Biden Says Bush Gave Al Qaeda Recruiting Tool

[sabra]

Source: NY Times

LANGLEY, Va. — Visiting the Central Intelligence Agency to swear in Leon E. Panetta as the agency’s 19th director, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Thursday that the Bush administration’s detention and interrogation policies “gave Al Qaeda a powerful recruiting tool.”

Considering the setting — the C.I.A. lobby where several hundred agency employees greeted the vice president with cheers — Mr. Biden’s remarks implied a tough judgment on parts of the agency’s record under the previous administration. He stood in front of a marble memorial wall, where 89 stars represent C.I.A. officers who have died in the line of duty.

Mr. Biden spoke of executive orders that President Obama issued on his second full day in office to close the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, require the C.I.A. to use the same noncoercive interrogation methods as the military and report all detainees to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

...

Mr. Biden said the new president’s actions “reverse the policies that in my view and the view of many in this agency caused America to fall short of its founding principles and which gave Al Qaeda a powerful recruiting tool.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/us/politics/20intel.html?_r=2&th&emc=th

[Wetzelbill]

1. one of several recruiting tools he gave him nt

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. well, of course... how else can you have

endless war without an enemy?

[BGoldsteinish]

3. Bush himself was the ultimate recruiting tool

[LynnTheDem]

4. Experts world-wide said so long ago.

Anyone with a grain of common sense knew so.

[dipsydoodle]

5. No shit Sherlock

Now whooda thunk that.

[Titonwan]

6. Every time that criminal President smirked into the camera

a thousand people joined Al Qaeda. I felt like joining too, so I joined AfterDowningStreet.org; to see Dick Cheney, Bush Jr. (et alia) are prosecuted for WAR CRIMES.

[phillyindependent]

7. Well, you all are going to disagree...

with me. But I watched the be-heading of a high school friends by Al Qaeda or some similar organization before Gitmo. That imagine will haunt me for the rest of my life. My high school friend was not military, he was there attempting to restore the communications infrastructure. So they were using inhumane tactics before we were. So what has or hasn't happened at gitmo I'm not sure. But I believe that we have obtained vital information, which has led to many saved lives. If three or more of these people who have no respect for any life other than their own have been treated inhumanly. So be it. Let them rot. I'm sorry if I have offended anyone, but I have some emotional baggage invested on the this topic.

[sabra]

8. Welcome to DU - and I am sorry for your loss - but many experts and officials have

stated torture doesn't result in good intel:

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2245

Interrogator who Located Zarqawi Rips U.S. Torture Policy

Matthew Alexander, the military officer and interrogator responsible for obtaining the information that led to the death of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2006, has just published in the Washington Post a scathing indictment of U.S. torture policies. It's part of the publicity campaign for his new book on the same topic--a book that was originally held up from publication by the Pentagon--called How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq.

When the guy who got Zarqawi calls U.S. interrogations in Iraq "un-American," it's a big deal.

From Sunday's Washington Post:

My team of interrogators had successfully hunted down one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the mastermind of the campaign of suicide bombings that had helped plunge Iraq into civil war. But instead of celebrating our success, my mind was consumed with the unfinished business of our mission: fixing the deeply flawed, ineffective and un-American way the U.S. military conducts interrogations in Iraq. I'm still alarmed about that today.

I'm not some ivory-tower type; I served for 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, began my career as a Special Operations pilot flying helicopters, saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, became an Air Force counterintelligence agent, then volunteered to go to Iraq to work as a senior interrogator. What I saw in Iraq still rattles me -- both because it betrays our traditions and because it just doesn't work.

[CJCRANE]

10. McCain was tortured.

Do you think that encouraged him to give good intel to the VC or just repeat whatever they wanted him to say?

Torture is only ever a cruel and unusual punishment or a thrill for sadists. Most of those tortured at Gitmo weren't even picked up on the battlefield, they were handed in for money.

[sabra]

11. I read somewhere that ~90% inmates were given over to the US by foreign bounty hunters

[Ticonderoga]

13. The simple fact remains,

that had we not illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq, who had no culpability in the attacks on 9/11, your friend would perhaps still be alive today. Blame bu$h and his criminal empire. On the other hand, I'm sorry for your greif.

[uncle ray]

14. who was your friend?

where was he beheaded and when?

[Amonester]

18. yes. this is the internet where

anyone, sincere or not, freep or normal, can type and click in any story they feel like making public

if the story is true, although the pain is huge, nothing can justify torture for barbaric revenge

if the story is false, there won't be any proof of it posted here

[No Elephants]

17. I disagree that they were using inhumane tactics before we were. We

invaded their country and started killing them and destroying their villages long before your friend went there to restore the communication infrastructure that we destroyed. If another country, much larger and more powerful than ours, invaded the U.S., destroyed your town and killed your relatives, how would you react?

I am not sure why you believe that we have obtained vital information that has saved many lives. For one thing, that is contrary to what experts say about information obtained through torture. For another thing, if that were the case, I feel certain we would have heard something about it, as we did during the Clinton administration when an attack was averted. For the third thing, some of the people we've tortured in Gitmo are just as innocent as you say your friend was.

If I had actually watched my high school friend being beheaded, I think I'd remember the name of the organization that was responsible for beheading him. No offense, but anyone can post anything on a message board, so I am reserving judgment. If it is true, I am certainly sorry for your loss.

[treestar]

19. If true, it doesn't justify torturing other people merely because

they are of the same religion as your alleged perpetrators.

And any Iraqi who lost their friend to a US bomb would then be justified in torturing any of us.

[change_notfinetuning]

9. and the buildup in Afghanistan won't be a recruiting tool?

Sorry, but war doesn't find terrorists; it creates terrorists. War cannot replace intelligence. Have we learned nothing?

[bdamomma]

12. no it seems we haven't learned anything.

and the other problem is the Gaza/Israeli conflict, we have aligned or tied ourselves to Israel, which does not help either.

[Tempest]

15. It most likely won't be an effective recruiting tool

The reason is that most of the recruits are foreigners and they have become disillusioned with the fight and are returning home and swearing off terrorism.

There's been several in-depth articles about how terrorists are no longer able to recruit and have turned to bribing and threats of violence to get people in.

A perfect example was the Iraqi group that were raping women and convincing them to become suicide bombers to get away from the shame.

[Mari333]

16. amen to that and welcome to DU nt