Torture tars the West's intelligence services: (Richard) Clarke

[sabra]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2006/10/27/clarke-torture.html

Torture tars the West's intelligence services: Clarke

Misinformation gathered through the use of torture helped make the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and that type of event has created a crisis of public confidence in Western intelligence services, says former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke.

Clarke criticized the use of torture in intelligence gathering — including torture contracted out to other countries such as Syria and Egypt — while giving a talk Thursday in Ottawa at the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies.

He told Canadian intelligence professionals from CSIS and other agencies that an intelligence source suggested a link between al-Qaeda, Iraq and weapons of mass destruction because he thought mentioning those three things together in a single sentence might stop the torture.

Clarke said it is now well known that there is no link between the three, but he may well have made that link himself under the circumstances.

"I don't know about you, but I'm sure if I were tortured, I think I would come to the same conclusion — that the way to stop the torture would be to say whatever they want, and I would try to imagine what it is that they want."

[Drum]

1. Bush mentioned an Israeli soldier as a hostage yesterday...

in his press conference.

What they REALLY should be sweating about is the US soldier that was snatched in Iraq a couple of days ago. I truly hope I'm wrong, but we may be in for a taste of what happens when we drop the Geneva Conventions...ie reciprocity.
x(

[Kagemusha]

2. Reciprocity is more an issue with armies

Terrorists have never obeyed conventions in any era.

But, just as an example, the recent militia fighting in Amara, Iraq, was sparked by the kidnapping of a 19 year old brother of a Madhi Army leader in that area in retaliation for the assassination of the chief of police intel in that province, a prominent Badr Corps member. His family blamed the Mahdi Army. You may have heard that the loosely Sadr-associated Mahdi Army forces took over some police stations and blew them up with explosives before slowly pulling back as Iraqi Army forces arrived (and as British forces were asked to stay out of the matter).

You may not have heard that the 19 year old was found a couple of days later, headless and with signs of torture on his corpse.

Behold the standard America's leaders are dragging all Western civilization down towards.

[Supersedeas]

3. But the VP said that our methods are a no brainer--maybe that's the problem