Bush White House has its own interrogation room

Think Progress
Friday, Aug 8, 2008

In Ron Suskind’s new book, Suskind describes a disturbing case in Washington, D.C., where security officials detained and interrogated Usman Khosa, a Pakistani U.S. college graduate, because he was “fiddling” with his iPod near White House gates. Officials took Khosa to an interrogation room “beneath” the White House:

He turns as a large uniformed man lunges at him. The backpack!” the man yells, pushing Usman against the Italianate gates in front of Treasury and ripping off his backpack. Another officer on a bicycle arrives from somewhere and tears the backpack open, dumping its contents on the sidewalk. […]

Usman is trundled from the SUV, escorted through the West Gate, and onto the manicured grounds. No one speaks as the agents walk him behind the gate’s security station, down a stairwell, along an underground passage, and into a room — cement-walled box with a table, two chairs, a hanging light with a bare bulb, and a mounted video camera. Even after all the astonishing turns of the past hour, Usman can’t quite believe there’s actually an interrogation room beneath the White House, dark and dank and horrific.

“Usman Khosa is a Pakistani national in his early twenties, a graduate of Connecticut College now working for the International Monetary Fund,” Suskind notes.

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9 Responses to “Bush White House has its own interrogation room”

1. illegalalienhunter Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 7:22 am

   Of course they have an interigation room. Security needs it for any Whitehouse security issue. If someone invaded the Whitehouse you would want to know why he is there. Whether he just be there for a soveneer or assassination.

2. Huggles Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 8:34 am

   illegalalienhunter said “Of course they have an interigation room. Security needs it for any Whitehouse security issue. If someone invaded the Whitehouse you would want to know why he is there. Whether he just be there for a soveneer or assassination.”

   Alternatively, the suspect could be escorted to a police station and dealt with according to the law; that is if there is such a thing as rule of law.

3. trueblue Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 9:36 am

   the bigger question for me is: what is suspicious about wearing a backpack and “fiddling” with an iPod?

4. Steve Williams Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 10:47 am

   Of course it’s there. It’s the White House rumpus room for unsavory “delights”.

   GWB is a known sadist.

   And sadists do like to enjoy getting their sicko kicks.

5. Caz Carter Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

   Is it not suspicious that this person is employed by the IMF

6. vein Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

   When you have a police state you have police state thugs. When you have police state thugs, they will carry out thug actions of the most vile and violent kind, threat or no threat, crime or no crime.

   There is no mystery here, no puzzle, and no doubt. These thugs are not interested in truth, investigation techniques, or ruling-out potential suspects calmly and rationally. THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THE BEAT-DOWN.

   They are the ones wearing the ski-masks. They are the ones carrying the weapons. They are the ones shoving you to the ground, and stomping on your head. They are the ones murdering your pets. And most importantly, they are the ones NEVER EVER HELD RESPONSIBLE, OR PUNISHED FOR THEIR ACTIONS.

   Oh sure, a nice white middle class victim may occasionally pick up a big fat compensation cheque, but the thugs remain untouched and unbowed.

   Concentration camps and torture and mass executions all flow from the logic of the police state thug. Create the police state thug, and those three horrors will all follow, as night follows day.

7. Mason55 Says:
   August 8th, 2008 at 10:49 pm

   You know things are back when they are beating guys from the IMF, Terrorist, Terror, huh? wonder if they ever look in the mirror.

8. JIMMY IN MEXICO Says:
   August 9th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

   CHENEY HAS ONE IN HIS HOUSE.
   I DONT DOUBT IT ONE LICK

9. Webkinz Says:
   February 17th, 2009 at 4:05 am

   Hi guys, many good comments and posts on this, I have enjoyed reading them. Good work, thanks, and bookmarked.!!!