 |
Cookies, not torture, convinced al Qaeda suspect to talk, FBI interrogator says
Raw Story
Friday, May 29, 2009
The practice of torturing suspected terrorists received fresh blows Friday after a magazine reported that a key al Qaeda suspect offered useful intelligence after receiving sugar-free cookies.
Ali Soufan, a former FBI interrogator, revealed in an article being released in June that Osama Bin Laden’s bodyguard opened up about the 9/11 terror attacks only after being offered — sugar free cookies.
Bin Laden lieutenant Abu Jandal is a diabetic, Soufan said, and wouldn’t eat sugar cookies he’d been offered.
“Soufan noticed that he didn’t touch any of the cookies that had been served with tea: ‘He was a diabetic and couldn’t eat anything with sugar in it,’ Time’s Bobby Ghosh wrote. “At their next meeting, the Americans brought him some sugar-free cookies, a gesture that took the edge off Abu Jandal’s angry demeanor.
“We had showed him respect, and we had done this nice thing for him,” Soufan told Ghosh. “So he started talking to us instead of giving us lectures.”
The seemingly absurd report calls into question the efficacy of the Bush administration’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” A 2005 memo by a Bush administration official revealed that CIA interrogators had waterboarded alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times in one month.
Waterboarding — or partial drowning — also drew fire late last week when a conservative radio host voluntarily underwent the procedure and lasted just six seconds before calling off the procedure. He later said that he would have said anything to have gotten his handlers to stop.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
Ghosh also paints Abu Jandal as having transformed almost miraculously after his interrogators showed him humanity.
Prior to the cookies incident, “Abu Jandal’s guards were so intimidated by him, they wore masks to hide their identities and begged visitors not to refer to them by name in his presence,” Ghosh writes. “He had no intention of cooperating with the Americans; at their first meetings, he refused even to look at them and ranted about the evils of the West. Far from confirming al-Qaeda’s involvement in 9/11, he insisted the attacks had been orchestrated by Israel’s Mossad.”
Afterward, the al Qaeda operative who grew up in Saudi Arabia and had been held in a Yemeni prison, offered myriad details about the terror network and its membership.
“It took more questioning, and some interrogators’ sleight of hand, before the Yemeni gave up a wealth of information about al-Qaeda — including the identities of seven of the 9/11 bombers — but the cookies were the turning point,” Ghosh writes.
“After that, he could no longer think of us as evil Americans,” Soufan said. “Now he was thinking of us as human beings.”
Soufan’s comments come on the heels of statements by a former military interrogator who said that he believed that the Bush administration’s torture policies actually cost “hundreds — if not thousands” of American lives.
“Torture does not save lives,” the interrogator, who spoke under a pseudonym, said. “And the reason why is that our enemies use it, number one, as a recruiting tool…These same foreign fighters who came to Iraq to fight because of torture and abuse….literally cost us hundreds if not thousands of American lives.”
-John Byrne
Prison
Planet.tv Members Can Watch
Fall Of The Republic
Right Now Online -
Don't Miss Out! Get
Your Subscription Today!
CANCER CONSPIRACY? Are
"they" suppressing the cure? Will YOU
be the next victim? Learn
the Secret Truth! - READ FULL STORY
-
- Social bookmarks
- Email this article
-
- Print this page
23 Responses to “Cookies, not torture, convinced al Qaeda suspect to talk, FBI interrogator says”
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |||||||
| By N2H | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
May 29th, 2009 at 9:46 am
It is well known that at Abu Graibh and other US facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout the world, civilian US intelligence agents have been granted authority over the US military authorities, exemption from US military codes of behavior, and also exemption from accountability under US law.
Barack Obama and the US government are unwilling to prosecute US intelligence agents and military personnel for rape, torture, and murder because the CIA is above the law in the USA, and because the President and Congress recognize that the CIA has a power and authority greater than their own. The US President and Congress are puppets of the CIA. The CIA does not take order from the US government; instead the CIA commands and controls the US government.
President George Herbert Bush was Director of the CIA in 1976 and 1977, when he quashed the re-opening of the Cook Committee investigation into the Kennedy assassination. The CIA has the power to insert its own candidate into the White House, such as George W. Bush. Like Putin of Russia, who was former head of the Russian FSB. Just as Pakistan is run by its intelligence agency, the ISI, the USA is run by the CIA.
http://gregoryfegel.sulekha.co.....er-usa.htm
The hypocrisy of the US government is the same as the hypocrisy of Christianity.
The US government and the Christians falsely think that because theirs is the ‘greatest country in the world’ (NOT!!) and the ‘true religion’ (NOT!!), it justifies them using any form of violence, aggression, exploitation, or abuse for their self-appointed ‘righteous’ cause.
In reality, the US government and the Christians reveal their true selves and the depravity of their ideology through their own actions.
kebcreation Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 10:13 am
You are so right! They are both holier than thou and spread their propaganda in their false sermons/speeches for money no less. Detestable as I recall the Bible says and blasphemy. The CIA indeed runs America and have had a hand in many other countries destruction. Sooner or later it was inevitible they would be used against us as a free people. They kill presidents/leaders that don’t go along or get their own people to overthrow them. The thing that holds them back in America is it will be their own demise to bring down our administration. So instead for now at least they choose to just control our government. You step out of line their tactics come into play. Individuals are easier to get rid of. Make note: CIA must go out with the trash when we clean house.
Macy Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
That’s alot of hate for so many people that you don’t even know. Condemn ALL Christians? Even the Christians against torture? Wow.
steve Reply:
May 30th, 2009 at 1:08 am
The fearless patriotism of true Christians is the only hope this country has of surviving. We have been persecuted since the Jews killed Jesus. We are not afraid to die.
May 29th, 2009 at 9:53 am
“Far from confirming al-Qaeda’s involvement in 9/11, he insisted the attacks had been orchestrated by Israel’s Mossad.”
Not the information they were looking for, obviously.
Dr. Weezil Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Well said.
Matzo Man Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
You are correct.
And demolitions of this magnitude require planning which could not be entirely hidden, and some people were warned. Some people even profited by taking unusual short positions on the companies affected.
May 29th, 2009 at 9:54 am
The New, New World Order Documentary on YouTube, in High Quality.
Complete Playlist for all 9 parts:
http://www.youtube.com/view_pl.....18853B47BB
May 29th, 2009 at 10:32 am
->HERE: Stream and Download ALL the best interviews and rants from the Alex Jones Show Archives:
http://alex-jones-archives.politicsfiles.info/
Backup your favorite episodes, don’t miss any!
May 29th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
But cookies don’t turn on sadistic guards or commentators! Oh well you can’t have everything!
What a concept; being nice to people (even your enemies) causes them to be nice back!
I know. I was nice to my ex-wife and I didn’t need a lawyer. I kept the house and I gave her the car, and eventually she gave me the car back too, which I drive now.
May 29th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Thinking of arabs and muslims as human beings? WHAT A CONCEPT!
May 29th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
There is so much disinformation floating around daily on the “enhanced interrogation techniques” is is incredible. Which makes any astute person know there is far more than what is being put out. Why don’t they call it what is is: TORTURE!
But you won’t hear it called that from Faux News, Limbaugh,Hannity or even the corporate media. They are paid not to reveal the true nature of the torture committed in the name of freedom and domocracy. Cheney is again out spewing his lies because he wants certain documents of his choosing, at this time “highly classified,” so he can write a book, make alot of money, and give a “pre-trial” public hearing on the innocence of his and Bush’s adminstration.
If the truth were indeed known, Cheney/Bush, former atty gen. Gonzalez, and a couple of DOJ attorneys as well as WHite House aides and top military oficers will all be going to jail. It is their criminal behavior that puts many good agents and investigators, and our troops still in theater in greater danger each day.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Yeah, you can tell right away that this is an invented story when they say he told them everything about the story of OBL’s preparationof the 9/11 bombing.
Ray Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
… when OBL himself denied being part of it.
LRRP 1968 Reply:
May 29th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Of course the fed him the story and just made him agree with it.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
The best intelligence has always been humanity.
May 29th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
While the least intelligent resort to torture
May 29th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
If the CIA gave him the cookies, there is no telling what was in those chocolate chips.
steve Reply:
May 30th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Wow, you have the reading comprehension of a 5 year old. It was an FBI interrogator not CIA, and they were sugar free cookies, it didn’t say chocolate chip cookies. You’re a perfect example of how the truth gets twisted incrementally to suit a certain agenda.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Here’s a list of 9/11 criminals:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/citizenarrest
See also this for actions, petitions..
afterdowningstreet.org/taxonomy/term/15
May 29th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Is rummy getting a free subliminal nutrasweet plug in here?
Mmmm-mmmm-mmm, smell any formaldehyde?
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard, Abu Jandal, was a prime candidate for waterboarding, according to Dick Cheney’s manual of interrogation techniques. But, according to a Time magazine report, former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan gave him cookies instead. It seems that Abu Jandal is a diabetic, and he gave up valuable information about al Qaeda, including the identities of seven of the 9/11 terrorists, after being given sugar-free cookies. But what about the “ticking time-bomb scenario?” We only have minutes to stop the hypothetical ticking time-bomb, as seen in movies and TV shows like “24″. In this case, let’s say we don’t have access to baked goods. Recent reports indicate that interrogators used bottled water to torture terrorist suspects. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. In other words, the first 182 times were unsuccessful, and the 183rd gave us this information: A water bottle was brought in without the label removed, he told the Red Cross, and it was a brand made in Poland, where he was being held at the time. In other words, interrogators used what was available and easily accessible. Interrogators, if they are in a critical worst-case scenario where every second counts, have to use whatever methods are available, the theory goes, and waterboarding is quick and easy. All they have to do is reach in the refrigerator and grab a cold one. And 2-liter bottles of 7-up reportedly work just as effectively. An executive order signed by President Obama, however, requires interrogators to follow what’s known as the “Army Field Manual,” which prohibits waterboarding and other forms of “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” favored by Cheney. The “Army Field Manual” outlines 19 interrogation techniques permitted by law. Those techniques which are allowed include lying, misleading, and manipulating – common police procedure. So Abu Jandal could have been given cookies containing sugar. The interrogator merely had to lie that they contained no sugar. Of course, he would have gone into a diabetic coma, which puts it into a gray area as to whether it would be considered torture. So, just to be safe, the “Army Field Manual” should be amended to include baked goods, including those without sugar. Oh, and how about some ice cream too.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:54 pm
The “Army Field Manual” outlines 19 interrogation techniques permitted by law. Those techniques which are allowed include lying, misleading, and manipulating – common police procedure. So Abu Jandal could have been given cookies containing sugar. The interrogator merely had to lie that they contained no sugar. Of course, Abu Jandal would have gone into a diabetic coma, which puts it into a gray area as to whether it would be considered torture. So, just to be safe, the “Army Field Manual” should be amended to include baked goods, including those without sugar. Oh, and how about some ice cream too.