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IraqTortureGate: Powell Denies Knowing He Used Tortured Evidence for UN Case
The most damning credible allegation to emerge regarding the Bush Administration is arguably that Dick Cheney and other Bush Administration officials ordered the use of torture to produce false evidence of a connection between Iraq and al-Qaida to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff at the State Department under Colin Powell, recently wrote,
as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002 - well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion - its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida.Wilkerson cited the case of detainee Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, whose tortured testimony was crucial for building the case for war, and was cited in Powell's speech to the UN.
when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney's office that their detainee "was compliant" (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP's office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa'ida-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, "revealed" such contacts.
About this case, Human Rights Watch has recently written,
Al-Libi was sent by the CIA to Egypt for interrogation in early 2002. A declassified CIA cable later described how al-Libi told the CIA that the Egyptian interrogators had said they wanted information about al-Qaeda's connections with Iraq, a subject "about which [al-Libi] said he knew nothing and had difficulty even coming up with a story."The cable went on to say that al-Libi indicated that his interrogators did not like his responses and then "placed him in a small box" for approximately 17 hours. When he was let out of the box, the cable states that al-Libi was given a last opportunity to "tell the truth." When al-Libi's answers did not satisfy the interrogator, al-Libi says he "was knocked over with an arm thrust across his chest and he fell on his back" and was then "punched for 15 minutes." It was then that al-Libi told his interrogators that Iraq had trained al-Qaeda operatives in chemical and biological weapons, information that was later used in Colin Powell's speech to the UN Security Council to justify war with Iraq.
A bipartisan report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found that that al-Libi "lied [about the link] to avoid torture."
The Senate Intelligence Committee knows that al-Libi's false, tortured testimony was part of Colin Powell's speech to the UN. Human Rights Watch knows it. Lawrence Wilkerson knows it. And you know it.
But supposedly Colin Powell doesn't know it. Is this credible?
Journalist Sam Husseini caught Colin Powell outside the Sunday chat shows in DC, and asked him about the al-Libi case and the use tortured evidence to make the case for war, leading to this breathtaking exchange:
Sam Husseini: General, can you talk about the al-Libi case and the link between torture and the production of tortured evidence for war?Colin Powell: I don't have any details on the al-Libi case.
SH: Can you tell us when you learned that some of the evidence that you used in front of the UN was based on torture? When did you learn that?
CP: I don't know that. I don't know what information you're referring to. So I can't answer.
SH: Your chief of staff, Wilkerson, has written about this.
CP: So what? [inaudible]
SH: So you'd think you'd know about it.
CP: The information I presented to the UN was vetted by the CIA. Every word came from the CIA and they stood behind all that information. I don't know that any of them believe that torture was involved. I don't know that in fact. A lot of speculation, particularly by people who never attended any of these meetings, but I'm not aware of it.
"Speculation by people who never attended meetings"? Who is Powell trying to discredit? The Senate Intelligence Committee? Or his own former chief deputy?
- Posted in
10 Comments so far
Show All-CP: So what? [inaudible]
"So what?", sound like any other war criminal we know?
Like the "Downing Street Memos", this will slip into the Forgive & Forget Memory Hole without even a yawn from the attention-deficit sheeple.
But, speaking of torture, here's a shout-out to the headline writer, for perpetuating the done-to-death cliché of sticking the suffix "-gate" to any story remotely suggesting political scandal.
I NEVER get tired of THAT one!
· Yr Obd't Servant
Who the f@#k gives a f@#k what CP says he knew or didn't know? His f@#king lies have killed/wounded millions of innocent Iraqis and tens of thousands of American soldiers!
CP, May 02, on TV: Saddam no threat whatsoever.
CP, Feb 03, on TV: Saddam most dangerous threat since Hitler, but worse!!!
(Probably because of all those nukes and bio-bombs SH picked up at the International Arms Bazzar in June.)
One more time for the peanut gallery: f@#k Powell. Instead of treating him with authority, reverence and respect, he should be in the dock answering for his murders. Period. How anyone can even stand in the same room with him without smacking him in the teeth is beyond comprehension...
C'mon, frank, don't hold back-- tell us how you REALLY feel!
You're quite right on all counts. Powell does have an infuriating Teflon/Weeble/Terminator quality of having his character, integrity, and gravitas repeatedly publicly puréed in the woodchipper of Truth, only to have the pulped bits in time reassemble into a seemingly intact Powell.
He still fools many of the people most of the time, in part by benefitting from corporate media's typically deferential and forgiving coverage of high-ranking military officers.
It's as if, consciously or unconsciously, media infotainwhores know that they themselves are wretched, venal, timid, cowardly charlatans who dare not call into question manly men of valor and warrior chiefs.
I expect, as with Maverick McCain, that the majority of media drones covering Powell are genuinely awed in his presence. They do not have to feign obeisance, and righteous anger isn't even in the room.
And FWIW, I think Obama is awed by his military superstars too.
· Yr Obd't Servant
I used to think Powell was a good guy, interested in good things for this country.
His mendacity in the service of Bush & Co show his real colors. He is a dishonest crook.
Lawrence Wilkerson, a staunch Republican and career professional soldier, has emerged as one of the most candid critics, with first hand insider knowledge, of the Bush/Cheney torture regime. I don't quite share the colonel's certainty that when the Abu Ghraib photo scandal broke, the torture suddenly stopped, but Wilkerson surely knows where a lot of the skeletons were once hidden.
Al-Libi denies all knowledge of a Saddam-Al Qaeda connection despite being tortured. He then is tortured some more, and confesses to his Egyptian interrogators that Saddam's regime trained Al Qaeda operatives in chemical and biological weaponry. Colin Powell, brandishing his makeshift anthrax cannister before the UN Security Council, assures the world there's a Hussein/Osama connection. On comes shock and awe and the toppling of Saddam's big statue. Al-Libi later recants this false confession, saying he said these things just to make the torture stop. Now, we are told al-Libi has inconveniently committed suicide while being held in Libyan custody.
Like the yellow cake forgeries and the missing Iraqi WMD, al-Libi's torture-induced intelligence information has now been exposed as total disinformation.
So why should we continue to believe that al-Libi's fellow waterboard victim, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, is telling us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the 9/11 attacks, just because the 911 Commission's final report says we should believe KSM?
Garbage in, garbage out.
Bill from Saginaw
Well said, Bill. This story brings into sharp focus how torture was used to provide a false ground for the U.S. and its allies to invade Iraq. Forget about the torture being immoral and illegal. What was done to al-Libi has to be one of the most costly and tragic mistakes ever made by the U.S. government. Among other things, I'm still wondering if the WMD fantasy didn't also arise somehow from torture.
What never ceases to astound me is how the U.S. public deals with each new revelation of torture -from The Philippines unto Iraq- as if it was a crime unheard of in USA's history. It's like pretending there have never been quakes on Earth, or that twins are never born, or something of the kind.
As ongoing torture happened in Iraq, training in torture was being given by US's elements to Mexican soldiers as part of the Merida Initiative/Plan Mexico.
Kudos to frank1569. Only I would put Cheney, the mastermind, first, then add his enablers, one by one. Then, paraphrasing, it would be more or less like this: "F** Cheney & Co. Instead of bestowing on them authority, reverence & respect, they should be in the dock answering for their murders. Period. How anyone can even stand in the same room with Cheney without feeling lost in the deepest evil is beyond comprehension..."
Naiman asks:
"Speculation by people who never attended meetings"? Who is Powell trying to discredit? The Senate Intelligence Committee? Or his own former chief deputy?
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I assume CP was challenging the "speculation"/question by the journalist when he says the journalist had "not attended the meetings"....
classic example of the "out of the loop" clause Powell employed when Ritter questioned the INTEL on WMD.
Powell deserves a chance to deny guilt at a trial.