Update #2 on Al Qaeda Theory vs. Wisconsin bowler theory
AFP - “I want to be as clear as I can about the threat we face,” Hayden said, saying the Central Intelligence Agency would use “every inch we’re given” by the US government to wage the “war on terror” and hunt down militants.
“We bear responsibility for standing watch on this threat,” he said. “Our nation is in a state of armed conflict with Al-Qaeda and its affiliates. It’s a conflict that is global in scope,” he added.
“It’s very hard to see this thing as anything less than war” criticizing the media for references such as a “so-called war on terror.”
The danger the United States faced, he said, was “more real than anything our citizens at home have confronted since our Civil War.”
“This is a form of warfare unlike any other in our country’s history. It’s an intelligence war as much as a military one, actually maybe it’s an intelligence war more than it’s a military one.”
Church newsletter — Meanwhile, in EdWorld, the mother of the Wisconsin bowler reported today that she only called the police in September 2001 on her son because while mowing, he carelessly cut down her beloved browned-eyed Susans the week before. She says that that she suspects the lady at the church bake sale to be an undercover FBI agent given that he didn’t seem to know that the walnut brownies should be priced higher. “This sort of sloppy priciing,” she says, “has cost the church a lot of money — COINTELPRO has resulted in a direct loss of coins. After 6 years of bake sales, it adds up.”
CIA chief defends rendition of terrorist suspects
1 hour ago
NEW YORK (AFP) — CIA director Michael Hayden on Friday defended the US government’s controversial rendition and detention of terrorist suspects, saying the program was highly targeted and smaller than many thought.
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“The individuals that we detain provide us with a bunch of new puzzle pieces,” in the hunt for fugitives and the fight to prevent future attacks.
“These programs are targeted and they are selective. They were designed only for the most dangerous terrorists and those deemed to have the most valuable information, such as knowledge of planned attack,” he added.
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The so-called rendition program — which involves the CIA moving terrorist suspects to or through foreign countries, allegedly often involving torture — was actually far smaller than many believed, he said.
“(Since) it began with the capture of (top Al-Qaeda suspect) Abu Zubaydah in the spring of 2002, fewer than 100 people have been detained at the CIA’s facilities,” he said of the detention and interrogation program.
“The number of renditions — that’s moving a terrorist from A to B — apart from that 100 that we’ve detained, the number of renditions is actually a smaller number — midrange two figures,” he added.
Comment: He’s mixing apples and oranges. Actually, CIA Tenet has previously testified that prior to 9/11, 70 Egyptian militants had been rendered. The rendition program began in 1998 — as distinguished from what above is described as the “detention and interrogation program” beginning in the spring of 2002.
One cannot very well accurately profile the anthrax mailings when there such is such a muddling of information such as above.
And there’s always been a huge irony in Michael Scheuer’s emphasis on how OBL is attacking the US for its policies without recognizing the importance of the rendition policy is to those planning the attacks.
For the purpose of true crime analysis, it’s not rendition as a policy or human rights issue that is the question presented. It is walking in the shoes of your adversary — seeing things in terms of what motivates them to act.