The Warring States of NPF - TERRORISM: The Secrets of Guantanamo

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TERRORISM: The Secrets of Guantanamo

another post from Strategy Page

Quote:

March 3, 2004: A dozen more prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are being transferred to their home countries. This includes seven Russians, four Saudi Arabians and one Spaniard. Another 88 prisoners have been released. Over 600 prisoners are still at Guantanamo, but what goes on there is kept secret. Information does leak out, via those released or from governments that are negotiating to get their citizens transferred back home or released. Apparently some senior al Qaeda leaders, like Ramzi Binalshibh (who coordinated the September 11, 2001 attacks) have been convinced to talk. A few other known prisoners have been reported as making "useful statements." But not a lot of detailed information has come out of Guantanamo that the media can use.

Despite all the anti-U.S. rhetoric in Europe and the Middle East over Iraq, there is still a widespread, and growing, awareness that Islamic radicals are all over the place and are determined to carry on with more terrorist acts. This is backfiring on the United States, for these nations are now more frequently keeping the terrorist suspects they pick up, rather than turning them over to the United States. This is not a disaster, as the U.S. is still able to obtain a lot of information obtained from those foreign interrogations.

American intelligence agencies know how to make little bits of information useful. It was known from the beginning that the Guantanamo interrogations were not looking for a few explosive bits of information, but rather thousands of bits of data that could be organized to provide a better idea of what al Qaeda was, where it operated and who the key people were. This technique was used to run down Saddam Hussein, and is being used to find Osama bin Laden.

The CIA has never conducted so many interrogations, for so long, against such hostile subjects. Most of the Guantanamo prisoners are die hard Islamic radicals. Some were willing to talk, and a few of these proved to be providing false information. These prisoners soon found out that they could not play games, and win, against the growing database of information obtained from the interrogations. While bin Laden has not been caught by the database yet, dozens of lesser al Qaeda figures were identified, located and arrested because of the interrogations.

Torture has not been used, at least not torture in the classical sense (lots of physical pain.) Psychological pain is another matter. The most effective technique can best be described as disorientation and sleep deprivation. When you don't allow someone to sleep for days on end, and then disorient him (keep him in a room with no windows so that he does not know if it's day or night, or even how much time has passed), they lose their ability to focus their thoughts and efforts. At that point, interrogators start to get answers, honest answers. It takes energy and focus to lie effectively. Take away the energy and focus and you have a more cooperative subject.

Another effort underway is to "turn" some of the prisoners so that they will become American agents operating inside al Qaeda. This is a tricky business, as anyone released from Guantanamo will be seen as suspicious by al Qaeda cronies. For that reason, many of the prisoners have not been openly identified. This makes it possible to concoct a cover story for the prisoner (if they convincingly agree to turn) to account for the time they were out of touch. Some prisoners may already have been turned, and released back into the wild. Naturally, there will be no press releases put out on this subject. It is known that many lower level al Qaeda operatives were in it for the money and prestige, as much as the religious angle. A pile of money and a green card can appear very attractive to some of these guys.

It's very much a life and death game being played out down at Guantanamo. Information obtained there has already led to several al Qaeda attacks being aborted. If prisoners have been turned and released, a few lines in the New York Times could condemn some of those agents to a horrible death.

Some day, the full story of the Guantanamo interrogations will be told. But for now, information on what goes on there is a matter of life and death for Americans as well as the al Qaeda terrorists still on the loose.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo...163435,00.html

"Cuba? It was great, say boys freed from US prison camp

James Astill meets teenagers released from Guantanamo Bay who recall the place fondly "

thanks to vipe for this link

That article seems to imply that the CIA caught Saddam by piecing together interrogations from Guantanomo. First of all, the CIA didn't catch him, the army did, using army intelligence. Secondly, the vast majority of prisoners in Cuba were captured in Afghanistan months before we even invaded Iraq. How the hell could they have known what farms Saddam might be hiding in. Also, they were Al Qaeda operatives, and Al Qaeda and the Iraqi regime were not allies, nor did they have any operations or any real presence in Iraq.

fail critical reading? it says the same technique was used to track down Saddam that is being used in Guantanamo, not that the folks in Guantanamo told the CIA where Saddam was.

Wow. That article was like an acid trip.

I admit, it's hard to sit there and honestly accept that Guantanamo Bay isn't that bad of a deal of the prisoners of war there, and I'm not even a bleeding heart liberal. :eek:

I just watched Full Metal Jacket for the first time today. After having been exposed to a negative, eye-opening view of American soldiers during Vietnam, then reading an article that depicts American POW's being treated well and being left in a better state than they were captured, all I can say is...

< voice = "stoner" > whoaaaaaaaaaa, maaaaaaan. < / voice >

well, these were just kids that were in the wrong place in the wrong time. It appears that once the US realized they really didnt know anything, they set about making their life much easier and educating them, while arranging for their return.

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/charlie2.asp

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarthZeth

fail critical reading? it says the same technique was used to track down Saddam that is being used in Guantanamo, not that the folks in Guantanamo told the CIA where Saddam was.

Well,yes, I DID fail critical reading. Sorry sometimes I just sort of scan through cut+paste stuff.

Did the CIA use this technique to ascertain the locations(or existence) of the WMDs in Iraq? That sort of massive intelligence failure makes me doubt the efficacy of American intelligence.

So this is supporting the ability of the United States to take people who they have no reason to suspect as terrorist aside from their race and hold them without official charges or the right to have a lawyer? And keeping them from sleep and bombarding them with questions while they're halfway across the world from their families?

That tearing sound you're hearing is Ashcroft ripping up the Constitution.

haha.

seems like a lot of people have critical reading failures today.

Gitmo Bay detainees are POWs. POWs never have a right to laywers. They have many many reasons to suspect them of wrong doing (mostly because they were shooting at americans when they were taken in). Most of them are Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives.

but no, this isn't an article defending any of that. The article is to prove that all teh claism of human rights abuse are belony. The prisoners are being treated much better then any American POW has been treated by our enemies, and a whole lot better then most of them deserve.

I wonder why they didn't allow foreign inspectors in, though? I mean... if they're going to treat them nicely (more or less) anyway, why not just follow the Geneva Convention so that they wouldn't get heat... it's not like letting some french guy look at the prisoners is going to invalidate the interrogations.