Posted by JadedSage

Recently I posted that it is necessary sometimes to treat bad people harshly (in this case Al-Qaeda leaders) to extract valuable intelligence. The most senior member of Al-Qaeda to be apprehended was Abu Zubaydah. Zubaydah was the leading recruiter for the terrorist organization and a member of Osama Bin Laden’s (OBL) inner circle. In fact, he was considered the third highest target after Ayman al-Zawahri and OBL, himself. Zubaydah, according to a book by Ron Suskind entitled the One Percent Doctrine, suffers from mental illness. The book also details the components by which the CIA extracted information from him. On last night’s ABC News, John Kiriakou, a retired CIA operative, spoke about the effectiveness of waterboarding in obtaining important information from Zubaydah; information that would ultimately lead to the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principle architect of the attacks on 9-11, in Pakistan. The extended interview with Kiriakou can be seen on ABC News’ website and is a remarkable 10 part series that goes into detail about Zubaydah’s capture, subsequent interrogation and a remarkable glimpse into CIA operations. It is some of the most fascinating TV you will find. Zubaydah’s personality described by the former-CIA agent is much different than the one depicted in Suskind’s book.

This leads us to the two tapes destroyed by the CIA. What were in those tapes? Was the CIA fearful of disclosing the identities of those doing the waterboarding, like they suggest, or was there information disclosed in the tapes that the CIA or government doesn’t want released? What we do know is Abu Zabaydah was waterboarded on one of the tapes. As I researched information on Zubaydah after hearing the ABC News interview I came across a stunning article by a journalist named Gerald Posner. As I read the article I thought, come on, this can’t be true. Is this guy some kind of conspiracy theorist? Who is this guy? I was shocked by his credentials and background. The article entitled, “The CIA’s Destroyed Interrogation Tapes and the Saudi-Pakistani 9/11 Connection” describes how Zubaydah asked the US to call a member of the Saudi royal family which Zubaydah knew from memory, that of Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, the nephew of King Fahd. Posner also claims Zubaydah detailed elaborate connections between Al-Qaeda and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He fingered key figures in the Saudi Royal family and Pakistan military, persons who would later die of mysterious causes.

As I said in an earlier entry I’m dumbfounded the CIA revealed they erased the two tapes or that the two tapes even existed. Despite the likelihood of detailed hearings over waterboarding and the erasing of the tapes, the chances of us rooting out the truth of what was on those tapes is probably slim at best. If what Posner says is valid about the role of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, it leads to the credence we are chasing our tales in the War on Terror.

Related Articles:

Confessions of Terrorist

The forgotten story of Abu Zubaydah