The New York Times, the country's biggest cesspool for collecting leaks from the government, is brim-full today.  You have to hand it to them.  When it comes to publishing stuff damaging to the war effort, they have no peer.  This time, my animus is directed, not toward the paper, which is only *doing its job* but rather toward our intelligence agencies, specifically the FBI and the CIA.  The story, by David Johnston: "At a Secret Interrogation, Dispute Flared..." concerns a squabble between the two agencies regarding the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, who in the end coughed up vital information, including the identity of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed.  Some Feebs thought it was just too, too, mean and rough. Some CIA officers agree, others disagree.  What everyone ought to be able to agree on is that this is precisely the sort of family quarrel that should be kept under wraps until it's settled.

Readers need no help from me to detect the hidden undercurrent: ~With these horrors taking place,   the nation is in danger.~   The real concern is the abject failure of responsible officials of our intelligence agencies to keep their dogs on the leash.  The Plame-Wilson assault on the historical record, evidently aided and abetted by elements of the CIA, clearly demonstrates that the Agency has been out of control.  This latest outbreak proves that the Department of Justice shelters its own platoon of disgruntled babblers.  The Attorney General has a dead mouse in his lunch.

The leaks that form the basis of today's story appear to be gross indiscipline, rather than lawbreaking. The same cannot be said for the nearly treasonable irresponsibility of the nameless and faceless officials who revealed the NSA program that surveilles international phone calls by known terrorists.  The law governing communications intelligence, 18 U.S.C. ¤ 798 prohibits any disclosure of classified information concerning the communications intelligence activities of the United States. It punishes such action with imprisonment up to 10 years.

In short, the Attorney General has to be aware that there are undiscovered felons out there who have done grave damage to the security of the United States. Yet he seems blissfully complacent. Why?  One can  only speculate, but the evident unwillingness of this administration to face a firestorm of media outrage in an election season is certainly an admissible hypothesis.  He could obtain John Doe indictments of the leakers, haul in reporters Lichtblau and Risen, and hold them as material witnesses until they come clean.  Reluctance to resort to such extreme measures may be understandable, but it amounts to something like dereliction. Willy-nilly, we are at war. We didn't seek it, but our enemies are dead set upon waging it, after their own fashion.  Under the circumstances, given the dispositon of the president's political rivals and media opponents, it is foolish to hope for peace on the home front.

Now, we find that the Attorney General shelters disloyal leakers under his own roof.  Some excerpts from the article in today's paper makes that abundantly obvious.

...interviews with nearly a dozen current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials briefed on the process show, the interrogation of Mr. Zubaydah was fraught with sharp disputes, debates about the legality and utility of harsh interrogation methods, and a rupture between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the C.I.A. that has yet to heal.

Some of those interviewed offered sharply contrasting accounts, but all said that the disagreements were intense. More than four years later, these disputes are foreshadowing the debate that Mr. Bush’s new proposals are meeting in Congress, as lawmakers wrangle about what rules should apply as terrorism suspects are captured, questioned and, possibly, tried before military tribunals.

[snip].

According to accounts from five former and current government officials who were briefed on the case, F.B.I. agents — accompanied by intelligence officers — initially questioned him using standard interview techniques. They bathed Mr. Zubaydah, changed his bandages, gave him water, urged improved medical care, and spoke with him in Arabic and English, languages in which he is fluent. [ed: Things get rougher later.]

[snip]

At times, Mr. Zubaydah, still weak from his wounds, was stripped and placed in a cell without a bunk or blankets. He stood or lay on the bare floor, sometimes with air-conditioning adjusted so that, one official said, Mr. Zubaydah seemed to turn blue. At other times, the interrogators piped in deafening blasts of music by groups like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sometimes, the interrogator would use simpler techniques, entering his cell to ask him to confess.

There you have it. Torture by Chili Pepper, the same cruel and inhumane treatment that was used by American troops in Panama to break down the resistance of Manuel Noriega.  What is more--if you can believe the Times--these and other brutal techniques were authorized by White House counsel.  No one claims that Abu Z suffered any permanent damage.  On the contrary, his captors were obviously anxious to ensure that he recovered from his wounds in time to develop into the prime witness that he eventually became.

The single certainty that one gathers from perusing this long and detailed story is that certain offiicers of the FBI seem to be inordinately disposed to blab to newspapers.  General Gonzales, where are you, not only in this affair but above all in the pursuit of the criminals who exposed the NSA program?

Contributed by John Werntz on September 10, 2006 at 05:38 PM in Current Affairs, Islamism Delenda Est, John "72nd TCS" Werntz, Unclear on the concept | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Rurik

Torture by the Red Hot Chili Peppers? I'd just use Pepper Spray applied to the mucuous membranes around the genitals and other sensitive places.

Posted by: Rurik | Sep 10, 2006 11:33:36 PM

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