Stranger than fiction - Many terror alerts came from an insane man

In June 2006, Simon & Schuster published a book titled The One Percent Doctrine authored by Ron Suskind. In the book, Suskind writes that sources in the intelligence community revealed to him that Abu Zubaydah knew nothing about the operations of al-Qaeda, but rather was al-Qaeda's go-to guy for minor logistics such as travel for wives and children. Suskind notes that Zubaydah turned out to be mentally ill, keeping a diary "in the voice of three people: Hani 1, Hani 2, and Hani 3" -- a boy, a young man and a middle-aged alter ego. The book also quotes Dan Coleman, then the FBI's top al-Qaeda analyst, telling a senior bureau official, "This guy is insane, certifiable, split personality." According to Suskind, this judgment was "echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President," yet two weeks later Bush gave a speech an labeled Zubaydah as "one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States." Suskind also writes about how the CIA abused Zubaydah to get him to talk.

Writing for Salon.com, Sidney Blumenthal summarized Suskind's claims on Zubaydah: "But the decision was made to 'torture a mentally disturbed man and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered.' He was 'waterboarded,' simulating drowning. Zubaydah babbled about terrorist threats to shopping malls, nuclear power plants, supermarkets, and about al-Qaida plans to build a nuclear device. The administration sounded alerts on every unconfirmed threat. In May 2002, New York City was put on high alert over Zubaydah's torture-incited ravings that the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty were targets. Cheney went on 'Larry King Live' to defend the alerts: 'We now have a large number of people in custody, detainees, and periodically as we go through this process we learn more about the possibility of future attacks.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Zubaydah#The_One_Percent_Doctrine

check out James Risen's chapter on what they did with him, and how they GAVE the cards to Saudi Arabia, whence they disappeared, without doing any checking on them!

Also, Suskind is wrong about at least one thing. There's no way that Zubaydah was the CIA's original source for identifying KSM - the Agency knew about KSM for years before 9/11.

This from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2811855.stm

Sheikh Mohammed first achieved notoriety with the discovery of the plot to blow up US airliners over the Pacific in 1995 - known as Operation Bojinka.

The plan was reportedly foiled when police found incriminating computer files during their investigation into a separate plot to assassinate the Pope.

Which also makes one wonder what torture has done to the memory and sanity of KSM and Ramzi bin al-Shiebh?

i hate to be sarcastic but c'mon

this is no different from the old story of the witch hunting era or the maccarthy era either for that matter, w. drunks and people hearing voices costing other people their lives and freedom

because the people who are supposed to be protecting us are wasting time on this kind of bullshit.

There is no such thing as "Al Qaeda" as a formal organization. There are just a number of berserkers, maybe loosely knit who could never pull off the kind of stuff our government claims.

.. to the plot against the Brooklyn Bridge.

Frankly, the current Padilla charges look like utter BS to me.

Lyman Faris is serving twenty years for the allegedly planning the supposed Brooklyn Bridge attack -- but has since sought to take back a guilty plea. Lyman Faris was pressured to finger someone else from his Columbus, Ohio mosque and finally pointed to Nuradin Abdi as a conspirator in an alleged plan to blow up an unknown Ohio shopping center, news that Ashcroft trumpeted across Ohio through the 2004 election season.


Politics, timing and the so-called terrorist Nuradin Abdi: the mall bomber who wasn't
by Bob Fitrakis
September 7, 2005

At a pre-trial hearing, federal U.S. district Judge Algenon L. Marbley questioned FBI Special Agent James Turgal concerning the agency's handling of Nuradin Abdi, the so-called "mall bomber." ..

Judge Marbley probed the timing of Abdi's arrest on November 28, 2003 ? the day after Thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year. Turgal conceded that the agency had "probable cause" to arrest Abdi two months earlier.

Equally curious is the fact that Abdi's arrest, and allegations that he wanted to blow up a mall, were dramatically announced by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft on Monday, June 14, 2004. That day marked the eve of John Kerry's first major fund-raising stop in Columbus, Ohio, where Abdi lives. Kerry's two-day visit to Ohio's capital city raised more than a million dollars but was overshadowed by the Ashcroft announcement ..

Oddly, Abdi, the supposed al-Qaeda operative, is being held in the downtown Franklin County Jail. The Free Press has learned that the government had offered him a deal to serve only five years if he would plead guilty to the charges against him. Sources close to the case suggest that this is not the type of offer the government would give a true suspect al-Qaeda operative ..

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2005/1447


ALLEGED SHOPPING-MALL PLOT
Suspect’s arrest was within law, 6 th Circuit rules
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Kevin Mayhood
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

... The government says Abdi admitted that he falsified his asylum application, lied to authorities to obtain travel documents and flew to Ethiopia with the intent of attending a terrorist training camp.

The case began when Iyman Faris, a Columbus truck driver who admitted he scouted the Brooklyn Bridge for al-Qaida, was talking to FBI agents in March 2003. Faris told them that Abdi was upset at U.S. activities in the Middle East and, over coffee in Upper Arlington, said they ought to shoot up a shopping mall ...

Days after the arrest, agents typed up a warrant based on what Abdi told them while he was under arrest. Abdi has not been charged in a mall plot ...

The case returns to Marbley. No trial date has been set ...

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/09/23/20060923-B3-00.html

So the alleged mall bomber is not charged with planning to bomb malls but with lying for travel documents ...