How A Detainee Became An Asset

Source: Washington Post

After enduring the CIA's harshest interrogation methods and spending more than a year in the agency's secret prisons, Khalid Sheik Mohammed stood before U.S. intelligence officers in a makeshift lecture hall, leading what they called "terrorist tutorials."

In 2005 and 2006, the bearded, pudgy man who calls himself the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks discussed a wide variety of subjects, including Greek philosophy and al-Qaeda dogma. In one instance, he scolded a listener for poor note-taking and his inability to recall details of an earlier lecture.

Speaking in English, Mohammed "seemed to relish the opportunity, sometimes for hours on end, to discuss the inner workings of al-Qaeda and the group's plans, ideology and operatives," said one of two sources who described the sessions, speaking on the condition of anonymity because much information about detainee confinement remains classified. "He'd even use a chalkboard at times."

These scenes provide previously unpublicized details about the transformation of the man known to U.S. officials as KSM from an avowed and truculent enemy of the United States into what the CIA called its "preeminent source" on al-Qaeda. This reversal occurred after Mohammed was subjected to simulated drowning and prolonged sleep deprivation, among other harsh interrogation techniques.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/28/AR2009082803874.html?sub=AR

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For anyone who gets this article thrown in their face because of torture, show them Glenn Greenwald's piece taking it apart(http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/). Seriously, how can this article be considered a "convincing defense" of anything?

The poster doesn't appear to be on the side of the article, which is really stenography journalism relying on anonymous sources to defend those in power. This is one of Cheney's cells doing damage control through disinformation.

It certainly did not work and the Inspector General's report already showed that it hadn't.

This from Jane Mayer is interesting:

In fact, as anybody knows who knows anything about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he was dying to tell the world, when he was interviewed by Al Jazeera before he was in US custody, about everything he knew and everything he did. He was proud of his role as the mastermind of 9/11. He loves to talk about it. So there's no evidence that I see in this that these things were necessary. I spoke to someone at the CIA who was an adviser to them who conceded to me that "We could have gotten the same information from tea and crumpets

From a spot on Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann:

http://crooksandliars.com/dday/ko-and-jane-mayer-discuss-horrors-torture-and


Isn't the thought of KSM tutoring the CIA on terror more than a little disturbing? Nothing this man has said that has been obtained via torture can be used to legitimize anything he now says or does, period. This is shameful. Perhaps time for Panetta to take his CIA goons and ride off into the sunset, imo, and they can take Dark Cheney with.

-Diane

...HOORAY FOR TORTURE in the headline.

Thanks for the link to the Greenwald article. I've just been doing a slow burn because The Post's new ombudsman, in response to my complaint about the slant of the article, just sent one of those flabby responses about how the Neutral Reader (whoever the hell he thinks THAT is) would not view the article as pro-torture. To add insult to various other insults (e.g., etiquette violations, lying, etc.), he notes that the reporters cited their sources. Uh, the sources advocating the methods are anonymous. Perhaps he doesn't read his own paper.

In any event, it's close to ten paragraphs in before they condescend to mention that one of KSM's reactions was to lie to interrogators.

That the CIA had his two children in custody and was threatening to harm them, at the point that KSM became an "asset"