CIA: Torture Gave No Leads, Foils No Plots, Led Goose Chases

By Peter Finn and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
The Feds are finally releasing more & more information that was hidden under the Republican administration that reveals that torture was not just totally unreliable, but is a waste of valuable resources, sending the CIA on global wild goose chases over & over with little to zero results. In fact other techniques have proven much more reliable.

When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.

The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.

In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates -- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.

Moreover, within weeks of his capture, U.S. officials had gained evidence that made clear they had misjudged Abu Zubaida. President George W. Bush had publicly described him as "al-Qaeda's chief of operations," and other top officials called him a "trusted associate" of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a major figure in the planning of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. None of that was accurate, the new evidence showed.

Abu Zubaida was not even an official member of al-Qaeda, according to a portrait of the man that emerges from court documents and interviews with current and former intelligence, law enforcement and military sources. Rather, he was a "fixer" for radical Muslim ideologues, and he ended up working directly with al-Qaeda only after Sept. 11 -- and that was because the United States stood ready to invade Afghanistan.




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Prying open the CIA’s X-Files

Leon Panetta in his upcoming position as Director of Central Intelligence is expected to be more than just a dependable ally for President-Elect Obama in the tough world of national intelligence. As the former Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1993-1994) and Chief of Staff to President Clinton (1994-1997), Panetta brings much executive office experience and mental toughness. He will need all that and more to force the CIA to disclose its X-Files on UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
The last time a democratic administration recruited an outsider to head the CIA and pry open its secrets resulted in dismal failure. James Woolsey lacked the experience and mental toughness to get the CIA to release its X-Files. Woolsey admitted privately that he had approached the CIA to reveal its secret files on UFOs but was denied access. Woolsey said: "You know, they are treating me like a bag-man, that goes up to Capitol Hill, gets their 30 billion dollars for the intelligence community, and brings it back. You know I really don’t know anything that’s going on that’s sensitive."Woolsey’s CIA subordinates refused to give him access to UFO information and used many forms of subterfuge to frustrate his efforts. According to one senior national security official, Woolsey “was too trusting, and that made him easy prey. He wasn’t ready for people lying to him when he was loyal to them." Woolsey ultimately failed in getting the CIA to reveal anything more than a sanitized report of public sightings of UFOs released in 1996 that was titled: the "CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-1990."
Panetta’s stint as Clinton’s Chief of Staff indicates that he has the mental toughness to take on a vast intelligence bureaucracy that is skilled in deception, and denying ‘intelligence outsiders’ access to the CIA’s X-Files. Panetta will need to identify key subordinates in the CIA who have the keys to the CIA’s X-Files. Career officers like Stephen Kappes a 27 year agency veteran who became Deputy Director for Operations in 2004, and is currently Deputy Director of the CIA, will undoubtedly have access. Kappes will need to be pressured by Panetta to turn over the keys and disclose what he knows.
A major challenge for Panetta and Obama will be the support for Kappes from Senator Diane Feinstein, the incoming Chair for the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence. Feinstein’s initial support for Kappes promotion to CIA Director suggests that she will be a major Congressional backer of intelligence insiders.

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CIA 'using Viagra' to win over Afghan warlords

America's CIA has found a novel way to gain information from fickle Afghan warlords - supplying sex-enhancing drug Viagra, a US media report says.

The Washington Post said it was one of a number of enticements being used.

In one case, a 60-year-old warlord with four wives was given four pills and four days later detailed Taleban movements in return for more.

"Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people," the Post quoted one agent as saying.

"Whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra."

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George W Bush could pardon spies involved in torture

George W Bush is considering issuing pardons for US spies embroiled in allegations of torture just before he leaves the White House.
Senior intelligence officers are lobbying the outgoing president to look after the men and women who could face charges for following his orders in the war on terrorism.
Many fear that Barack Obama, who has pledged to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and put an end to the policy of extraordinary rendition, could launch a legal witch hunt against those who oversaw the policies after he is sworn in on Jan 20.
Most vulnerable are US intelligence officers who took part in intensive interrogations against terrorist suspects, using techniques including water boarding, which many believe crossed the line into torture.
A former CIA officer familiar with the backstage lobbying for pardons, said: "These are the people President Bush asked to fight the war on terror for him. He gave them the green light to fight tough. The view of many in the intelligence community is that he should not leave them vulnerable to legal censure when he leaves."
An effort is under way to get pre-emptive pardons. The White House has indicated that the matter is under consideration."
In addition to frontline CIA and military officers, others at risk could include David Addington, Dick Cheney's former counsel, and William Haynes, the former Pentagon general counsel who helped draw up the regulations governing enhanced interrogations.
Many in the Democratic party and human rights groups are calling on President-Elect Obama to tear up Mr Bush's executive orders licensing intensive interrogations on his first day in the Oval Office. They also want an immediate end to rendition, whereby suspects are flown to countries that practise torture

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The CIA's involvement with US film-making

The CIA is often credited with 'advice' on Hollywood films, but no one is truly sure about the extent of its shadowy involvement. In fact, the story of the CIA's involvement in Hollywood is a tale of deception and subversion that would seem improbable if it were put on screen...

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