5-2-2012
By Adam Jacobson & Patrick HanleyLaw & Security
New claims made by former Torturer-in-Chief Jose Rodriguez are meant to excuse the inexcusable: torture is counterproductive, illegal, and should not be tolerated. Here’s a rundown on where Rodriguez got it wrong on torture (pdf here).
Rodriguez Claim:
“I am certain, beyond any doubt, that these techniques, approved by the highest levels of the U.S. government, certified as legal by the Department of Justice, and briefed to and supported by bipartisan leadership of congressional intelligence oversight committees, shielded the people of the United States from harm and led to the capture and killing of Usama bin Ladin.”The Truth:
- Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein and Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin: ”We are disappointed that Mr. Rodriguez and others, who left government positions prior to the UBL operation and are not privy to all of the intelligence that led to the raid, continue to insist that the CIA’s so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ used many years ago were a central component of our success. This view is misguided and misinformed.”
- Senator John McCain: “It was not torture or cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of detainees that got us the major leads that ultimately enabled our intelligence community to find Osama bin Laden.”
Rodriguez Claim:
“While the numbers of other service personnel who were subjected to waterboarding is not readily available, it is clear that this was a widely used and understood technique. The navy continued to employ it as part of its SERE training, long after the air force stopped. If it has abandoned the practice, it is likely because of the publicity generated by leaks concerning our interrogation program, rather than concern about the harshness of the technique itself. Since it was so widely used in training of our own military personnel, we were then (and remain now) quite confident that a carefully implemented waterboarding program, such as we envisioned, in no way could accurately be considered “torture.”
The Truth:
- Senators Feinstein and Levin: “…as discussed in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s 2008 report, the SERE techniques used in the CIA’s interrogation program were never intended to be used by U.S. interrogators. Rather, the techniques – which are based on Communist Chinese interrogation techniques used during the Korean War to elicit false confessions – were developed to expose U.S. soldiers to the abusive treatment they might be subjected to if captured by our enemies. An overwhelming number of experts agree, the SERE techniques are not an effective means to illicit accurate information.”
- Colonel Steven Kleinman, former interrogator: “Survival instructors are not interrogators. While interrogation and teaching resistance to interrogation have much in common, they are nonetheless profoundly different activities …With little expertise in interrogation operations at the senior levels—and it must be noted that the Central Intelligence Agency only became involved in interrogation after September 11th—the legal, operational, and even moral concerns about the employment of SERE methods went largely unrecognized. There were few internal safeguards that should have maintained a clear separation between these two activities.”
- President Barack Obama: “If we want to lead around the world, part of our leadership is setting a good example. Waterboarding is torture. It’s contrary to America’s traditions. It’s contrary to our ideals.”
Rodriguez Claim:
“The debriefing of Abu Zubaydah following the use of the EITs paid immediate dividends. Information he provided led to the capture of Ramzi bin al-Shibh … Bin al-Shibh had been part of al-Qa’ida’s ‘Hamburg cell’ and was a close associate of at least three of the 9/11 hijackers.”
The Truth:
- Ali Soufan: “Defenders of these techniques have claimed that they got Abu Zubaydah to give up information leading to the capture of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a top aide to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed … This is false. The information that led to Mr. Shibh’s capture came primarily from a different terrorist operative who was interviewed using traditional methods.”9
- Reporter Rob Suskind: “While bits and pieces about Binalshibh and K.S.M. arrived from many sources, the key to capturing the former was information passed to the CIA by the Emir of Qatar–information taken from the files of an al-Jazeera reporter (the Emir owns the network) who secretly visited both terrorists in the Karachi apartment where Binalshibh was subsequently captured in September 2002.”
Rodriguez Claim:
“I was not depriving anyone of information about what happened [when ordering CIA interrogation tapes destroyed], I was just getting rid of some ugly visuals that could put the lives of my people at risk.”
The Truth:
- Senators Feinstein and Levin: “His decision to order the destruction of the tapes was in violation of instructions from CIA and White House lawyers, illustrates a blatant disregard for the law, and unnecessarily caused damage to the CIA’s reputation.”
- Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the 9/11 commission: “As a legal matter, it is not up to us to examine the C.I.A.’s failure to disclose the existence of these tapes. That is for others. What we do know is that government officials decided not to inform a lawfully constituted body, created by Congress and the president, to investigate one the greatest tragedies to confront this country. We call that obstruction.”