Aftermath News

“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our Number one priority and we will not rest until we find him!”

- GW Bush, September 13, 2001

“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and I really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.”

- GW Bush, March 13, 2002

MSNBC | Jan 22, 2008

PARIS - Pervez Musharraf says he still gets the question a lot: When will Osama bin Laden and his top deputy be caught? The Pakistani president insists it’s more important for his 100,000 troops on the Afghan border to root out the Taliban than search for al-Qaida leaders.

That bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri are still at large “doesn’t mean much,” the former general said Tuesday on the second day of a swing through Europe. He suggested they are far less a threat to his regime than Taliban-linked militants entrenched in Pakistan’s west.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahri are believed to be hiding somewhere in the lawless tribal areas along Afghanistan’s frontier with Pakistan.

“The 100,000 troops that we are using … are not going around trying to locate Osama bin Laden and Zawahri, frankly,” Musharraf told a conference at the French Institute for International Relations. “They are operating against terrorists, and in the process, if we get them, we will deal with them certainly.”

A U.S. ally in its war on extremist groups, Musharraf has come under increasing pressure following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month and for his brief declaration of emergency rule in early November.

‘Multi-pronged strategy’

Musharraf, who as commander of Pakistan’s military seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, said the remnants of Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime and its Pakistani sympathizers are the “more serious issue” for both countries.

But he said there was “zero percent chance” that al-Qaida, the Taliban and their Pakistani allies could defeat his 500,000-strong army or that Islamic militants could win control of the government in Feb. 18 parliamentary elections.

As part of the “multi-pronged strategy” against terrorists, Pakistan has erected fences “selectively” and set up 1,000 checkpoints along the Afghan border in an effort to stop militants from using the areas to launch attacks inside the neighboring nation, he said.

Musharraf credited cooperation between Pakistani intelligence services and the CIA, both of whom believe that Pakistani militant leader Baitullah Mehsud was the mastermind of the Dec. 27 gun and suicide bomb attack that killed Bhutto.

But in Washington, the State Department’s counterterrorism chief, Dell Dailey, said the Bush administration was displeased with “gaps in intelligence” received from Pakistan about the activities of extremist groups in the tribal regions.

“We don’t have enough information about what’s going on there. Not on al-Qaida. Not on foreign fighters. Not on the Taliban,” he said.

Dailey, a retired Army lieutenant general with extensive background in special operations, said Pakistan needs to fix the problem. He said the U.S. wasn’t likely to conduct military strikes inside Pakistan on its own, saying that would anger many Pakistanis.

Musharraf down plays attacks

Musharraf played down the impact of recent attacks by extremists in the border region of South Waziristan, calling them “pinpricks” that his government must manage — not a sign of a resurgent Taliban.

Attacks on forts in that district over the last month — including a battle Tuesday — have fanned concerns that militants with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban may be gaining control in the region.

Pakistan’s army said fighting at the fort and another clash killed at least seven paramilitary border guards and 37 militants Tuesday.

The border region emerged as a front line in the war on extremist groups after Musharraf allied Pakistan with the U.S. following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Washington has given Pakistan billions of dollars in aid to help government forces battle militants.

Rising violence in the border region and a series of suicide attacks across Pakistan that killed hundreds in recent months have added to uncertainty before next month’s elections, which many people predict will further weaken Musharraf’s grip on power.

Despite turmoil at home, Musharraf defended his visit to four European countries, saying he wasn’t concerned about the stability of his regime while he was away.

“I can assure you that nothing will happen in Pakistan,” he said. “We are not a banana republic.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met privately with Musharraf on Tuesday, expressed support for Pakistan’s fight with extremists and promised to press for increased European Union aid when France takes over the bloc’s rotating presidency in July, Sarkozy’s office said.

. . .

Related

Musharraf: “We Are Not Looking” for Bin Laden    

NY Times | January 6, 2008

by Steven Lee Myers, David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt.

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s senior national security advisers are debating whether to expand the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The debate is a response to intelligence reports that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are intensifying efforts there to destabilize the Pakistani government, several senior administration officials said.

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a number of President Bush’s top national security advisers met Friday at the White House to discuss the proposal, which is part of a broad reassessment of American strategy after the assassination 10 days ago of the Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. There was also talk of how to handle the period from now to the Feb. 18 elections, and the aftermath of those elections.

Several of the participants in the meeting argued that the threat to the government of President Pervez Musharraf was now so grave that both Mr. Musharraf and Pakistan’s new military leadership were likely to give the United States more latitude, officials said. But no decisions were made, said the officials, who declined to speak for attribution because of the highly delicate nature of the discussions.

Many of the specific options under discussion are unclear and highly classified. Officials said that the options would probably involve the C.I.A. working with the military’s Special Operations forces.

The Bush administration has not formally presented any new proposals to Mr. Musharraf, who gave up his military role last month, or to his successor as the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who the White House thinks will be more sympathetic to the American position than Mr. Musharraf. Early in his career, General Kayani was an aide to Ms. Bhutto while she was prime minister and later led the Pakistani intelligence service.

But at the White House and the Pentagon, officials see an opportunity in the changing power structure for the Americans to advocate for the expanded authority in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country. “After years of focusing on Afghanistan, we think the extremists now see a chance for the big prize — creating chaos in Pakistan itself,” one senior official said.

The new options for expanded covert operations include loosening restrictions on the C.I.A. to strike selected targets in Pakistan, in some cases using intelligence provided by Pakistani sources, officials said. Most counterterrorism operations in Pakistan have been conducted by the C.I.A.; in Afghanistan, where military operations are under way, including some with NATO forces, the military can take the lead.

The legal status would not change if the administration decided to act more aggressively. However, if the C.I.A. were given broader authority, it could call for help from the military or deputize some forces of the Special Operations Command to act under the authority of the agency.

The United States now has about 50 soldiers in Pakistan. Any expanded operations using C.I.A. operatives or Special Operations forces, like the Navy Seals, would be small and tailored to specific missions, military officials said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who was on vacation last week and did not attend the White House meeting, said in late December that “Al Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan and attacks on the Pakistani government and Pakistani people.”

In the past, the administration has largely stayed out of the tribal areas, in part for fear that exposure of any American-led operations there would so embarrass the Musharraf government that it could further empower his critics, who have declared he was too close to Washington.

Even now, officials say, some American diplomats and military officials, as well as outside experts, argue that American-led military operations on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan could result in a tremendous backlash and ultimately do more harm than good. That is particularly true, they say, if Americans were captured or killed in the territory.

In part, the White House discussions may be driven by a desire for another effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Currently, C.I.A. operatives and Special Operations forces have limited authority to conduct counterterrorism missions in Pakistan based on specific intelligence about the whereabouts of those two men, who have eluded the Bush administration for more than six years, or of other members of their terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, hiding in or near the tribal areas.

The C.I.A. has launched missiles from Predator aircraft in the tribal areas several times, with varying degrees of success. Intelligence officials said they believed that in January 2006 an airstrike narrowly missed killing Mr. Zawahri, who had attended a dinner in Damadola, a Pakistani village. But that apparently was the last real evidence American officials had about the whereabouts of their chief targets.

Critics said more direct American military action would be ineffective, anger the Pakistani Army and increase support for the militants. “I’m not arguing that you leave Al Qaeda and the Taliban unmolested, but I’d be very, very cautious about approaches that could play into hands of enemies and be counterproductive,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. Some American diplomats and military officials have also issued strong warnings against expanded direct American action, officials said.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading Pakistani military and political analyst, said raids by American troops would prompt a powerful popular backlash against Mr. Musharraf and the United States.

Full Story

Guardian Unlimited | Jan 2, 2008

Julian Borger in Islamabad and Mark Tran

Gordon Brown today agreed to send a police team from Scotland Yard to Pakistan to help investigate the assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

The Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, requested specialist help as serious doubts continued over the government’s version of events surrounding her death.

“We would like to know what were the reasons that led to the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. I would also like to look into it,” Musharraf said in a televised address.

The exact circumstances of the killing have been shrouded in confusion. Opposition officials have rejected government claims into how she died and called for an international investigation.

David Miliband, the foreign secretary, said a team from Scotland Yard is due to leave Britain this week.

“As the terrible events of last week show only too clearly, Pakistan faces a very serious threat from extremism,” Miliband said.

“The UK is already closely engaged with the government of Pakistan on counter-terrorism cooperation. The prime minister and President Musharraf have agreed to further deepen this aspect of our relationship, and officials will travel to Pakistan to take this forward.”

In his first major speech since the Bhutto killing, Musharraf appealed for reconciliation.

“The nation has experienced a great tragedy. Benazir Bhutto has died in the hands of terrorists. I pray to God almighty to put the eternal soul of Benazir at peace,” he said.

Following Bhutto’s death, rioters rampaged through the streets, burning cars and shops, accusing the government of complicity. The government has strongly rejected the accusation and has blamed al-Qaida for her death.

Musharraf also said he had wanted to hold parliamentary elections as scheduled on January 8, but he deferred to the election commission which formally announced earlier in the day to postpone them for six weeks until February 18.

“The election commission has taken a timely and correct decision,” the president said. “We will hold free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections.”

The election commission blamed riots in the wake of Bhutto’s assassination for the delay, saying 11 of the commission’s district offices had been damaged or destroyed, along with ballot boxes and other election material, particularly in Sindh province, the base of Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples party (PPP).

Another factor behind the delay was the Shia holy month of Muharram, which is due to begin next week and last a lunar month. The celebration by Pakistan’s Shia minority has in the past triggered sectarian tensions.

The decision to delay the vote was quickly condemned by opposition parties, who branded it a ploy by the government, fearful of a sympathy vote for the Bhutto family.

But the PPP’s central executive committee decided it would contest the election despite misgivings.

The other major political party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, is also meeting to decide upon its response, saying it would seek to form a common front with the PPP.

A party spokesman, Ahsan Iqbal, said: “We will try to continue to make all parties join hands to force Musharraf from office and set up a neutral caretaker government.”

Despite the threat of further street violence, western diplomats and political observers in Islamabad predicted that the opposition parties would try to restrain the reaction of their followers, aware that undecided voters would blame them for further political instability.

The riots have largely subsided, but the political atmosphere remains volatile.

Some western officials argue that the delay in the vote might ultimately prove to be beneficial, if the time is used to establish safeguards to improve the transparency and credibility of the elections.

“It is vital that the government of Pakistan makes full use of the extended period before elections are held to ensure that all necessary arrangements are put in place so that they are transparent and fair,” Miliband said.

“I hope all parties will participate in the elections, that media freedom will be extensive and that all political prisoners are released.”

An EU observer mission had said it would not be able to field a full team if the elections had gone ahead, as scheduled, on January 8.

There are widespread fears that civil war would erupt if the election were perceived as rigged.

 
“There are those saying that al-Qaida did it. Others are saying it looked like it was an inside job…”

Newsday.com | Dec 30, 2007

Hillary: Pakistan troops might have killed Bhutto

BY GLENN THRUSH

CLINTON, Iowa - Hillary Rodham Clinton waded into Pakistan’s volatile internal political situation yesterday, raising the possibility the country’s military might have assassinated Benazir Bhutto because the killing took place in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Clinton’s remarks came as Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s government seemed to reject a call for an independent international investigation of the murder that Clinton and John Edwards proposed on Friday.

During a question-and-answer session at an elementary school here, Clinton offered a detailed prescription for the troubled country, suggesting that the U.S divert aid away from its military to social welfare programs.

And for the second time in as many days, she cast doubt on Musharraf’s contention that the suicide bombing that led to the death of the country’s most popular opposition leader was masterminded by al-Qaida.

“There are those saying that al-Qaida did it. Others are saying it looked like it was an inside job - remember Rawalpindi is a garrison city,” she said.

Earlier in the day, the former first lady sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and said that, as president, it wouldn’t be “appropriate” for her to include Bill Clinton in top-secret security discussions.

“I think he would play the role that spouses have always played for presidents,” she told the host of “This Week” in an interview to air today. “He will not have a formal official role, but just as presidents rely on wives, husbands, fathers, friends of long years, he will be my close confidante and adviser as I was with him.”

Sen. Barack Obama has dismissed Hillary Clinton’s White House experience as largely irrelevant. Consequently, Clinton spent much of yesterday touting her work in the 1990s on international women’s rights and the negotiations that led to reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. “I actually went to Northern Ireland more than Bill,” she said.

Clinton, who earned the endorsement yesterday of the influential Concord (N.H.) Monitor, emphasized her foreign policy experience and spoke about her 12-year relationship with Bhutto, Pakistan’s former prime minister.

In August, her aides accused Obama of helping to destabilize the nuclear-armed Pakistan by suggesting he’d deploy U.S. forces in the country to hunt for Osama bin Laden.

But yesterday, Clinton delved into Pakistan’s internal affairs, suggesting its “feudal landowning leadership,” led by Musharraf, has protected al-Qaida to preserve its tenuous grip on power. In an interview on Friday, Clinton called for an international probe into Bhutto’s assassination, saying “there was no reason to trust the Pakistani government.”

An Interior Ministry spokesman rejected that suggestion yesterday, saying, “I think we are capable of handling it.”

. . .

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Role of secret agencies: The ISI
ISI has mastered the tradecraft of sabotage, subversion, direct military intervention, and proxy war to a degree of perfection, as has been achieved by its mirror brother in trade, the CIA. The organisation has enormous power, influence and resources and virtually no constraints and checks.

Scotsman | Dec 30, 2007

By Richard Elias and Jeremy Watson

FACTIONS within the Pakistan intelligence service might have been behind the assassination of the country’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, sources within MI5 told Scotland on Sunday last night.

Pakistan continues to teeter on the brink following Bhutto’s death on Thursday as she left a rally for an election in which she was expected to become prime minister. The government has tried to blame militant groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, which saw Bhutto’s rise to power as a threat.

But security sources in the UK say pro-Taliban factions in Pakistan’s feared Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency may have been behind the attack on the charismatic politician, who returned to her homeland from exile only two months ago to fight the election.

Bhutto, 54, blamed rogue elements in the ISI for a suicide bombing that killed 140 people at a rally shortly after her return in October. There were reports last night that just weeks ago, she had sent UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband a private e-mail naming three senior members of government who, she said, wanted her dead.

The source said: “The ISI was responsible for setting up the Taliban during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and there remain parts of the ISI who are desperate to see the Taliban back in power there. They hope that if this happens, it will pave the way for an Islamist state in Pakistan.”

Today, Bhutto’s 19-year-old son Bilawal will read out his mother’s will in a public demonstration that the Bhutto dynasty is still alive. The first-year Oxford University undergraduate is expected by many to be thrust into the forefront of her Pakistan People’s Party in the forthcoming elections, due for January 8.

“What will cause major problems is that whoever from Whitehall is involved in those discussions, whether it be mandarins or SIS (MI6], they are dealing with precisely the very people who are, in some quarters, being blamed for being behind the killing of Benazir Bhutto.”

Bhutto supporters yesterday dismissed as “ludicrous” a government theory that the former leaded had died after hitting her head on a sunroof and accused the government of a “cover-up” over the real culprits.

Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqba
l Cheema reiterated the government’s claim that Islamic militant leader Baitullah Mehsud was behind Bhutto’s killing. Yesterday Mehsud’s spokesman contacted a news agency to issue a denial. But Cheema insisted: “We have the evidence that he is involved.” He also declined any foreign aid to help investigate the killing.

Rioting continued yesterday but there were no signs that the violence was escalating. Doubts remain over whether the planned elections will go ahead.

• Meanwhile, in a taped video message, Osama bin Laden has pledged to expand al-Qaeda’s attacks against Israel. During a 56-minute recording broadcast yesterday, he said: “I would like to assure our people in Palestine we will expand our jihad there. We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan] river to the sea.” He threatened “blood for blood, destruction for destruction”.

On matters of interrogation and torture techniques he defers to his campaign’s counterterrorism czar, Cofer Black, consort to the Whore of Babylon.

MWC | Dec 16, 2007

by Robert Weitzel

Mitt Romney, like his great-grandfather who had five wives, is a polygamist. His problem? The Mormon Church—as well as the United States government—outlawed polygamy for its “Saints” in 1890.

But Mitt has been married monogamously to Ann for 38 years. His problem? He is a political polygamist whose multiple marriages of convenience, and the ease with which he maneuvers between conjugal visits, should be as disturbing to the American electorate as a Utah harem.

Our problem? Mitt seems to be equally at home with “our nation’s symphony of faith” as he is with our nation’s largest mercenary army, Blackwater Worldwide, the Whore of Babylon.

On December 6, Romney delivered his “Faith in America” speech at George H.W. Bush’s Presidential Library. It was his John Kennedy moment. Like Kennedy, he wanted to assure the American people that “no authorities of my church, or of any other church for that matter, will ever exert influence on presidential decisions.”

That done, he went on for another 30 paragraphs establishing his own saintly bona fides and schmoozing every major religious voting bloc in his “symphony of faith.”

But it was when he spoke of a compassionate responsibility for every child of God regardless of creed or race or nationality that he began using language only the Whore of Babylon could decode: “I am moved by the Lord’s words, ‘I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink (waterboarding): I was a stranger, and ye took me in (extraordinary rendition, black sites and Guantanamo): naked, and ye clothed me (orange jumpsuits and hoods).’”

On a November 28 CNN/YouTube Republican debate, Romney assured John McCain, “I know what waterboarding is, Senator,” but then refused to call it by its real name, torture. He went on to say that anyone deemed a threat to the United States belongs at Guantanamo where they can “meet GIs and CIA interrogators.” It was his Heinrich Himmler moment.

Romney made a point of saying that on matters of interrogation and torture techniques he defers to his campaign’s counterterrorism czar, Cofer Black, consort to the Whore of Babylon.

Black, who Jeremy Scahill, author of the book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, calls “one of the biggest thugs to serve in US government,” was a 28 –year veteran of the CIA who escalated the extraordinary rendition (kidnapping, transportation and torture) program under President Clinton. He was head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, when he failed America and 3000 people died.

Full Story
. . .

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“The painful saga of modern Arab-Muslim history evokes the battles fought in Crusades of the 11th centry - when the Knights of Malta began their operations as a Christian militia whose mission it was to defend the land conquered by the Crusaders. These memories return violently to mind with the discovery of links between the so-called security firms in Iraq such as Blackwater have historic links with the Order of Malta. You cannot exaggerate it. The Order of Malta is a hidden government or the most mysterious government in the world.”

- Jordanian MP Jamal Muhammad Abidat, from an editorial in the United Arab Emirates daily Al-Bayan entitled “The Knights of Malta - more than a conspiracy”. Abidat describes the role played by the Knights of Malta during the Crusades, and that the Order is playing a similar role in the Middle East today, citing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 78th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, His Most Eminent Highness Fra’ Andrew Bertie (R), accorded the ecclesiastical precedence of a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, with the diplomatic honors due to a sovereign head of state, on state visit to Poland May 14th, 2007 reviewing Polish military troops in Warsaw with the President of the Polish Republic Lech Kaczynski.

ADN Kronos | Dec 14, 2007

Rome, 14 Dec. (AKI) - The Roman Catholic Order of Malta on Friday rejected suggestions that it is in any way involved in military activity in Iraq or any other country in the world.

The organisation responded to a message posted a week ago on Islamist websites close to al-Qaeda, urging jihadists to carry out a terrorist attack on its embassy in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

The message urging the attack followed an editorial in the UAE daily al-Bayan, by Jordanian MP Jamal Muhammad Abidat claiming the order was playing a direct role in conflicts in the Middle East, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Such statements, as well as causing deep upset because they are unfounded, have been expressed about an humanitarian organisation that helps the weak and disadvantaged in 120 countries around the world with medical and humanitarian programs,” the organisation said in a statement.

The order, better known as the Knights of Malta, stressed that more than once there had been confusion in many countries about names and symbols that were similar to its organisation.

“The Order of Malta’s mission is exclusively to help the poor, the sick and the most needy,” the statement said.

“Created in Jerusalem more than nine centuries ago, its focus today is international public rights. With its headquarters in Rome, it is neutral, impartial and apolitical.”

The organisation has 12,500 members and 80,000 volunteers that helps the elderly, children, the disabled, lepers, refugees and those with terminal illnesses on five continents without distinctions between race or religion.

The message posted on 6 December called for Egyptians to attack the organisation’s Cairo office.

“Do not stint on your attacks, Egyptians, either with car or truck bombs,” read the message.

In the newspaper article, Abidat gave a Muslim interpretation of the Order’s history, describing the role played by the Knights of Malta during the Crusades. Abidat claimed the Order is playing the same role in the Middle East today.

Order of the Knights of Malta

“The painful saga of modern Arab-Muslim history evokes the battles fought in Crusades of the 11th century - when the Knights of Malta began their operations as a Christian militia whose mission it was to defend the land conquered by the Crusaders.”

Abidat accused the Order of Malta of being run by men who are close to US president George W. Bush and neo-conservative political circles.

“You cannot exaggerate it. The Order of Malta is a hidden government or the most mysterious government in the world,” said Abidat in the editorial.

The Rome-based Order of Malta, whose full name is the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, is also known as The Knights of Malta.

It began as an organisation founded in Jerusalem in 1080, to care for poor and sick pilgrims to the Holy Land.

The Order of Malta retains its claim of sovereignty under international law and has been granted permanent observer status at the United Nations. It issues its own passports, stamps and coins and has formal diplomatic relations with 99 states.

. . .

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AP | Dec 12, 2007

Washington — A former CIA agent who was part of an interrogation team went public with his account yesterday, saying the waterboarding of a top al-Qaeda figure was approved at the top levels of the U.S. government.

John Kiriakou, a leader of the team that captured top terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah, said waterboarding worked - it forced Abu Zubaydah to talk in less than 35 seconds.

Waterboarding is a harsh interrogation technique that involves strapping down a prisoner, covering his mouth with plastic or cloth and pouring water over his face. The prisoner quickly begins to inhale water, causing the sensation of drowning.

Civil rights protesters demonstrate waterboarding techniques

Daily Mail | Dec 13, 2007

By MICHAEL BURLEIGH

Like falling, drowning is one of mankind’s primal fears.

It is the basic principle behind the torture technique called “waterboarding”, pioneered in the Dutch East Indies in the 16th century.

More recently, it was used by the wartime Gestapo and the Japanese military police - one of whom was sentenced to 15 years for doing this to a U.S. prisoner of war - as well as by French interrogators during the bloody 1954-1962 Algerian War.

Ironically, many of these French torturers were multi-decorated veterans of the wartime Resistance who had themselves been tortured by the Gestapo.

First, let’s deal with the grim practicalities of waterboarding.

The objects of interrogation are strapped to a board and turned upside down as water is streamed over a cloth wrapped around or inserted into their mouths.

The effect is akin to gagging when you try to avoid choking to death on a piece of food, and it rapidly induces the most extreme panic in those subjected to it.

Supporters of the technique say it does no long-term damage to the human body; opponents claim it damages the lungs and brain while wrists and ankles can fracture as the victim struggles to break free.

CIA sources say the practice has saved lives.

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou claims waterboarding has been used on three high-value Al Qaeda suspects including Abu Zubaida and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, respectively a senior trainer of jihadist terrorists and the mastermind behind the mass murders of 9/11.

Although Kiriakou left the agency three years ago, and relies on hearsay from his former colleagues, he claims that both men ‘broke’ in a few minutes, which is longer than the 14 seconds CIA men averaged when they researched the technique on themselves.

It is clear that the CIA and other intelligence agencies use a spectrum of interrogation techniques, running from severe to relatively mild, and that what constitutes torture is a matter of dispute.

Al Qaeda has no qualms on the matter - it issued a ‘how to torture people’ manual which earlier this year surfaced in Baghdad.

Horrific illustrations show how to burn victims with blowtorches and electric irons, or where to use hammers and an electric drill to maximum effect.

Several states, including some which are the West’s allies in the war on terror, routinely beat detainees, imprison them in dark and dank holes, or subject them to electric shocks or savage dogs.

The movie Rendition shows how this is done, with the active connivance of the CIA, which covertly flies people to destinations such as Morocco or Thailand with such treatment in mind

People who have survived such experiences and who were repatriated to Canada or Europe have reportedly returned with multiple cuts in their genitals made with a razor.

Full Story

Independent | Dec 9,  2007

By Leonard Doyle in Washington

Senior US senators and congressmen are pressing for a criminal investigation of the CIA for obstruction of justice after it admitted destroying two videotapes showing apparently abusive interrogations of al-Qa’ida suspects in 2005.

The digital recordings apparently show a team of CIA agents subjecting Abu Zubayadh, the agency’s first detainee, and another suspect to abusive interrogation. The tapes were apparently destroyed because CIA officers feared prosecution for torture, which is a felony under US law.

“We haven’t seen anything like this since the 18-minute gap on the tapes of Richard Nixon,” said Senator Edward Kennedy who accused the CIA of “a cover-up.” He called on the Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate.

Congresswoman Jan Harman said that in early 2003, she had warned the CIA not to destroy any videotapes dealing with interrogation practices.

“To my knowledge, the Intelligence Committee was never informed that any videotapes had been destroyed,” Ms Harman, said.

Senator John Rockefeller, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there must be a review of “the full history and chronology of the tapes, how they were used, and the reasons for destroying them”.

White House officials declined to comment.

A US expert on torture said he believed the digital recordings show CIA interrogation teams carrying out torture including waterboarding or partial drowning of al-Qa’ida suspects in detention centres not on US soil. The interrogations probably took place in Jordan or Egypt where the US has close relations with the national intelligence agencies, said Malcolm Nance who advises the Department of Homeland Security on terrorism.

Mr Nance, who has conducted anti-torture training sessions, said the interrogations would have been relayed live by video link to the CIA’s directorate of operations in Langley, Virginia. They would have been observed by the director of the CIA, along with a team of interrogation experts including, a psychologist and doctor, he said.

“They start by slapping the prisoner around, putting him in stress positions and finally strapping him on the waterboard where he is bound down and has water poured into his lungs,” he continued. “It’s very hard to watch people going through this form of torture,” he said. “They get hysterical and whatever they say is of no value anyway.

“Typically a camera is focused on the detainee’s face to watch for signs that he is cracking; another camera shows the interrogation team in operation,” he said.

The New York Times reported that the CIA destroyed at least two videotapes of the interrogation of two al-Qai’da operatives in the midst of Congressional and legal investigations into its “black site” secret detention programme.

The CIA director, General Michael Hayden, said the decision to destroy the tapes was made “within the CIA” to protect the safety of the agents involved.

Senators and congressmen now want an inquiry into whether CIA officials deliberately withheld information from them as well as the courts and the September 11 Commission.

General Hayden’s explanation was dismissed as unbelievable by Mr Nance. “There are ways of hiding the identity of those involved,” he said.