No waterboarding over Iraq-al Qaeda connection

Washington Post:

Senior intelligence officials yesterday acknowledged that two al-Qaeda operatives, Abu Zubaida and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, had been questioned about alleged links between al-Qaeda and Iraq when the two men underwent CIA interrogation in 2002 and 2003. But the officials denied that the questioning on Iraq had included waterboarding.

"The two top priorities driving so-called enhanced interrogation techniques were information on the locations of al-Qaeda leadership and plots against the United States," one intelligence official said yesterday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the subject publicly. "Questions were asked about Iraq, but the notion that waterboarding was used to extract from either an admission that Iraq and al-Qaeda had a relationship is false, period," he added.

Recent media accounts have reported allegations that the waterboardings of Mohammed and Abu Zubaida, the nom de guerre of Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein, were ordered by Bush administration officials seeking to find evidence of ties between al-Qaeda and Iraq, which the officials sought as a justification for military action against Iraq.

...

The Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo Web sites yesterday focused new attention on portions of a 2004 Senate report that said Abu Zubaida and Mohammed had been questioned about Iraq.

...

The left wing has been obsessed about a non connection because they mischaracterized the Bush administration's rationale for going to war in Iraq as some how being tied to 9-11 or there being ties between al Qaeda and Iraq. While there were some ties the Bush administration never said those ties were the reason for going to war.

When that obsession meets their other obsession about waterboarding, some on the left could not contain their eagerness to put the two together in another false charge against the Bush administration. The left is losing credibility on this issue because of these obsessions.

Comments

  1. Unknown10:07 PM

    In this case, the CIA must have been (and still is) of the opinion that Iraq posed no threat as far as operational Al Qaeda plots, past or present, were concerned. QED. You can't have it both ways.

    ReplyDelete

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