As the discussion over C.I.A. torture tactics continues to build I would like to pose three questions that we need to start echoing across the air-waves.
1.) On December 12, 2001, Special forces on the ground at Tora Bora failed to capture Osama Bin Laden, but knew that he had slipped on foot through the mountains into Pakistan. And so with that knowledge in hand, what "actionable intelligence" did the C.I.A. hope to gain from any of the local Poppy Field Farmers who were detained and tortured that we didn't already know?
We now know that Osama Bin Laden remained in Pakistan the entire eight years of Bush's Presidency. Why did Bush or Cheney not send the C.I.A. to talk to President Musharraf under the threat of torture if is it was so effective at extracting information?
2.) The IAEA Weapons inspectors combed Iraq from top to bottom for six years and finally by 2007 determined that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and disbanded the search. With that knowledge in hand, what "actionable intelligence" did Bush or Cheney hope to gain from a laundry list of Taxi Cab drivers and School Teachers that we didn't already know?
In both Afghanistan and Iraq no one is asking the real important question.....and that is what were the interrogations all about?
We know where Bin Laden was, and we also knew there were no WMD's to be found. And so to continue to go back and forth with conservatives about semantics over Enhanced Interrogations versus Torture, we need to start asking what was the purpose of interrogating people who had absolutely no connection to the 15 Saudi Arabians (plus 4) who hi-jacked several airliners.
3.) Once it was discovered that Prince Bandar had wired funds to the Hi-jackers, why was there no investigation, as Bush, Cheney, and Rice continued to share Cigars with the Bandar during White House visits.
Let's stop allowing the Wrong-wing wackos to lead the conversation. It is time we start controlling the narrative. Maybe we'll get lucky and someone on the inside will make a deathbed confession as to how Bush and Cheney pulled it all off.