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(h/t to skdadl comment 32 on burqa’s Oxdown blog)The name of the article giving this 2-part video of British TV show (Riz Khan) is: ‘Smackdown of Another Torture Defender’The 2 guests are Matthew Alexander (pseudonym), successful detainee interrogator in Iraq, AF Major author of ‘How To Break A Terrorist’ (‘break’ meaning breakthrough in interrogator lingo) [our guy], paired against David Rivkin who has become tagged with the label, "torture lawyer".I could get all prosey and poetic about "Our Guy", but I’ll have mercy on you pups and leave off here so you can enjoy the ‘smack-down’.
Video: Best Interrogation Debate: Torture or Trust |
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| By: acquarius74 Saturday April 25, 2009 7:37 pm | |
36 Comments
Will watch tomorrow. I got to where he said ” don’t use the word torture”..” it is coercive techniques ” and I had to declare break time. Guess that is why he could not view Dr. Siddiqui’s injuries as evidence of torture, as he said to the judge. He only saw evidence of coercive techniques? It is becoming unbearable to hear torture apologists use their Orwellian double speak. Now I understand why he is the prosecutor in her case.
I don’t know if you ever went back to Jim’s “A Letter to Senators” diary. I left a video link that you might like to watch. It is entitled “America’s Secrets: Where is the US hiding its female prisoners?” It is hosted by Yvonne Ridley, the one who went to Afghanistan to search for prisoner 650 (Siddiqui). It is 48 minutes long and was produced by Press TV in Iran. In the video she mentions that in a few days she will present a video on Dr. Siddiqui.
http://www.presstv.com/program…..x?id=90350
Didn’t know Rivkin was Siddiqi’s prosecutor. I’m even more amazed that Matt Allexander could sit next to him and listen to that BS with such composure.
Yvonne Ridley sounds like a most interesting person. You know, since I found FDL, I’ve learned there are a lot of really good people who have unshakeable principles. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the crowd whose conduct is purely money oriented, nothing else has meaning for them.
Going now to watch your video. Thanks.
The power of one. I saw her in a few videos as she was searching for the unknown woman. The knowledge of prisoner 650 compelled her to go to Afghanistan; the most dangerous place on earth. She felt the siren call of humanity..that we are responsible for one another. We are all connected. There is no other.
Ridley is the reason that Dr. Siddiqui is alive.
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” Ridley called her the Grey Lady of Bagram because she was almost a ghost, a spectre whose cries and screams continue to haunt those who heard her.
The woman is registered as Prisoner number 650 and the US officials can’t deny the fact, Ridley said. “I demand that the US military free the Grey Lady immediately. We don’t know her identity, we don’t know her state of mind and we don’t know the extent of the abuse or torture she has been subjected to.”
On 24th July the Asian Human Rights Commission issued an Urgent Appeal in the case of the disappearance of a lady doctor. Amid public protests in Pakistan, on August 1, an FBI official visited the house of Dr. Afia’s brother in Houston to deliver the news that she is alive and in custody. One week later she was produced in a New York court where even the Judge judge expressed surprise at the quick extradition of Dr. Afia from Afghanistan to New York noting that in such a short period one could not extradite a person from Bronx (a New York Borough) to Manhattan. “
http://amperspective.com/html/…..diqui.html
Well done, acquarius — and thanks very much for finding that link. That was the full show I watched some time ago, but I just could not find the full YouTubes when I went looking the other day (and I’d forgotten Riz Khan’s name).
Isn’t it amazing to be able to sit through that much Rivkin, mainly because you know there’s going to be an excellent rebuttal coming? Alexander is such a cool guy — to me he looks so young, and yet the assurance born of experience simply radiates from him as he talks.
Will return to watch bbutterfly’s Ridley video and read through Horton.
skdadl, I’ll be forever indebted to you for leading me to that Matt Alexander vs David Rivkin video. I’m so proud of MA. (on http://www.amazon.com his book, ‘How to Break A Terrorist’ , used begins at $1.00 plus shipping.
Everything he said on the video is a good argument against those tongue twisting torture defenders. Somehting is screwed up in their brain! And bluebutterfly said Rivkin is the prosecutor in Siddiqui’s case – he is the lowest of venomous reptiles. Wonder if he is closely associated with Addington and Yoo? Sounds like they were all clones of Henry Kissinger.
After viewing these 2 clips, I just sat and reflected…I raised 4 sons who are now in their 50s. When they were young I saw to it that they were familiar with Kipling’s poem, “IF”. Matt Alexander fully measures up to those qualities of A MAN listed in that poem.
I especially loved that statement he made, “I don’t care who I’m fighting, that doesn’t change who I am; my principles stay the same.”
Thanks again for one of my treasures, skdadl.
” Yoo would be right in the crosshairs of any such inquiry, and it is unlikely he would be granted transactional immunity for his testimony. Indeed, Republicans like Sen. Arlen Specter and former Reagan-era Justice Department official David Rivkin did Yoo no favors when they argued against the creation of a commission by saying it would get in the way of a prosecutor looking at the same matters. “
http://www.thedailybeast.com/b…..mbshell/2/
” Both Rabkin and David Rivkin Jr., who served in the Justice Department under former presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, suggested that forming a committee would violate the Constitution by “outsourcing” law enforcement, including activities that are under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. “
http://www.npr.org/templates/s…..=101484620
” Before taking the testimony of barrister Philippe Sands, whose book on interrogations at Guantánamo Bay was previewed by the Guardian last month, members of the House of Representatives approved a subpoena for vice presidential aide David Addington.
Another legal expert appearing today, veteran Republican counsel David Rivkin, questioned Sands’ assertion that the Northern Ireland conflict could help the US set policy for its detainees.
“With all due respect, the IRA was not an existentialist threat like al-Qaida,” Rivkin said, dismissing the possibility that the US could achieve a settlement with Islamic terrorists. “
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…..guantanamo
If this happens, what are the torture apologists going to do? These men are free to tell their stories about years of torture. The source is Voice of America, so it is reliable.
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” U.S. officials said the Obama administration is planning to admit some of the Chinese Muslims being held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into the United States.
News reports quoted unnamed officials as saying up to seven of the 17 ethnic Uighurs at Guantanamo could be resettled in the U.S.
But the reports indicated the decision to release them is not final and faces opposition from within the U.S. government and from the public. “
http://www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=28809
I know about the Uighurs but had not heard the latest. I read somewhere that there are people in US ready and willing to be their sponsors. I would vote “yes, give them a chance”, but you know how some elements in our society will react. Hopefully they will be well hidden in the witness protection program in a heavily Chinese area.
Going to your link now. Thanks.
This news is appearing everywhere today. I wonder if it will be on MSM? Stay tuned..’g’.
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” But the Obama administration’s plans reflect the view that, despite expected opposition, the Uighurs would be the easiest detainees to relocate in the U.S.
Sabin Willett, a lawyer for some of the Uighurs in Guantanamo, argued that his clients should be set free immediately. But he said officials should make sure that the Uighurs have some measure of protection from people who might mistakenly consider them a threat.
“I fear political opponents of the Obama administration will try to sow fear and paranoia about the Uighurs,” Willett said. “Once America gets a look at our clients, all this mythology will fall away, and America will feel ashamed at the fact they were in prison so long.” “
http://www.latimes.com/news/na…..;track=rss
hmmmm, US Treasury sure likes to freeze the assets of foreigners, huh. What kind of robbery would that be called?
Haven’t we got enough trouble without meddling in affairs between Trukistan and China? If I were a foreigner I’d divest myself of all US holdings…
Interesting because there likely is no such organization. Somebody did not check their facts. That alleged group and Abdul Haq are not connected. So, who’s assets did they freeze? Nobodies..it is a fake news release.
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“The founder and leader of the organization was allegedly Hasan Mahsum, who was shot and killed by the Pakistani Army on October 2, 2003.
” questions exist as to whether ETIM existed as China described it. According to Dru Gladney, president of the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College and a widely acknowledged authority on the Uighurs, few experts “had ever heard of” ETIM until after China began trumpeting the group as a threat. He also noted that the majority of information on ETIM “was traced back to Chinese sources,” providing for “a real credibility gap.” Professor Gladney says that some believe ETIM to be part of a US-China quid pro quo, where China supported the “war on terror,” and “support of the US for the condemnation of ETIM was connected to that support.”
The Uyghur American Association has requested that international community establish an independent body to investigate whether ETIM exists. “
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E…..c_Movement
There was a Abdul Haq who was executed by the Taliban in 2001 because the CIA wanted it that way. A fascinating man who could have brought peace. Pentagon psyops on the day that word of the possible release of Uyghurs into the US is released.
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” Following the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001 against the United States, Abdul Haq entered Afghanistan from Pakistan in an attempt to build support for resistance to the Taliban. Some sources have speculated that the CIA supported this initiative but family members have denied this claim. After a spectacular chase reminiscent of a Hollywood scene, he was captured by the Taliban along with nineteen others between the towns of Hisarak and Azro, and was executed on October 26, 2001. The Guardian speculates that his capture was due to a betrayal by double agents. Some reports soon after his death blamed the CIA for siding too closely with Pakistan’s ISI, which did not wish to see Afghans united across ethnic lines, and for failing to intervene to rescue him from his Taliban captors. This version was solidified by reports of tension between Haq and American agents after an interview in which he stated “…we cannot be [America’s] puppet.” He was one of many Afghan rebel leaders opposed to the U.S. intervention.
An obituary in The Guardian called Abdul Haq an “astute leader”, and one of the few Afghans capable of working to bring together a working pan-ethnic loya jirga. “
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Haq_(Afghan_leader)
http://www.historycommons.org/…..=abdul_haq
what to say?? Why spin such a colossal lie? We will all become madmen if we continue to try to track their thinking back to some point of reason – they are not rational….just as obsessed as you-know-who and his gang. hmmm-what will Darth do if he is hopelessly cornered?
Outstanding pull, acquarius.
The best experts on the subject are unanimous on torture, something rarely seen in any field.
Those who are pro-torture don’t seem to understand they are telling the enemy what kind of treatment of American prisoners will be acceptable.
If I were American military in the mountains of Afghanistan, I would not view them as being “for the troops.”
thanks, burqa. There needs to be a follow-up on more of those who actually performed the torture. One female soldier refused to perform the tortures, then committed suicide. She was accused of having empathy for the prisoners.
What about when they return to civilian life (after 3 to 5 tours in the ME). Would you like to live next to a torturer? Risk your children living near a torturer. I’d be proud to live next to Matt Alexander, but Rivkin’s kind need to be isolated somewhere for the good of society.
What a great link. thanks.
rivkin thinks waterboarding is torture.
Hell who you going to believe? Matthew Alexander who has been a successful interrogator without torture. DUH I think I’m going with Alexander
What a great video
Matthew Alexander “used as a recruiting tool”
this guy has done over 1000 interrogators. How in the hell would Rivkin know anything about this? Why would he know?
Leen, I really loved it when Rivkin had been spouting off about SERE training as if he was dropping some big winning point on Alexander. Then, calmly and without sarcasm, Alexander said, “I’ve been through SERE training.” loved it!!!
bluebutterfly (or anyone): do you know when Ridley’s program about Aafia Siddiqui is going to be on, or otherwise available?
I want to know that, too.
I found a list of the al Queada ‘most dangerous’ (Siddiqui is on it) and as I read about them I noticed they all had one common factor: Kahlid Shaik Muhammad…did he name everybody he knew during the 183 waterboardings in a desperate effort to stop the torture?
The FBI and/or CIA have captured (and tried) some of them; on evidence provided by KSM given up under waterboarding?
I’m no sleuth, and they may all be guilty of something, but there is no forgiving the abuse these humans have endured while in our captivity.
She was not on it in 2003. Then she was on a ’seeking information’ list a few years later. If you found an FBI most wanted, I’d like to see it. Not if you have to search for it, though. Just curious as to the date.
It is simple..if you read all of the testimonies of the hearings held at Guantanamo to determine enemy combatant status, you find that it is a circle. One names one who names another one. There are cousins and brothers there. In Mohammed’s testimony he mentions his children tortured for four months and that his mother, father, and brothers are jailed, also. He appears to have relayed money from Osama to others, but did not train as an al Qaeda fighter. His uncle was one of the first 911 attackers. Don’t forget, though, that the FBI had infiltrated that group. They chose not to stop it.
A few of them said Osama has a nuclear bomb. The same ‘confession’ from many of them. The same terrorist attacks in Yemen, etc. Mohammed confessed to everything but the second coming. I have not read all of the testimonies, but the common theme is…”I was tortured and I said what they wanted me to say to make it stop”. Mohammed is quite a smart character. He gave a remarkable overview of America. When he questions who is an enemy combatant, he said that there are 10? or 14? million in Saudia Arabia who think the US is. He mentions manifest destiny and a few other things that show he knows American history well. It was a surprise to read. He has a plausible explanation for the charges against him. Very rational ones for someone who has been tortured for 5 years. By that fact, I’d guess he is not guilty of most charges. He was a fixer..a go between..not a 911 mastermind.
Mohammed was tracked for years through Saudia Arabia, the US, etc. He could have been picked up at any time. He was not wanted for 911 by the FBI until he confessed. The only picture of him in existence is the one of the day he was captured. He also said the computer found on the day he was captured belonged to the guy he was living with. That is when the US ‘found’ the worst faked Osama videotape of them all. He is known to like alcohol and prostitutes; not the lifestyle of an Islamic fanatic. He was named by one of the other detainees..I don’t remember how to spell his name, so don’t want to risk losing what I have typed by looking. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Research showed a few different declarations..One of Dr. Siddiqui’s marriages was to his brother, was to his cousin, and she called Mohammed uncle. It is so confusing! Acquarius..go back to Jim’s diary if you haven’t; I added lots there after the diary was ‘gone’. There is a recent interview with her second husband on youtube. Sure wish I understood the language.
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/4943
Abu Zubaydah..he was mentally ill before he was captured. He was named by al Nashiri. Al Nashiri, in his Guantanamo hearing, said he gave the information that his tortures wanted and then they would stop the torture.
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“In June 2006, Simon & Schuster published a book titled The One Percent Doctrine authored by Ron Suskind. In the book, Suskind writes that sources in the intelligence community revealed to him that Abu Zubaydah knew nothing about the operations of al-Qaeda, but rather was al-Qaeda’s go-to guy for minor logistics such as travel for wives and children. Suskind notes that Zubaydah turned out to be mentally ill, keeping a diary “in the voice of three people: Hani 1, Hani 2, and Hani 3″ — a boy, a young man and a middle-aged alter ego. The book also quotes Dan Coleman, then the FBI’s top al-Qaeda analyst, telling a senior bureau official, “This guy is insane, certifiable, split personality.” According to Suskind, this judgment was “echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President,” yet two weeks later Bush gave a speech and labeled Zubaydah as “one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States.” Suskind also writes about how the CIA abused Zubaydah to get him to talk. “
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Zubaydah
I think I read the same thing you did here. The list of names was from a wiki search reference link. Sorry I didn’t pay attention now that you think of it, whether it was FBI or CIA – I think CIA because that is what I was searching for.
Treat yourself and watch Leen’s video here at OX, entitled, Bruce Fein…..
He lays it all on the table, using words like ‘ducking, dodging, cowardly..’ We need a nation of men like him.
Just finished watching. He did a great job of telling truth to power. Torture is illegal. It is a war crime. Nothing the apologists can say will change that fact.
It is not important. I found many dead FBI links as I looked for information. Kind of odd. Nothing about her case is honest. It stinks. Did you read the charges against her? She is portrayed as another Jessica Lynch. Did that picture of her look like she was capable of standing, let alone continuing to fight after she was shot?
I can’t find confirmation of the date of her hearing. Have you seen anything? Will have to check some Pakistan sites later. You might not have noticed but the US MSM sucks…’g’.
She was on ‘The Agenda’. This program appears on Thursdays. Maybe this coming week? It is wait and see, or e-mail the show. I chose not to simply because it is Iran.
A bit of Negroponte news for you. Rats are jumping ship.
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” Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert says he learned from a CIA-connected “whistleblower” in 2006 that Bush administration officials were suppressing the existence of a wiretapped conversation between Rep. Jane Harman and a suspected Israeli agent.
John D. Negroponte, former head of the then newly established Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), had blocked then CIA Director Porter J. Goss from briefing Hastert, according to the account the whistleblower gave the former Republican House speaker.
Gen. Michael V. Hayden , who became CIA director upon Goss’s forced resignation in May 2006, also had not informed Hastert about the wiretap, according to what the whistleblower told Hastert’s aides. “
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmsp…..38;cpage=1
” The United States is ”relatively close” to making decisions on what to do with an initial group of Guantanamo Bay detainees, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday.
Holder spoke to The Associated Press during a flight to London, the first of several stops where he will visit with European leaders to discuss terrorism, drugs, and cyber-crime.
Republicans in Congress say Guantanamo should remain in operation and are mobilizing to fight the release of detainees into the United States.
Against that backdrop, Holder hoped to reassure skeptical Europeans without generating too much public opposition back home. After meetings in London and Prague, the attorney general is to give a speech Wednesday night in Berlin about Guantanamo. “
http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin……html?_r=2
Holder needs to stay at home and tend to the critical condition of our Justice Dept now, not wasting time and money spreading false hope all over the world. He just doesn’t get it, Bruce Fein expresses the frustration of our people very well, IMHO.
It’s near midnight here – sleep.
Oh, well..he doesn’t do much when he’s here, anyways..’g’. I did wonder how he felt when he was there? What was he thinking? Who’s idea was it to take him to the torture chambers? He certainly couldn’t say “America doesn’t torture”. I went to the torture chamber in the Victoria Museum in BC, around the age of nine. To this day, I can visualize what I saw. (Replicas of the London Towers).
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” After arriving in London on Sunday night, the attorney general and his staffers took a tour of the Tower of London — home of The Bloody Tower, a historic torture site.
The tower visit is standard fare for tourists, but one loaded with extra meaning for Holder, who listened quietly to tales of torture, execution and palace intrigue. “
http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin……html?_r=2
For those of you with dial up, information given in the featured video is here.
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” Torture? It probably killed more Americans than 9/11
A US major reveals the inside story of military interrogation in Iraq. By Patrick Cockburn, winner of the 2009 Orwell Prize for journalism
The use of torture by the US has proved so counter-productive that it may have led to the death of as many US soldiers as civilians killed in 9/11, says the leader of a crack US interrogation team in Iraq. “
http://www.independent.co.uk/n…..74396.html
Great Find, bluebutterfly,. Going there now to see what Patrick Cockburn has to say about Our Guy. Let’s do all we can to keep Matt Alexander and his team on the front page. I’m going to send an e-mail to Bill Moyers and Charlie Rose asking them to have him on their programs. He is the best pushback for the torture defenders: His very large positive against their very large negative.
Good morning to you; have a great day. Charlie..not sure on him, but definitely to Bill Moyers. Guess what I missed? If Donald was my employer, he’d be saying “you’re fired”. Dr. Siddiqui’s second husband is in Guantanamo. His name is Ammar al Baluchi. He was mentioned in the farce of the century aka The 911 Commission Report. Take a look at his testimony from his enemy combatant status hearing.
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” Paragraph l: Mr Khalid Sheikh Mohammad is my uncle by blood; he is my mother’s brother. He owned a honey trading company and a henna distribution company. Additionally, he was also trying to work Pakistan export and import. All these companies or activities were personal and belonged to no organization or party but a source of income for his family members. I even worked with him in the honey company in Karachi for a short while and I did not see any presence or membership of al Qaida. I heard that Mr Khalid Sheikh Mohammed while he was in Qatar in the 80’s had a self improvement hobby where he and his brother “Abid” encouraged teenagers and youths to finish their education and pay attention to education in general.
If I was introduced to a person via Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, that does not necessarily mean that this person is a combatant or necessarily an al Qaida supporter. The people I met through my uncle are businessmen interested in trade, education and travel. I am not aware of any links to animosity towards the United States or fighting against the United States.
Why would a contact with my uncle who is a member of my family be considered as a crime or as evidence that I am an enemy combatant? “
http://www.globalsecurity.org/…..070330.htm
I (nor anyone else) cannot separate fact from fiction as to KSM. He has admitted to every imaginable offense, which clearly establishes that his “confessions” are worthless – no single person could have masterminded so many operations, IMO.
Likewise, IMO, there are many lies spread about Siddiqui, mixed perhaps with some truths. Those responsible for kidnapping her children, regardless of what she may or may not have done, is a crime; and those guilty of committing that crime should be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Saddiqui’s youngest child captured with her was 6 months old at the time, not yet knowledgeable in any language!
I have never know such depth of disgust in my entire 75 years of life!
Lots of luck with Charlie. Don’t have to like ‘em to take advantage of his large audience..’g’.I need some sleep..have been up all night with a migraine, ’til later. I leave you with this bizarre letter in regards to the boy arrested with Dr. Siddiqui. Read the last sentence and tell me what you think. Who is this boy?
http://www.chowrangi.com/unite…..es-it.html
Re the boy: Who knows for sure? The FBI DNA tests, per official letter, were ‘preliminary’. FBI uses many partial truths, so can’t rule out that. I can see why the boy would lie to save himself; perhaps Saddiqui told him to deny her if he was captured. He may fear re-arrest if he admits she is his mother.
What a shameful, sorry denouncement of FBI involvement this whole story is!
I’m not sure about Charlie either – I simply turn off the TV when he has guests like Kissinger on; wish he would not give such as he a voice. However, Charlie claims to be an independent voter, and he does have a large audience including many in DC. If I send him an e-mail it must be carefully worded to challenge him to prove that he is truly unbiased and willing to present both sides of this critical issue by having Matt Alexander as a guest.