You know those videotapes showing CIA operatives interrogating terror suspects that were recently reported as destroyed? Well, according to investigative journalist Gerlad Posner, they weren’t destroyed, like most people think, because they proved that agents of the United States were torturing people. No, according to Posner, they were destroyed because of what the men said as they were being tortured — that there was a direct link between al Qaeda’s 9/11 attack on the U.S. and the governments of both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Here’s a clip in which Posner discusses the Saudi and Pakistani leaders his sources tell him were named by al Qaeda’s Abu Zubaydah as he was being interrogated. Of course, it can’t be proven, as the videotapes have been destroyed.
…He named two other Saudi princes, and also the chief of Pakistan’s air force, as his major contacts. Moreover, he stunned his interrogators, by charging that two of the men, the King’s nephew, and the Pakistani Air Force chief, knew a major terror operation was planned for America on 9/11.
It would be nice to further investigate the men named by Zubaydah, but that is not possible. All four identified by Zubaydah are now dead. As for the three Saudi princes, the King’s 43-year-old nephew, Prince Ahmed, died of either a heart attack or blood clot, depending on which report you believe, after having liposuction in Riyadh’s top hospital; the second, 41-year-old Prince Sultan bin Faisal bin Turki al-Saud, died the following day in a one car accident, on his way to the funeral of Prince Ahmed; and one week later, the third Saudi prince named by Zubaydah, 25-year-old Prince Fahd bin Turki bin Saud al-Kabir, died, according to the Saudi Royal Court, “of thirst.” The head of Pakistan’s Air Force, Mushaf Ali Mir, was the last to go. He died, together with his wife and fifteen of his top aides, when his plane blew up — suspected as sabotage — in February 2003. Pakistan’s investigation of the explosion — if one was even done — has never been made public.
Zubaydah is the only top al Queda operative who has secretly linked two of America’s closest allies in the war on terror — Saudi Arabia and Pakistan — to the 9/11 attacks. Why does Bush, and the CIA, continue to protect the Saudi Royal family and the Pakistani military, from the implications of Zubaydah’s confessions? It is, or course, because the Bush administration desperately needs Pakistani and Saudi help, not only to keep Afghanistan from spinning completely out of control, but also as counterweights to the growing power of Iran. The Sunni governments in Riyadh and Islamabad have as much to fear from a resurgent Iran as does the Bush administration. But does this mean that leads about the origins of 9/11 should not be aggressively pursued? Of course not. But this is precisely what the Bush administration is doing. And now the cover-up is enhanced by the CIA’s destruction of Zubaydah’s interrogation tapes…
I have no idea whether or not this is true, but it certainly seems like something worth looking into.
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It was also reported that Zubabya added, after he dried off from the waterboarding and caught his breath, that he knew Dick Cheny qwas a war criminal and that Hillary Clinton was Satan. Then, he asked if Imus was back on the air.
Dear Friend,
When a defendant admits to destroying key evidence, it’s typically called “obstruction of justice.” When the Bush administration admits to destroying evidence of wrongdoing, it’s called business as usual.
Last week, the head of the C.I.A., Michael Hayden, announced the agency destroyed tapes of what he called a “harsh interrogation” and what you and I would call torture. The reason? To protect agency operatives from legal consequences.
We want to get to the bottom of this and the only way to do that is to appoint an independent prosecutor.
Sign our petition: Demand Attorney General Mukasey appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate and, if appropriate, prosecute wrongdoing.
The C.I.A. withheld knowledge of the tapes’ destruction from the House and Senate intelligence committees who oversee the C.I.A. They also withheld the tapes from federal prosecutors and the 9/11 Commission even though they were specifically asked for depictions of interrogations. According to the former director of the 9/11 Commission, this could amount to obstruction of justice.
Thankfully, members of Congress are already expressing their outrage over this action. On the Senate floor, Senator Kennedy warned his colleagues, “We haven’t seen anything like this since the 18 and a half minute gap in the tapes of Richard Nixon.”
Sign our petition: Demand Attorney General Mukasey appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate and, if appropriate, prosecute wrongdoing.
This is a cover-up of epic proportions. So far the attorney general has responded by launching a “preliminary inquiry.” But the Justice Department and the C.I.A. cannot be trusted to investigate themselves — they are the very agencies that authorized and carried out the government’s torture program. Only an independent prosecutor can get at the truth.
Attorney General Mukasey now faces his first big test: Will he launch an independent investigation and stick to promises to uphold the rule of law, or will he continue Bush administration practices that put government officials above the law?
We’ll deliver the petition to Attorney General Mukasey and we’ll also copy members of Congress, who can keep the pressure on and pass a law appointing an independent prosecutor if Mukasey won’t do his job.
Sign the petition: Stop the C.I.A. cover-up.
The destruction of these tapes appears to be part of an extensive, long-term pattern of misusing executive authority to insulate individuals from criminal prosecution for torture and abuse.
Now is the time to show that no one is above the law: not the CIA, not the Justice Department, not the President. Thank you for getting involved.
https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=cia_petition&s_s=email&JServSessionIdr012=m0ool558s4.app23a
Sincerely,
Caroline Fredrickson, Director
ACLU Washington Legislative Office
Apparently, egpenet and the ACLU are the only ones who give a shit.
I will theorize … no, I will wager $20 that there exists more CIA tapes, photos, lots of stuff. But now that “THE” tapes have been reported destroyed …
In waltzes the White House with a protest. The White House “me thinks, doth protest too much.” They authorized giving Zubhaya everything he could take. “But we do NOT torture.” More of the same lies.
The photos will get out. Like Abu Garib … the facts will be known … someday.