimination of the terror mastermind.
>
> Ever since 9/11, the CIA has been pounded for not "connecting the dots." The
> "dots" in the world of intelligence-gathering can be anything—individuals,
> places, times, targets, dates, fragments of messages, inscrutable codes—but
> they mean nothing to policymakers unless or until an intelligence analyst
> can draw a line from one dot to another and thereby paint at least part of a
> picture.
>
> That connecting line is crucial. And in the case of taking down bin Laden,
> that connecting line was apparently provided by sources that were subjected
> to EITs, according to an NBC interview of CIA director Leon
> Panetta<http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42880435/ns/world_news-south_and_centra...>
> .
>
> The most likely source to provide what NBC calls "the thread of information"
> about bin Laden's trusted courier was Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM), who
> masterminded the 9/11 attacks.
>
> According to the Associated Press, KSM, while being held in a CIA prison
> somewhere in Eastern Europe, divulged nicknames of key bin Laden aides and
> couriers. Although he had been subjected to water-boarding, or simulated
> drowning, several
> times<http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/03/us-binladen-interrogations-...>prior
> to divulging the names, KSM turned over these fragments of info long
> after agents had stopped using the technique. Obama administration officials
> concede, however, that "U.S. intelligence did not learn the identity of the
> courier until after the CIA interrogation program was terminated," Reuters
> reports. In other words, it is possible fear of another round of
> water-boarding had an impact on KSM.
>
> "We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day," Marty
> Martin, a retired CIA officer, told AP.
>
> In fact, Panetta says, "intelligence garnered from water-boarded detainees
> was used to track down al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and kill him,"
> according to NBC's reporting. "We had a multiple source—a multiple series of
> sources—that provided information with regards to the situation," according
> to Panetta. "Clearly some of it came from detainees and the interrogation of
> detainees, but we also had information from other sources as well."
>
> Rep. Peter King (R-NY), was less opaque. "The road to bin Laden began with
> water-boarding," he told NBC News. As chairman of the Homeland Security
> Committee and a member of the Permanent Select Intelligence Committee, King
> would know.
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
> In the cold calculus of this war, King has concluded that the ends justify
> the means, that innocent life is more important than a terrorist's comfort:
> "I use the example of September 10th, 2001, if we had captured Mohammed Atta
> and we knew he was going to kill thousands of Americans but we didn't know
> when or where, are we saying now you wouldn't hold his head under water to
> save 3,000 lives?"
>
> When put that way, most Americans would agree with King's sentiment, and
> understandably so. When characterized as torture, Americans become a bit
> more squeamish about EITs, and understandably so.
>
> The reason the "thread" that led the CIA and the SEALs to bin Laden is such
> a big deal is President Barack Obama's very vocal views on EITs.
> Water-boarding "violates our ideals and our values," Obama said in 2009. "I
> do believe that it is torture…And that is why I put an end to these
> practices."
>
> The Bush administration, on the other hand, rejected the characterization of
> EITs as torture and limited the use of EITs to a small handful of
> individuals. "We used this technique on three people," President George W.
> Bush said in an interview after leaving office. "We gained…information to
> protect the country. And it was the right thing to do as far as I'm
> concerned."
>
> It's a policy difference, a difference of worldviews and philosophy, and
> that's what elections are about. Obama's 2009 executive order that reversed
> Bush administration policy on EITs authorizes only those interrogation
> techniques approved by the U.S. Army Field Manual. The problem is, those
> techniques may not have—probably would not have—persuaded KSM to say much of
> anything.
>
> The intelligence community in general and the Bush administration in
> particular have been forced to defend their post-9/11 tactics ad nauseam and
> criticized for not connecting all the pre-9/11 dots. Now that those tactics
> are helping to connect the dots—and in fact clearing a path all the way to
> bin Laden—perhaps it's time to stop criticizing them.
>
> *Alan W. Dowd <http://twitter.com/alanwdowd> writes on defense and security
> issues.*
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
> Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: *http://frontpagemag.com*
>
> URL to article: *http://frontpagemag.com/2011/05/06/time-to-thank-enhanced-interrogati...
> *
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