A CIA Interrogator Finally Breaks Silence

Flopping Aces ^ | 11-19-14 | Wordsmith

[Starman417]

Dianne Feinstein's so-called 6,300 page "torture report" (executive summary is 500 pages "only")- after 5 years and $40 million in taxpayer money- is slated to be released very soon. Perhaps this weekend; maybe next week, after Thanksgiving. But what will be missing from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's majority (re: Democrat) report? Participation by Republicans in the investigative process and input (when the report is released, Republicans plan to release the minority view, at the same time). And even more critically, the interviews and opinions of those directly involved in the CIA Detention and Interrogation program itself- you know, those who were actually there- the CIA interrogators, the debriefers, the officials in charge:

Current and former intelligence officials told The Washington Times they are furious that the Senate panel, headed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, did not interview the senior managers of the interrogation program launched after the Sept. 11 attacks or the CIA directors who oversaw it.

“The truth is they had their foregone conclusions with what they wanted to say in this report, and they did not want the facts to get into the way,” said Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., one of the CIA’s most respected retired officers and who, as head of the Agency’s clandestine service, oversaw the enhanced interrogation program that used sleep deprivation, waterboarding, uncomfortable positioning and other tactics to extract information from high-value al Qaeda operatives.

“The process has been political. It has been ideological. And it is just wrong,” said Mr. Rodriguez, who retired in fall 2007 and later wrote a best-selling book entitled “Hard Measures” that argued that the tactics, which critics have denounced as torture, saved American lives.

U.S. intelligence officials and Senate aides confirm that the Senate Intelligence Committee did not interview former CIA directors George Tenet, Porter Goss and Mike Hayden, nor did the committee staff interview the program’s direct day-to-day managers, like Mr. Rodriguez.

Some of those officials told The Times they were told by Senate aides they weren’t interviewed because they once had been under possible criminal investigation.

But that investigation by a special Justice Department prosecutor was closed out more than two years ago, with no charges filed against any supervisor of the program.

“It is astonishing nobody ever reached out to us to interview us,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “Especially those people who were directors and program managers during that period of time.”

It is hard to believe that this Report isn't politically, ideologically-driven. Leaks of the report have gone to journalists, already shaping the battle space, as they have always done since the beginning when leaks about the CIA program surfaced over a decade ago:

Mr. Hayden, who ran the CIA from 2006 to 2009, wrote in his regular column Tuesday in The Times that he is disappointed that journalists, op-ed writers and human rights groups got leaks from the report and appeared to have “more access than all but a very few former CIA senior officers whose actions are cataloged there but who have been denied access.”

Mr. Hayden said he, Mr. Tenet, and Mr. Goss, though never interviewed, were offered belated access to the report in late July, but only if they signed a nondisclosure agreement with the Senate committee.

For over a decade, journalists and human rights groups, anti-American enemies of the U.S., partisan political opponents, and so-called "experts" who operated on assumptions and half-experiences and not actual first-hand knowledge of the secretive CIA program, were able to shape the "torture" narrative, shaping public perception (or rather, distorting it). CIA interrogators have been unable to fight back the tide of opinion and defend themselves. They have not been at liberty to do so. It wasn't until President Obama released the OLC "How not to torture" memos in April 2009, effectively neutering the EITs listed within the memo (their power was smoke-and-mirrors; once revealed, the techniques can be trained against. The reason why "enhanced interrogations" were even created was because some of the HVTs had received interrogation resistance training against standard techniques, like the "rapport-building" ones that the FBI favor in obtaining confessions and achieving criminal prosecutions).

[humblegunner]

Yes, “Wordsmith” at FlappyAsses is the most trusted of sources.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Screw the commie lib ‘RATS. So called “torture” (waterboarding) works every time it’s tried. Feinswine and her ‘RATS are brainless and clueless. If it didn’t work, it wouldn’t have been around for thousands of years.

[colorado tanker]

The hate America crowd is working up another attack.

[what's up]

My guess is they'll release it Thanksiving holiday.

Why?

Because now the Dems want it released quietly. They're now afraid the conservative media blowback after the report is released will reveal that the "torture" was not bad and there were logical reasons for the methods used.

[Phinneous]

They waterboarded my brother, those bastards! (like every other aircrewman, duh!)

SERE Maine had other wonderful treats for the trainees bwahaha (I wonder why they never went after that method too....)

[wetphoenix]

~Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., one of the CIA’s most respected retired officers and who, as head of the Agency’s clandestine service, oversaw the enhanced interrogation program that used sleep deprivation, waterboarding, uncomfortable positioning and other tactics to extract information from high-value al Qaeda operatives.~

HORROR!

~standard techniques, like the “rapport-building” ones that the FBI favor in obtaining confessions and achieving criminal prosecutions).~

So they are advocating police tactics for intelligence gathering?:) Would it finally involve ‘lawyer’ to explain the enemy the benefits of non-cooperation, a ‘right’ to providing false information and so on?

[Mariner]

"For over a decade, journalists and human rights groups, anti-American enemies of the U.S., partisan political opponents, and so-called "experts" who operated on assumptions and half-experiences and not actual first-hand knowledge of the secretive CIA program, were able to shape the "torture" narrative,"

Of course it was torture as defined by both US and International Law.

That's inarguable. Though I encourage those who have not been on the waterboard to disagree.

It also worked and I support it past and future application in similar circumstances.

[Mariner]

" If it didn’t work, it wouldn’t have been around for thousands of years."

It works 100% of the time.

That's CERTAIN.

No man can stand the waterboard. Nobody.

[Mariner]

"They waterboarded my brother, those bastards! (like every other aircrewman, duh!)"

Not true. Of any given class of 40 or so, only 2-3 would go on the board.

And the REAL waterboarding...the CIA program development...was going on exclusively at Warner Springs.

[Phinneous]

I only do hyperbole like 99.999% of the time.

I’m only highlighting the point of the author that implies it ain’t torture.

[lavaroise]

The French OAS officers were the ones who trained the CIA and helped open the school of the Americas. They were instrumentsl in getting Pinochet in power, advising both Pinochet and the CIA. The OAS were infamous for trying to overthrow of the French President De Gaulle during the Algeria debacle, but they were the first to combine enhanced information gathering and winning hearts and minds very effectively.

The leftist infested CIA would have never pulled it off on its own.

[RedHeeler]

Are you soviet trained?

[zzwhale]

we are supposed to coddle terrorists who fly planes into buildings and explode bombs at marathons... and those who support and facilitate their actions.... these are not innocent people being taken off the battlefields in iraq and afghanistan... These are ignorant subhuman animals brainwashed by evil leaders who use religion to motivate.. Most of the ied’s that maimed and killed in iraq came from iran... and we did nothihng despite knowing this from HVT’s captured as a result of interrogations. its WAR not some LIBTARD parlor game or debate at Harvard by privileged elitists who never see combat.. and live in ivory towers.. and exactly how much money does fiensteins hubby make off exclusive non compete real estate contracts with the us govt..?? i am more intersted in that than a political slant that debilitates our war on terror...