ABC exclusive: Total number of Al Qaeda figures waterboarded by CIA is…
posted at 2:33 pm on November 2, 2007 by Allahpundit
Share on Facebook | regular view
For all the debate over waterboarding, it has been used on only three al Qaeda figures, according to current and former U.S. intelligence officials.
As ABC News first reported in September, waterboarding has not been used since 2003 and has been specifically prohibited since Gen. Michael Hayden took over as CIA director.
Officials told ABC News on Sept. 14 that the controversial interrogation technique, in which a suspect has water poured over his mouth and nose to stimulate a drowning reflex as shown in the above demonstration, had been banned by the CIA director at the recommendation of his deputy, Steve Kappes…
The most effective use of waterboarding, according to current and former CIA officials, was in breaking Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, known as KSM, who subsequently confessed to a number of ongoing plots against the United States.
A senior CIA official said KSM later admitted it was only because of the waterboarding that he talked.
If you’ve never seen it, watch the video of Brian Ross telling O’Reilly on the Factor last year how useful some of the information obtained after waterboarding Khaled Sheikh Mohammed was. There are two articles of religious faith among opponents of the practice: (1) it never works, (2) it exists on a slippery slope that leads inexorably to widespread abuse. If you believe Ross, the first point is already disproved and the second is hanging by a thread. Neither of which, incidentally, is an argument in favor of it: if the government were to randomly murder someone, the fact that it was “only” one person wouldn’t win them any sympathy. But it does go to show how much bad faith is involved in this debate.
The question is, is Ross credible? Today’s Blotter scoop says KSM was waterboarded for one and a half minutes; last year’s O’Reilly clip has Ross claiming it was two and a half. A minor detail but discrepancies should be noted. Your exit question: Who were the other two AQ who got the full ‘boarding? Ross suggests, but doesn’t explicitly say, in the video that Ramzi Binalshibh was another. Maybe this guy, too?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages:
Well its not like the Democrats dont waterboard the truth some times
William Amos on November 2, 2007 at 2:36 PM
There’s only one way to get a real perspective on waterboarding.
Get Michelle to waterboard Bryan or Allah for a “Vent.” Nothing personal guys…it’s for science.
Or our entertainment. Your pick.
Slublog on November 2, 2007 at 2:41 PM
Just three? Well, that’s a bit of a disappointment. I thought that Guantanamo was just a non-stop waterboarding and koran-flushing fest down there.
aero on November 2, 2007 at 2:42 PM
Now that half of the world’s media outlets have done anti-American stories on our “torture” tactics, the enemy will know that waterboarding only “feels” like torture, and that NOBODY
Freelancer on November 2, 2007 at 2:43 PM
Err, to finish that thought…
NOBODY has ever died from it, or been seriously harmed beyond the sense of terror induced.
Does that mean it’s a “righteous” tool in questioning enemies?
Yes. It is.
Freelancer on November 2, 2007 at 2:45 PM
In exchange for a certain coveted electronic gadget?
RedWinged Blackbird on November 2, 2007 at 2:45 PM
Why is it the when opponents describe waterboarding it sounds like forcing water down someone’s throat until they can’t stop it, and when sensible people describe waterboarding it sounds like something you would see on a game show?
pedestrian on November 2, 2007 at 2:45 PM
…and do it live.
sunny on November 2, 2007 at 2:46 PM
Well, thank goodness we are no longer subjecting murderous scum to 120 seconds of simulated drowning (that leaves no lasting affects), in order to save lives.
reaganaut on November 2, 2007 at 2:47 PM
If waterboarding is that bad, why are there so many videos of people being voluntarily waterboarded to show how bad it is?
flipflop on November 2, 2007 at 2:47 PM
If they did it more often maybe we would have Osama by now.
Kahuna on November 2, 2007 at 2:48 PM
Fantastic idea! Better yet, LIVEBLOG it! Imagine the traffic! Promote it a couple weeks in advance, all the shows would plug it for free, huge buzz. Wow, I can’t wait.
RW Wacko on November 2, 2007 at 2:48 PM
If a criminal takes a hostage, and negotiations fail, oftentimes authorities HAVE to use deadly force to save innocent lives. It happens many time a year in the USA.
Why are some all worked up over waterboarding when it isn’t fatal and it HAS saved innocent lives, yet ask them about SWAT takinging out a madman and they are all for it.
sbf
subbottomfeeder on November 2, 2007 at 2:54 PM
Geez, can’t we just leave the poor terrorists alone?? Live and let live, right? Also, waterboarding is just wasting water, and goes against our policy to conserve it – otherwise, by doing this, we are contributing even more to global warming (and creating a “planet in peril”).
Rick on November 2, 2007 at 2:54 PM
I’ll voluteer to be the “waterboard-ee” if nobody closer will do it. I am not particularly brave but I’ll give it my best shot. I’d be happy to take one for the team in exchange for airfare and a chance to meet the Hotair crew…
TBinSTL on November 2, 2007 at 2:56 PM
This still amazes me.
They cut our heads off for the sole reason that we are infidels to them. Whether or not we have (or had) any information to give to them. And we’re worried about putting them in discomfort when we need information.
Yes, I know that waterboarding is more than just a little discomfort, but the fact remains that it does not cause any lasting physical harm. The fact also remains that these killers could have vital information in a time sensitive situation where American lives are at stake. How about that, Democrats? How about we put the safety of AMERICANS first???!!!!!!
The Democrats and their far-left goons will simply never ever get it.
They’re fine with tying the hands of our interrogators, and watching idly by as Americans die.
Osama Bin Laden is laughing at us.
And I don’t blame him.
Hawkins1701 on November 2, 2007 at 2:57 PM
The 3rd terrorist waterboarded can’t be the al-Iraqi guy you suggest since he was captured in 2006 and we haven’t used water boarding since 2003.
Perhaps it was that abu Zubaydah terrorist caught in Pakistan. Now, if so, was he water boarded after his groin injury healed?
danking70 on November 2, 2007 at 3:00 PM
Not bad…perhaps a lottery for the coalition of the willing hotair readers willing to be tortured, er, meet the hotair gang and test the concept.
sunny on November 2, 2007 at 3:01 PM
More DU members have voluntarily waterboarded themselves, right?
lorien1973 on November 2, 2007 at 3:02 PM
The Democrats don’t actually care about waterboarding or about the prisoners. They just figured out they could use it as a visual and psychological spectacle in the political debate and they’re hounding on it repeatedly like they always do when they demagogue something and as per Alinsky’s Rules. It’s all a show and they don’t give a damn about the consequences.
CP on November 2, 2007 at 3:02 PM
Water makes a mess and is cruel. Car batteries, jumper cables, testicles or nipples are to opening lines of information what a T1 is to networking.
Hening on November 2, 2007 at 3:02 PM
So the blocking of the new AG, on the waterboarding question, would accomplish two things…
1. If he says ‘yes it is torture’ then the three biggest bad guys get a get out of jail card.
2. If he says ‘no comment’ then Bush gets no AG.
Thanks Dems. Great work. Glad to know I’ll have company in hell.
Limerick on November 2, 2007 at 3:06 PM
Yeah, I don’t see anyone doing the old electrified alligator clips to the testicles thing for demonstration purposes.
Pablo on November 2, 2007 at 3:08 PM
“Coming up next on Jackass…”
Pablo on November 2, 2007 at 3:08 PM
Better yet, have Michelle be waterboarded (assuming she’s up for that).
Not only would that bring the entire left-wing on board just to see it, it then begs the question: if a cute little girl like Michelle can take it…
TallDave on November 2, 2007 at 3:09 PM
Great idea Blackbird … we can put it on Pay-Per-View and use the money to pay for care packages to the Troops!
Oh and Michelle can waterboard me annnnnnnytime she wants to! :-)
Tony737 on November 2, 2007 at 3:11 PM
BTW, this should NOT be done by amateurs; there is a nonzero risk of brain damage or death if done incorrectly. It would need to be done by U.S. professionals.
TallDave on November 2, 2007 at 3:11 PM
Hey Pablo! Wheredahellyabeen, man?
Tony737 on November 2, 2007 at 3:12 PM
You mean there’s a non life threatening or even injury causing technique we can use to extract life saving intel from the most hardened fanatical Muslim ideologues in two minutes?
Not exactly your mama’s definition of torture.
Speakup on November 2, 2007 at 3:14 PM
Bill Nye thinks it can be both.
Krydor on November 2, 2007 at 3:15 PM
My sympathy meter is dropping toward zero like a rocket.
Entelechy on November 2, 2007 at 3:18 PM
That’s ok.
We still got this in our arsenal.
Ok, ok… maybe she wasn’t a terrorist… but you can’t be too careful. Call it a Proof of Concept wet-run.
krakatoa on November 2, 2007 at 3:20 PM
To clarify – I’m not for waterboarding or torture. I’d prefer that these menaces to the world never be brought in alive.
Entelechy on November 2, 2007 at 3:20 PM
Obligatory:
Don’t board me, Bro!
bernzright777 on November 2, 2007 at 3:21 PM
And didn’t we find that less than a 100 wire taps on US jerks chatting with AQ?
I think the exit question should be – why did the leakers want this leaked?
To my mind this goes beyond mere BDS inside the CIA, to my mind this was leaked to stop the practice to STOP the intelligence it got. It’s tinfoil of me, but I can’t help it.
Topsecretk9 on November 2, 2007 at 3:22 PM
Personally I’d rather be waterboarded for 90 seconds than have to listen to Pelosi or Dingy Harry for the same amount of time.
So if all the deaths of 9/11 could have been even possibly prevented by waterboarding one terrorist, who wouldn’t have even been harmed by the process, the Democrats (and fellow traveler REPs) would take the deaths any day. Sounds like a question Tim Russert should ask the Pant Suit Ponzi Queen next debate.
Buzzy on November 2, 2007 at 3:22 PM
And the public is kept down the rabbit hole by the media. No body cares. Everyone wants the newest flat-screen yada yada yada……….
GodGaia bless the peace makers for they shall go extinct.Limerick on November 2, 2007 at 3:24 PM
The technique works and it saves lives.
What’s the problem again?
Yakko77 on November 2, 2007 at 3:27 PM
It appears that Leahy is going to torpedo the AG nomination. If he has his way the entire country will soon reflect the values of that communist state he represents.
rplat on November 2, 2007 at 3:29 PM
I’m with Entel, shoot to kill, take no prisoners. These aren’t soldiers, don’t treat ‘em like soldiers.
“STOP! Or I’ll … give you a nice warm cell, three hot meals, a nice bed, a brand new koran … and a lawyar!”
Tony737 on November 2, 2007 at 3:30 PM
oooops lawyer duh.
Krak, that picture … ouch. The low dive, the high dive and the ugly dive.
Tony737 on November 2, 2007 at 3:32 PM
Waterboarding is not torture. And I dont really understand the debate, since American GIs all know we have never faced an enemy that respects Geneva.
The hope that an enemy will respect our soldiers is mortally stupid.
dogsoldier on November 2, 2007 at 3:40 PM
Look, we can hoard all the water we want. I don’t give a crap about those people downstream from me on the Colorado River.
Oops, sorry, I thought you meant waterhoarding! Nevermind…
Signed,
Roseanne Roseanadana
RMCS_USN on November 2, 2007 at 3:51 PM
BTW, the pic of KSM on the homepage looks like a cross between Ron Jeremy and John Belushi.
RMCS_USN on November 2, 2007 at 3:53 PM
Hey Hawk, what about the emotional distress suffered by the Democrats everytime they hear we might use waterboarding? Now that’s real torture. I don’t think they’ll ever recover. The pain ……. oh, the pain.
Call the whambulance.
fogw on November 2, 2007 at 4:03 PM
*gurgle* Stop It! *gurgle* I’ll talk!
CliffHanger on November 2, 2007 at 4:06 PM
It works, that’s why the Dems are against it. To extract too much information would get us Osama Bin Hiding and perhaps all the top stinkies that are on the take and/or running the insurgency in Iraq.
Tough to win an election based on the premise that we have already lost the war if we start to win the war. My guess is waterboarding becomes more fashionable if the Dems win the presidency.
Alden Pyle on November 2, 2007 at 4:19 PM
Seriously? Can people only talk in fallacies now?
Nonfactor on November 2, 2007 at 4:26 PM
Nonfactor, do tell then, why are they against it?
fogw on November 2, 2007 at 4:29 PM
My thought as well. It sounds like the voluntary to involuntary ration of waterboarding is like 10:1. The humanity! What have we become?
CorinthianJest on November 2, 2007 at 4:30 PM
Hey, anyone else out there ever do a backward summersault in the pool? I had water go up my nose, and by the fifth turn, I was kinda “stuck” upside down. It wasn’t terribly pleasant, but a long cry from having my fingers sequentially snipped off by a pinking shears.
Someone explain to me the difference.
stonemeister on November 2, 2007 at 4:37 PM
According to reports, not only did waterboarding break KSM, they only needed to show him the waterboard equipment to goose him to start talking again.
He’s a pussy. When we catch Osama, he’ll break down and cry like a Brownie, too.
Guys like that who have never got up the nerve to shed blood themselves but have it done for them are weak little men inside. Himmler fearlessly ordered millions killed but when he personally witnessed one hundred shot and their brains splattered on his uniform he got weak at the knees and had to call for his doctor.
Tantor on November 2, 2007 at 4:45 PM
I would just like to remind the readers that EVERY SINGLE AVIATOR in the United States military is waterboarded during their SERE training (search, evasion, resist, escape). My own son will probably be waterboarded during the next 6 months.
I am not sure whether his waterboarding will take place before or after his head chopping experience…
This entire discussion is ridiculous… Has anyone heard anything about waterboarding our aviators as inhumane and cruel? Tens of thousands of United States aviators have been waterboarded by their own gov’t as opposed to a handful of terrorists…
Do these asshats that we have in gov’t even KNOW that waterboarding is standard proceedure in SERE training? I can’t help but think that they do but they don’t want to talk about that because it doesn’t advance their cause.
Babs on November 2, 2007 at 4:49 PM
Only 3 waterboardings? None since 2003? I’m not buying it.
SoulGlo on November 2, 2007 at 4:53 PM
I don’tgive a rat’s behind if they pull off their fingernails to the get the info we need to save U.S. lives. Which side are the Dems on here anyway?
Winebabe on November 2, 2007 at 5:03 PM
At every forum on which I’ve seen this discussed on today, those who like their policy nuanced have made pretty much this exact argument – the gov’t is not to be trusted under any circumstances as relates to torture. I’m sure any number of uses would have been too many for some people though.
Oh, and the process itself? It’s “Khmer Rouge-like”.
RyanOH on November 2, 2007 at 5:33 PM
If I thought it would save one American life I would skin the bastards alive with a potato peeler. We are dealing with vile skunks who, if the Democrats get their way, will nuke an American city within weeks after Iran gets it first A-bomb.
If we played by namby- pamby rules during World War II: “Too many French civilians are dying in bombing attacks”.”If you are unsure it’s an enemy, it’s better for PR purposes that the American GI die.” “We are behaving rudely to our Nazi POW guests.”—We would all be speaking German today.
MaiDee on November 2, 2007 at 5:49 PM
Heh… “Khmer Rouge-like…” Yeah, and that is why they waterboard all aviators in the United States military.
My own personal opinion; stop the waterboarding of United States aviators because, if they are captured they will be tortured well beyond anything the military can do to get them ready for it. Ending in a head chopping…
The best the U.S. military can do is to educate their aviators in the art of saving one last bullet in the event of capture. I would much rather hear that my son blew his own brains out than to hear that he was tortured and then beheaded…
THAT IS THE REALITY we face today. Not some sweet Geneva Convention that our law makers want so dearly to believe in.
Babs on November 2, 2007 at 5:49 PM
Unfortunately, Babs, I think you’re right. We’re at war with total barbarians. We don’t have to act like them (as if we could!), but we don’t have to treat them like prima ballerinas, either.
I say, if it works, waterboard the hell out of them!
stonemeister on November 2, 2007 at 5:55 PM
The entire point behind torture is the threat of it being used. As long as you can make your captives believe they might be tortured, you may never have to actually do it to get them to cooperate. Is it torture to make someone believe they might be tortured? I bet the Daily Kos crowd will say yes.
Never mind that both Bill Clinton and Chuck Schumer have now both gone on record saying that no sane person would shy away from torturing someone if they knew it would save lives.
The least common denominator is, and always will be, would you rather:
(a) torture a terrorist, or
(b) let an innocent person die
That’s a pretty easy choice for me to make. The well-being of a terrorist is not worth more than the life of an innocent person. Never will be.
Seixon on November 2, 2007 at 5:55 PM
No waterboarding allowed in Atlanta due to shortage of water.
gary on November 2, 2007 at 6:08 PM
Why not?
Slublog on November 2, 2007 at 6:47 PM
SURFERS WATERBOARD BETTER!
If we cannot beat the crap out of a known terrorist to get vital information to save a city of hundreds of thousands, or millions, then we are ball-less baboons playing pattycake with the banana of oblivion.
KYAG.
Kiss You Ass-pirations Goodbye.
profitsbeard on November 2, 2007 at 8:09 PM
Missed the number by 1…damn it! I thought two. Oh well!
sharinlite on November 2, 2007 at 8:10 PM
Wait water boarding is bad
Butt
Anal probes by space aliens are ok with Dennis Kucinich.
Mojack420 on November 2, 2007 at 8:55 PM
Slublog, America has captured thousands of terrorists over the past seven years. And the U.S. Government wants us to believe that they only waterboarded 3 people? 3? Come on. I don’t even believe that, and I voted for Bush twice and support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
SoulGlo on November 2, 2007 at 9:29 PM
If they’re willing to admit one, why shouldn’t they be willing to admit all? Especially if they’re not ashamed of the practice.
Slublog on November 2, 2007 at 9:49 PM
Comment pages: