We hear some going off on water
boarding and other forms of gaining information – but the harvest was well
worth the effort – and in his first 100 days BO destroyed our ability to
extract data to safe guard our nation – wonder why? He said he would change
America and he almost destroyed it – which was left for the hill to do – but
she didn’t get elected. c
Please feel free to pass this on - msm won't -
Note
- This is quoted from the book of the same name by Marc Thiessen
This takes about 2 minutes to read, it is worth every
second. This is something every person in America must know.
The
single most prominent characteristic of contemporary America is that common
sense has been abandoned to political correctness and "feelings."
As
President George W. Bush's top speech writer, Marc Thiessen ( The Kelly File on
FOX ) was provided unique access to the CIA program used in interrogating top
Al Qaeda terrorists, including the mastermind of the 9/11 attack, Khalid Sheikh
Mohammad (KSM).
Now, his riveting new book, Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America
Safe (Regnery), has been published. Here is an excerpt from Courting
Disaster:
"Just before dawn on March 1, 2003, two dozen heavily armed Pakistani
tactical assault forces move in and surround a safe house in Rawalpindi.
A few hours earlier they had received a text message from an informant inside
the house. It read: "I am with KSM."
Bursting
in, they find the disheveled mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, in his bedroom. He is taken into custody. In the
safe house, they find a treasure trove of computers, documents, cell phones and
other valuable "pocket litter."
Once
in custody, KSM is defiant. He refuses to answer questions, informing his
captors that he will tell them everything when he gets to America and sees
his lawyer. But KSM is not taken to America to see a lawyer Instead
he is taken to a secret CIA "black site" in an undisclosed location.
Upon
arrival, KSM finds himself in the complete control of Americans. He does not
know where he is, how long he will be there, or what his fate will be.
Despite his circumstances, KSM still refuses to talk. He spews contempt
at his interrogators, telling them Americans are weak, lack resilience and are
unable to do what is necessary to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in
their goals. He has trained to resist interrogation. When he is asked for
information about future attacks, he tells his questioners scornfully:
"Soon, you will know."
It
becomes clear he will not reveal the information using traditional
interrogation techniques. So he undergoes a series of "enhanced
interrogation techniques" approved for use only on the most high-value
detainees. The techniques include water boarding. He begins telling
his CIA de-briefers about active al Qaeda plots to launch attacks against the
United States and other Western targets. He holds classes for CIA officials,
using a chalkboard to draw a picture of al Qaeda's operating structure,
financing, communications, and logistics. He identifies al Qaeda
travel routes and safe havens and helps intelligence officers make sense of
documents and computer records seized in terrorist raids. He identifies
voices in intercepted telephone calls, and helps officials understand the
meaning of coded terrorist communications. He provides information that helps
our intelligence community capture other high-ranking terrorists.
KSM's
questioning, and that of other captured terrorists, produces more than
6,000
intelligence reports, which are shared across the intelligence community, as
well as with our allies across the world. In one of these reports, KSM
describes in detail the revisions he made to his failed 1994-1995 plan
known as the "Bojinka plot" to blow up a dozen airplanes carrying
some 4,000 passengers over the Pacific Ocean. Years later, an observant
CIA officer notices the activities of a cell being followed by British
authorities appear to match KSM's description of his plans for a Bojinka-style
attack. In an operation that involves unprecedented intelligence
cooperation between our countries, British officials proceed to unravel the
plot.
On
the night of Aug. 9, 2006, they launch a series of raids in a northeast London
suburb that lead to the arrest of two dozen al Qaeda terrorist
suspects. They find a USB thumb-drive in the pocket of one of the
men with security details for Heathrow airport, and information on seven
Trans-Atlantic flights that were scheduled to take off within hours of each
other:
* United Airlines Flight 931 to San Francisco departing at 2:15 PM
*
Air Canada Flight 849 to Toronto departing at 3:00 PM
*
Air Canada Flight 865 to Montreal departing at 3:15 PM
*
United Airlines Flight 959 to Chicago departing at 3:40 PM
*
United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington departing at 4:20 PM
*
American Airlines Flight 131 to New York departing at 4:35 PM
*
American Airlines Flight 91 to Chicago departing at 4:50 PM
They
seize bomb-making equipment and hydrogen peroxide to make liquid
explosives. And they find the chilling martyrdom videos the suicide
bombers had prepared.
Today, if you asked an average person on the street what they know about
the 2006 airlines plot, most would not be able to tell you much. Few
Americans are aware of the fact al Qaeda had planned to mark the fifth
anniversary of 9/11 with an attack of similar scope and magnitude.
And still fewer realize the terrorists' true intentions in this plot were
uncovered thanks to critical information obtained through the interrogation of
the man who conceived it: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
This is only one of the many attacks stopped with the help of the CIA
interrogation program established by the Bush Administration in the wake of the
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
In
addition to helping break up these specific terrorist cells and plots, CIA questioning
provided our intelligence community with an unparalleled body of information
about al Qaeda.
Until
the program was temporarily suspended in 2006, intelligence officials say, well
over half of the information our government had about al Qaeda-how it operates,
how it moves money, how it communicates, how it recruits operatives, how it
picks targets, how it plans and carries out attacks-came from the interrogation
of terrorists in CIA custody.
Former CIA Director George Tenet has declared: "I know this
program has saved lives. I know we've disrupted plots. I know this
program alone is worth more than what the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency,
and the National Security Agency put together have been able to tell us."
Former
CIA Director Mike Hayden has said: "The facts of the case are that the use
of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did
work." Even Barack Obama's Director of National Intelligence, Dennis
Blair, has acknowledged: "High-value information came from
interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper
understanding of the al Qaeda organization that was attacking this
country." Leon Panetta, Obama's CIA Director, has said: "Important
information was gathered from these detainees. It provided information that was
acted upon."
John
Brennan, Obama's Homeland Security Advisor, when asked in an interview if
enhanced-interrogation techniques were necessary to keep America safe,
replied: "Would the U. S. be handicapped if the CIA was not, in
fact, able to carry out these types of detention and debriefing activities, I
would say yes."
On
Jan. 22, 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13491, closing the CIA
program and directing that, henceforth, all interrogations by U. S. personnel
must follow the techniques contained in the
Army Field Manual.
The
morning of the announcement, Mike Hayden was still in his post as CIA
Director. He called White House Counsel Greg Craig and told him bluntly:
"You didn't ask, but this is the CIA officially
non-concurring." The president went ahead anyway, overruling the
objections of the agency.
A
few months later, on April 16, 2009, President Obama ordered the release of
four Justice Department memos that described in detail the techniques used to
interrogate KSM and other high-value terrorists. This time, not just
Hayden (who was now retired) but five CIA directors - including Obama's own
director, Leon Panetta objected. George Tenet called to urge against the
memos' release. So did Porter Goss. So did John Deutch. Hayden
says: "You had CIA directors in a continuous unbroken stream to 1995
calling saying, 'Don't do this.'" In addition to objections from the
men who led the agency for a collective 14 years, the President also heard
objections from the agency's covert field operatives.
A
few weeks earlier, Panetta had arranged for the eight top officials of the
Clandestine Service to meet with the President. It was highly unusual for
these clandestine officers to visit the Oval Office, and they used the
opportunity to warn the President that releasing the memos would put agency
operatives at risk.
The
President reportedly listened respectfully, and then ignored their
advice. With these actions, Barack Obama arguably did more damage to
America 's national security in his first 100 days of office than any President
in American history.
But
how many people know this? Only the few that read this email from beginning to
end.
