In Those Destroyed Tapes, CIA Was Torturing Someone They Knew Was Low-Level, Seriously Mentally Ill

[Hissyspit]

From Americablog:

http://www.americablog.com/2007/12/in-those-destroyed-tapes-cia-was.html

In those destroyed tapes, the CIA was torturing someone they knew was low-level and seriously mentally ill
by Joe Sudbay (DC) · 12/09/2007 12:41:00 PM ET

In the excellent book, "The One Percent Doctrine," author Ron Suskind gave us the background on Abu Zubaydah, the guy the CIA was torturing in those now destroyed tapes. Here's how the Washington Post's review of Suskind's book describes him:

Abu Zubaydah, his captors discovered, turned out to be mentally ill and nothing like the pivotal figure they supposed him to be. CIA and FBI analysts, poring over a diary he kept for more than a decade, found entries "in the voice of three people: Hani 1, Hani 2, and Hani 3" -- a boy, a young man and a middle-aged alter ego. All three recorded in numbing detail "what people ate, or wore, or trifling things they said." Dan Coleman, then the FBI's top al-Qaeda analyst, told a senior bureau official, "This guy is insane, certifiable, split personality."

Abu Zubaydah also appeared to know nothing about terrorist operations; rather, he was al-Qaeda's go-to guy for minor logistics -- travel for wives and children and the like. That judgment was "echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President," Suskind writes. And yet somehow, in a speech delivered two weeks later, President Bush portrayed Abu Zubaydah as "one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States." And over the months to come, under White House and Justice Department direction, the CIA would make him its first test subject for harsh interrogation techniques.

[SoCalDem]

1. I'm thinking there were more than 2 destroyed, and I think they killed someone on a tape

No evidence..no proof.. and how many people disappeared down the rabbit hole, with no one brave enough to name them?

I have a sneaky feeling that these were snuff films and they feared a democratic administration coming up..and a democratic INVESTIGATIVE congress in '06..

they just did some "housekeeping"

the silver lining?

These types of tapes Do get reproduced for "private collections", and who knows when some other, or these will resurface in the future?

[Selatius]

2. Now that the tapes are destroyed, nobody can prove the US gov't broke international law.

At best, you can get the government for destroying evidence, but that's it.

[formercia]

3. OJT

Refining their skills for when they get a valuable prisoner.

Learning the art of CBT.

[tekisui]

4. These aren't the only tapes.

There are others, and others are worse. Murder, rape, forced incest.

Unless they have been busy the past couple of years building bonfires of war crime evidence.

[Vinca]

5. I'm betting somewhere the so-called "destroyed" tapes exist.

Just like Abu Ghraib, people who do this stuff like to keep a trophy. Time to check person video collections.