Ping to post no. 42.
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http://www.jihadica.com/jihadi-reactions-to-the-torture-memos
http://experts.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/05/04/irreparable_damage
“Irreparable damage”
Mon, 05/04/2009 - 5:10pm
By Thomas Hegghammer
SNIPPET: “Switch to the jihadi Internet forums, where thousands of radical Islamists log on every day to debate religion, politics, and the latest news from the war on terror. Last week there were debates on all kinds of topics, from swine flu to the financial crisis to the alleged capture of the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. But there was virtually nothing about the torture memos.”
SNIPPET: “The reason for the silence on the forums is that al Qaeda couldn’t care less about the current U.S. debate about torture. The questions of who signed which memos when, whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 80 or 180 times, and whether a millipede was inserted into Abu Zubaydah’s confinement box are only interesting for those who did not expect the United States to behave this way. And the jihadists are not among them.
For a start, al Qaeda never cared about the black sites in the first place. It never expected its leaders to be treated gently, and it knew the dungeons of Cairo were infinitely worse anyway.”
Snippet: “Thomas Hegghammer is a fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. He is the coauthor of Al Qaeda in Its Own Words and author of the forthcoming Jihad in Saudi Arabia. He blogs about jihadi Web sites at www.jihadica.com.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/05/justice-nears-end-interrogation-memo-probe/
(AP)
“Source: Charges Unlikely for Lawyers Over Interrogation Memos”
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
WASHINGTON —
SNIPPET: “The person noted that the investigative report was still in draft form and subject to revisions. Attorney General Eric Holder also may make his own determination about what steps to take once the report has been finalized.
The Justice Department notified two senators by letter that a key deadline in the inquiry expired Monday, signaling that most of the work on the matter was completed. The letter does not mention the possibility of criminal charges, nor does it name the lawyers under scrutiny.”