The NYT has a satisfying piece of reporting this morning about how the CIA found Osama bin Laden’s hideout.
The story involves CIA employees in Pakistan following around a white Suzuki, what happened when interrogators ran the name of bin Laden’s courier past Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Faraj al-Libi (their reactions were telling), intercepted phone calls and emails between the courier’s family and people inside Pakistan, the simulations of bin Laden’s compound built on both American coasts for the Navy Seals to practice in (“they were not told who their target might be until later”), even what a White House staffer bought at Costco for lunch in the Situation Room as the shit was going down (“turkey pita wraps, cold shrimp, potato chips, soda”). Well worth the read.
Mmmm, turkey pita wraps. Those are good.
longest.sentence.ever
I think for a few hours, Tea Party nutballs were using the death of Bin Laden as justification for torturing detainees at Gitmo. Saying that torture works and it got us the info that led to Bin Laden.
Wait a second…you mean that those guys didn’t give up the couriers name while being tortured but confirmed it when they were simply asked? The name that could have produced bin Laden’s location years ago, the name that they apparently knew and yet chose not to share, wasn’t tortured out of them?
Probably the most damning piece of information comdemning once and for all Bush’s belligerent and barbaric counter terrorism policies. It’s amazing to me how many people still believe that torture was not only acceptable but necessary. They were sold a big pile of bullshit and this settles it.
Torture didn’t work because torture doesn’t work. End of fucking story.
Torture never works.
We’ve known that for a long time, but too many of you watch 24 and The Wire and believe the crap you see there.
24 and The Wire is nothing compared to the radical talk shows and blogs. Fiction plays it’s part in romanticizing the idea of torture being an effective interrogation but these people are getting off on the idea of real people being brutalized.
Sometimes I think most of these people know it doesn’t work but support it anyway as a weapon of revenge. The information is irrelevant. Inflicting pain on them (like the pain this nation felt on 9/11 or whateverthefuck) is the whole point.
No point in digging up information that would end the war when you don’t want the war to end.
That’s where the Bush security team went wrong – not enough pita bread.
“It wasn’t until after 2002, when the agency began rounding up Qaeda operatives — and subjecting them to hours of brutal interrogation sessions in secret overseas prisons — that they finally began filling in the gaps about the foot soldiers, couriers and money men Bin Laden relied on.”
aka extraordinary rendition and torture
Guess Bush & Co. were right… Can we please start that program again now???
I want Jack Bauer’s take on this whole thing!
Sounds like more corporate media bullshit. Bin Laden was a CIA patsy and NOT the mastermind of 9/11. Even the FBI admits they have insufficient evidence to connect him to 9/11, thus 9/11 is not mentioned on his FBI 10 most wanted profile. Pakistani intelligence and the late Benazir Bhutto had previously stated that OBL died of kidney failure years ago. Of course it doesn’t really matter when he died because he’s just a state sanctioned boogeyman, but such bullshit does serve the purpose of creating a distraction and helping Obama get reelected. Why else would they dispose of the body so quickly while releasing such shoddy evidence and multiple conflicting stories about how they killed him? It also sets the stage nicely for future false flag operations. Don’t be surprised when 9/11 part 2 happens.
@5 There was ZERO torture shown on The Wire, fuck face.
@5: “The Wire”
Nice to see you talking about something you never actually watched.
La Eme has a better intelligence network and a less sloppy track record.
But they aren’t bureaucrats and they’re terrifyingly democratic and decentralized.
You law and order libs are not ready for the future.
I really think code-naming Bin Laden, “Geronimo”, was insensitive at best and racist at worst.
@14
…And *this* is your primary concern after reading that whole story?? Will someone please kick @14’s ass, please? Fuckin’ Seattlelites.
I hope they make theme parks out of the simulations!
@14 I agree. Should have called it ‘operation goat fucker’.
@15 You are either a coward or disabled since you have to ask someone else to kick my ass for you. I imagine it it is the former, since the anonymity of the internet makes assholes of many. There is nothing in my post to indicate that my comment is whole of my interest in the entire article, it is simply something I chose to comment on. You are apparently not a very thorough thinker. P.S. you misspelled Seattleites.