[indigo girl]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102906A.shtml

Originally Posted by www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102906A.shtml

... Ron Suskind has been considered one of the best- sourced reporters when it comes to the CIA or the US government. Spiegel Online: And what happened to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed? Suskind: ... He was water-boarded, hot and cold, all matter of deprivations, beatings, threats. He told us some things, but frankly things that professional interrogators say could have been gotten otherwise.

Spiegel Online: It seems clear that at a certain point CIA agents were asking for some clear assurances that they wouldn't be prosecuted. Suskind: Absolutely. ... Bush decided to act. I think the White House decided that the fall of this election year would be the ideal time. So now they acknowledge that the Black Sites exist.

Spiegel Online: With all your access to high-level sources, have you come across anyone who still thinks it is a good idea for the US to torture people? Suskind: No. Most of the folks involved say that we made mistakes at the start. Spiegel Online: Because they could have gotten information through normal interrogations ...

Suskind: ... yes, and without paying this terrific price, namely: America's moral standing. We poured plenteous gasoline on the fires of jihadist recruitment.

Spiegel Online: So the average interrogator at a Black Site understands more about the mistakes made than the president? Suskind: The president understands more about the mistakes than he lets on. He knows what the most-skilled interrogators know too. He gets briefed, and he was deeply involved in this process from the beginning. The president loves to talk to operators.

Spiegel Online: The government's tenor seems to be that, with the transfer of the 14 prisoners, the system of Black Sites is ending.

Suskind: They were the prizes... Are there others? Of course, they are in various places...The prisoners are farmed out but not beyond the purview of the United States...

[pickledpepperRN]

U.S. Seeks Silence on CIA Prisons

Court Is Asked to Bar Detainees From Talking About Interrogations

The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.

The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release -- even to the detainees' own attorneys -- "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage." ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...nav=rss_nation