… An intelligence-community game of Telephone ensued, in which Mohamed’s “confession” that he’d read up on the manufacture of nuclear weapons was passed along from interrogator to interrogator, until U.S. authorities convinced themselves that Mohamed was part of a dangerous nuclear plot against the United States.

Some may call it a game of Telephone, but I call it proof that you can indeed whip up something using a version of Barbara Ehrenreich’s home centrifuge.

“Kiriakou: “The cable traffic back and forth was extremely specific. And the bottom line was these were very unusual authorities that the agency got after 9/11. No one wanted to mess them up. No one wanted to get in trouble by going overboard. So it was extremely deliberate. . . . “

CABLE traffic (I presume more in the nature of typed messages a la the internet). And Kiriakou goes on to suggest that every slap, every stress position, every act had to be approved by the Deputy Director of Operations before they could be applied. So presumably the treatments are described in realtime, after approvals are requested and authorized. I’d imagine the cables give a running commentary, along with information being obtained. There’s also likely a time logged, as well.

Not as indicting as the tapes, perhaps, but such a detailed description would go far beyond a simple roster of what was on the tapes. I wonder if these “cables” were also destroyed.

http://www.vanityfair.com/maga…..rentPage=3

The shakiness of Ashcroft’s “multiple independent and corroborating sources” claim was demonstrated by an affidavit from an F.B.I. agent, Joe Ennis, in support of Padilla’s detention. Referring to Binyam Mohamed as “Subject-1,” it said that his “wife” had told law-enforcement authorities that he “would often become emotional and cry when he discussed his willingness to die for his God.” Strangely enough, Mohamed was and remains unmarried.

A bit reminescent of the information proving that Kurnaz was an illegal enemy combatant – the “secret fact” that a good friend of his who he intended to travel with originally was a suicide bomber killed in a then fairly notorious attack. Except for the minor problem that his friend is still alive and well today and never travelled out of the country to participate in any bombing, much less a suicide bombing. But without advocacy, these things get tossed out unchallenged and bad things ensue.

For example, we are now finding out that Binyam Mohamed looked at a satirical piece on how to make a nuclear weapon.

How Mom Sent a Guy to GITMO details”

“my mother, Barbara Ehrenreich, wrote with two coauthors 30 years ago. The article, published in Seven Days magazine, was chock-full of helpful tips for would-be nuclear bomb makers. For instance, it advised those struggling to enrich uranium to make “a simple home centrifuge. Fill a standard-size bucket one-quarter full of liquid uranium hexafluoride. Attach a six-foot rope to the bucket handle. Now swing the [bucket] around your head as fast as possible. Keep this up for about 45 minutes.”

Barbara’s daughter goes on to flesh out a part of what happened:

Pressed for details about his purported nuclear know-how, for instance, Mohamed admitted that he had, indeed, once read my mother’s article on the Web, but said it was just a spoof.

They didn’t get the joke. According to Mohamed’s attorneys, who have had access to classified records, the article seems to have been deemed a crucial piece of “evidence” against their client. An intelligence-community game of Telephone ensued, in which Mohamed’s “confession” that he’d read up on the manufacture of nuclear weapons was passed along from interrogator to interrogator, until U.S. authorities convinced themselves that Mohamed was part of a dangerous nuclear plot against the United States.

This, then, is the basis for the allegations in the Mobbs Declaration and other Padilla filings that Padilla and “his associate” were “researching” how to make a dirty bomb. From the declaration:

Padilla and his associate conducted research in the construction of a “uranium-enhanced” explosive device.

This got passed on to all of us, in the Dept of Justice Press Conf given by Comey where he explained all about how top Al-Qaeda Operative (not non-al Qaeda, hotelier to a range of persons including some al-Qaeda) had provided evidence that had been widely corroborated (by a guy whose penis was being sliced) about “plans” Padilla had to create a dirty bomb (bc after all, Binyam Mohamed admitted to reading the online available piece of satire).

So yeah, when faced with having to put on proof that a guy whose genitals were being hacked had admitted to reading a piece of satire and he may have shared it with Padilla and melding that into a claim of a plot to detonate a dirty bomb, DOJ folded.

But not before actively and aggressively pursuing the ability of the CIC to torture American citizens, in America, without charge and with no advocate and no reliable evidence, for years — to use Americans in America as lab rats for torture interrogation experiments.

Beyond sick.

Padilla, IIRC, was maltreated terribly and denied counsel and due process for 2 or 3+ years, had a non-defense at his trial, and still was not convicted of the “dirty bomb” charge. (Was that so weak by that time that it was not even brought against him?)

So, there we have the FBI using relationship-interrogation, getting one piece of useful info, getting info against ’some guy named Padilla’ — quotes because I guess he had not been on anybody’s radar before then — and not much more. Well, 1 out of X ain’t bad …

Then the CIA steps in and uses “borderline torture”. It walks out with, what, 0 out of Y? Plus some broken human beings? And some broken principles, too?

I really hope that there are some head-banging “lessons learned” sessions going on throughout Washington and Langley.

You know, Freud would have a field day with that typo.

So while Kirakou was telling them about how great it was that Z could be waterboarded for 35 seconds and that flipped a switch and then everything was gook and he was compliant, it seems the logical follow up would have been to ask him why, then, with his understanding of how it only takes 35 seconds to turn the faucet to open, KSM took 100 sessions in two weeks. They really buried that number back then. AND alluded to the fact that they might have had it since 2007.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06…..gewanted=1

The Times reported last year that the intensity of his treatment — various harsh techniques, including waterboarding, used about 100 times over a period of two weeks — prompted worries that officers might have crossed the boundary into illegal torture.

emph added

So in a June 2008 article they are referencing a 2007 article about the intensity of the treatment, but I don’t know if that article used the 100 times in two weeks info or not. This June 2008 article does, but boy does it bury that info. And not only bury it, but they also include earlier and more prominently the info from Kirakou, in their story about Z instead of the “90 secs) story about KSM

In a December interview with The Times, before being cautioned by the C.I.A. not to discuss classified matters, Mr. Kiriakou, who was not present for the waterboarding but read the resulting intelligence reports, said he had been told that Abu Zubaydah became compliant after 35 seconds of the water treatment.