9/11

9/11, al Qaeda, mainstream media, waterboarding

U.S. official waterboarded, survived unharmed, but opinions still vary

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waterboarding demonstration

ABC News has reported that a government official was voluntarily waterboarded (he survived, apparently none the worse for wear). In 2004, Daniel Levin “was the top Department of Justice official in charge of deciding which interrogation techniques could be used in the War on Terror” and “decided to experience” waterboarding “first-hand.”

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment about that,” Daniel Levin said in response to ABC News’ questions about his experience while seen…

Daniel Levin

wearing a nice suit and tie,

Daniel Levin

walking unassisted,

Daniel Levin

entering an expensive foreign car,

Daniel Levin

and even driving it away on his own.

Despite surviving waterboarding unharmed, ABC News reported it, “…learned [from an undisclosed source] that Levin told the White House that even though he knew he would not die, he found his experience terrifying.”

It has been widely reported that waterboarding, as it was used by the CIA, is not life threatening and only invokes the fear of drowning in the one being waterboarded. The CIA waterboarded three top-tier terrorists in 2002 and 2003 and its use is said to have prevented additional death and destruction after 3,000 died on 9/11, assisted the CIA in determining how al Qaeda operates, and identified many additional terrorists. Members of Congress were briefed on waterboarding as far back at 2002.

Waterboarded al Qaeda terrorists

Unfortunately (in my humble opinion), the CIA stopped using waterboarding to interrogate terrorists in 2003 but at least one former senior U.S. Navy lawyer disagrees. That lawyer, who was never deployed during his career, is now the dean of law at a very liberal college. He regularly testifies before Congress alongside those representing the terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay and is often quoted by the mainstream media. He told ABC News that, “There’s no question it is torture. This is a technique by which an individual is strapped to a board, elevated by his feet and either dunked into water or water poured over his face over a towel or a blanket. It has been torture or considered torture since the Spanish Inquisition and ever since then.”

Now that he and I have put our spin on waterboarding, you can watch ABC News’ video report here (after their brief commercial).

9/11, FISA, Terrorist Surveillance Program

Not just one missed terrorist’s call, Attorney General Mukasey

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“We knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went. We’ve got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn’t come home, to show for that.” — Attorney General Michael Mukasey, speaking last week “in Nancy Pelosi’s hometown.”

AG Michael Mukasey revealed new, stunning information: he now knows precisely to whom that call was made. As 13 of the 15 muscle hijackers came late and knew little, that call undoubtedly was to one of only seven men: Zacarias Moussaoui; the two members of al-Qaeda muscle hijackers who the CIA knew, in March 2000, had entered the United States two months prior, Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi; or one of the four hijacker pilots, Hani Hanjour, Marwan al Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah, and Mohamed Atta. All seven trained to fly after they arrived here. As they entered America alone or in pairs and initially moved and operated independently, each separately made updates to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed via a common communications network. In addition, with Moussaoui excluded, literally hundreds of communications took place between the remaining six.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal quoted Mukasey citing ‘One Missed Call‘ — had only we been listening. Yet the 9/11 Commission found that “communications sufficient to enable planning and direction of the operatives and those who would be helping them” was a critical element in the successful attack. What follows are obvious examples of the terrorists’ communications, to illustrate the many ‘dots’ uncollected before 3,000 died. [Note that the first two citations are to demonstrate that our intelligence agencies knew Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi to be al-Qaeda and had arrived in the United States on January 15, 2000]: