John Kiriakou, Abu Zubaydah, and 83 Waterboarding Sessions
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 8:43 am
John Kiriakou was a CIA counterterrorism official involved in the initial capture of Abu Zubaydah in 2002. He was not involved in Abu Zubaydah’s torture. In 2007, he came forward to disclose that the CIA waterboarded Abu Zubaydah for “probably 30, 35 seconds” and Zubaydah “broke” afterward. Kiriakou said from the start that he did not know that firsthand. We now know, though, that Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times. The New York Times — following on a great post of Laura Rozen‘s — has a story about the contradiction.
The CIA blames lazy reporting and the echo-chamberish amplification for the discrepancy. Possibly. I certainly messed the story up recently. For my part, consider this tiny portion of the Times piece:
[Kiriakou] was not actually in the secret prison in Thailand where Mr. Zubaydah had been interrogated but in the C.I.A. headquarters in Northern Virginia. He learned about it only by reading accounts from the field.
That makes me wonder about the integrity of “accounts from the field.”
We know from former CIA Director George Tenet’s “guidelines” from January 28, 2003, that every time an “enhanced technique” is used, there has to be a record of it. But this is 2002. It’s possible that a) accounts of Abu Zubaydah’s waterboarding are contradictory or b) accounts are incomplete or c) accounts are incorrect. We have reason to suspect from Ali Soufan that the CIA is conflicted about torturing Abu Zubaydah and that his pre-torture interrogation worked. It’s at least possible, then, that someone could have written or otherwise informed Kiriakou that Abu Zubaydah “broke” after being subjected to the waterboard once.
The final possibility is gruesome — that both things are true. Abu Zubaydah broke, but they continued to waterboard him 82 times. What would further declassifications show? How many times was Abu Zubaydah waterboarded before the CIA was convinced they’d gotten “everything” out of him? It’s implausible to believe Abu Zubaydah said nothing after the first waterboard session, or the fifth, or the tenth, or the twentieth, or the thirtieth or the eightieth.
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9 Comments
Comment posted April 28, 2009 @ 8:08 am
From other media sources I've read Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 183 times
Comment posted April 28, 2009 @ 10:11 am
Hmm…I think it's hard to avoid pointing a finger at Kiriakou though. He now is basically claiming he knew very little. If that was true, it was extremely deceptive on his part to take the stage and tell us “FROM THAT DAY ON, HE ANSWERED EVERY QUESTION.” From that day on, he was dunked again, and again, and again. But Kiriakou somehow missed that part. And that's ignoring the way his account conflicts with what the Washington Post recently reported from “senior government officials” who followed the Zubaydah interrogations – that no plots were disrupted as a result of his torture.
Seems to me there's not much positive you can say about Kiriakou. And if it is true that he was misinformed, I wonder why? Why was that misinformation cast in such a positive light? I think you raise the scariest possibility of all – that internally, pro-torture CIA peeps misled their colleagues. And that is really f*cked up.
Comment posted April 28, 2009 @ 10:44 am
Fox is running a story today that 183 was actually 5 sessions, 183 pours. Makes a difference. Yet to see it on another network, but this is the type of story others would ignore.
Comment posted April 28, 2009 @ 2:09 pm
I think you might be thinking of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
Comment posted May 14, 2009 @ 5:37 pm
It's not torture, wrapping your head in a towel and pouring water on it is unpleasant, but it's not exactly in the same league as pulling one's fingernails out with pliers. Years ago I went through the Navy's Escape and Evation school in Warner Springs, CA, every student was waterboarded to demonstrate how rough being held in enemy captivity could be. No one had their head cut off, however, so I guess it wasn't all that bad. I must say that I consider myself as no more maladjusted as a result of my mock interrogation sessions than I was before my waterboarding experience. Oh, we also weren't allowed to sleep for more than an hour at a time which is pretty mean also, but I think I got over that as well, although it did make me kind of drifty at the time. I suspect, however, that if some incriminating evidence turns up that can't be refuted about a prominent democrat the entire issue will drop off the front pages in a nano second.
Comment posted May 15, 2009 @ 12:37 am
It's not torture, wrapping your head in a towel and pouring water on it is unpleasant, but it's not exactly in the same league as pulling one's fingernails out with pliers. Years ago I went through the Navy's Escape and Evation school in Warner Springs, CA, every student was waterboarded to demonstrate how rough being held in enemy captivity could be. No one had their head cut off, however, so I guess it wasn't all that bad. I must say that I consider myself as no more maladjusted as a result of my mock interrogation sessions than I was before my waterboarding experience. Oh, we also weren't allowed to sleep for more than an hour at a time which is pretty mean also, but I think I got over that as well, although it did make me kind of drifty at the time. I suspect, however, that if some incriminating evidence turns up that can't be refuted about a prominent democrat the entire issue will drop off the front pages in a nano second.
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