Torture claims 'forced US to cut terror charges'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,1650418,00.html

· Dirty bomb evidence came from al-Qaida leaders
· CIA worried case would expose prison network

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Friday November 25, 2005
The Guardian


The Bush administration decided not to charge Jose Padilla with planning to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a US city because the evidence against him was extracted using torture on members of al-Qaida, it was claimed yesterday.

Mr Padilla, a US citizen who had been held for more than three years as an "enemy combatant" in a military prison in North Carolina, was indicted on Tuesday on the lesser charges of supporting terrorism abroad. After his arrest in 2002 the Brooklyn-born Muslim convert was also accused by the administration of planning to blow up apartment blocks in New York using natural gas.

The administration had used his case as evidence of the continued threat posed by al-Qaida inside America.

Yesterday's New York Times, quoting unnamed current and former government officials, said the main evidence of Mr Padilla's involvement in the plots against US cities had come from two captured al-Qaida leaders, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, believed to be the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, and Abu Zubaydah, a leading al-Qaida recruiter. But the officials told the newspaper Mr Padilla could not be charged with the bomb plots because neither of the al-Qaida leaders could be used as witnesses as they had been subjected to harsh questioning and could open up charges from defence lawyers that their earlier statements resulted from torture. Officials also feared that their testimony could expose classified information about the CIA prison system in which the men were thought to be held.

through torture, we can't use it because revealing our tactics would make us look even worse. :crazy:

Here's how they were tortured.

Penis scalpels, leather strappados, enemas - CIA and MI6 torture games

MI6 and CIA 'sent student to Morocco to be tortured

An Ethiopian claims that his confession to al-Qaeda bomb plot was signed after being tortured in a Moroccan jail and claims torturers used scalpel on his chest and penis as he was hung, 'strappado' from his wrists from the ceiling. The British government and CIA are now facing complicity in the affair due to the Extraordinary Rendition program.

Agencies said he was part of a plot to buy uranium in Asia, bring it to the US and build a 'dirty bomb' in league with Jose Padilla, a US citizen. Funny enough, now that the torture allegations used against Mohammed came out, the claims against Padilla were subsequently dropped. He now faces a civil charge of supporting al-Qaeda financially.

He was stripped naked, photographed, given an enema and put on a plane with shackles, earphones and a blindfold.

All this as Britain's loftiest judges lay down the law on torture.




Word is leaking now that the EU has known and allowed the CIA to tour Europe with their enema bags, black costumes and leather for several years - snatching those deemed 'terrorists' and hauling them off to torture dens in a string of countries around the world -or even just getting 'rid' of them as Bush alluded to in his 2003 SOTU speech.

This was vividly demonstrated in one of the revolting scenes in recent American history: Bush's State of the Union address in January 2003, delivered to Congress and televised nationwide during the final frenzy of war-drum beating before the assault on Iraq. Trumpeting his successes in the Terror War, Bush claimed that "more than 3,000 suspected terrorists" had been arrested worldwide – "and many others have met a different fate." His face then took on the characteristic leer, the strange, sickly half-smile it acquires whenever he speaks of killing people: "Let's put it this way. They are no longer a problem."

Unfortunately, thanks to the bungling of the corrupt Bush administration, we'll never know the truth about this. Either a terrorist avoided justice, or a man was smeared in public by the federal government without recourse or the right to confront his accusers.

Strange that Clinton was able to track down, try, convict and imprison the folks who bombed the World Trade Center Towers in 1993 and the Oklahoma City bombers of 1995 without cutting corners.

And that is the saddest part. we will never know.

justice and truth? WTF cares!!!!

Man oh man do I remember this line vividly:

"and many others have met a different fate." His face then took on the characteristic leer, the strange, sickly half-smile it acquires whenever he speaks of killing people: "LET'S PUT IT THIS WAY, THEY ARE NO LONGER A PROBLEM."

That was GWB's idea of being cute and coy and was code for "USA death squads went out and assasinated anybody and everybody we guessed might be a terrorist or has ever thought about practicing terrorism.

GWB was so proud of these bold actions, which basically urinate on every principle this country used to stand for. The Constitution is now truly a mere "Goddamned piece of paper."

We now stand on the exact same moral ground all terrorists all over the world are currently standing on.

-85% Jimmy

(quote as written from the Chris Floyd link above)

if I didn't know before, I knew we were doomed the second I heard that.