CIA “deniers” are the new birthers
**Posted by Phineas
Leftist critics of rough interrogation techniques continue to deny –in the face of all evidence– that the techniques used at Guantanamo Bay and in the CIA’s “black prisons” in Eastern Europe contributed in any meaningful way to the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Marc Thiessen disagrees, and he cites a source Lefties will have a hard time denying:
The evidence that CIA interrogations played a key role in the operation that got Osama bin Laden is overwhelming. Countless intelligence officials, including CIA Director Leon Panetta, have confirmed that detainees interrogated by the CIA provided information that helped lead us to bin Laden. But the CIA deniers continue to insist it is all a βbig lie.β Despite this testimony, and the mountains of documents declassified by the Obama administration in 2009, they contend that CIA interrogations did not work.
Well, if they wonβt believe these sources, perhaps theyβll believe WikiLeaks.
I doubt it was Julian Assangeβs intent to provide still additional evidence of the effectiveness of CIA interrogations, but that is precisely what WikiLeaksβ βGitmo Filesβ do. Take, for example, the file on Abu Faraj al-Libi β one of several CIA detainees who helped lead the agency to bin Ladenβs courier. The document describes Abu Faraj as the βcommunications gatewayβ to bin Laden who once in custody βreported on al-Qaiβdas methods for choosing and employing couriers, as well as preferred communications means.β Based on intelligence obtained from Abu Faraj and other CIA detainees, it states that βin July 2003, [Abu Faraj] received a letter from UBLβs designated courierβ (to whom he referred by a false name, Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan) in which βUBL stated [Abu Faraj] would be the official messenger between UBL and others in Pakistan.β The file also notes a vital piece of intelligence: To better carry out his new duties βin mid-2003, [Abu Faraj] moved his family to Abbottabadβ β the city where bin Laden eventually met his end β βand worked between Abbottabad and Peshawar.β And the file reveals that βin mid-April 2005, [Abu Faraj] began arranging for a store front to be used as a meeting place and drop point for messages he wanted to exchangeβ with bin Ladenβs courier and was captured while waiting to meet him.
It is a miracle that al-Qaeda leaders did not read this classified document before bin Laden was killed. If they had, they would have been alerted to the fact that the CIA was on the trail of bin Ladenβs courier, and they would had made the connection between the courier, bin Laden and Abbottabad β which could have blown the bin Laden operation.
In other words, waterboarding worked and, again, saved lives.
That sound you hear is the sound of heads exploding all over MSNBC… .
LINKS: My blog-buddy ST on an earlier Thiessen article.
(Crossposted at Public Secrets)