The GOP-Rightwing Can't Stop Itching for a New Scratch

GOP-Rightwing Illogical Chain of Events Fantasy: Torture (water boarding) of KSM led to bin-Laden

As old Southern hunters say: "That dawg won't hunt."

The GOP-Rightwingers badly want to justify and/or make torture common practice and permanent U.S. policy no matter what it takes, even if lies and myth and hype work over facts and the truth, then by golly, they'll make that dawg hunt, and hunt until the poor things drops dead from exhaustion. Then, they'll pick up another dawg and keep on hunting. They even drug out old VP "Deadeye" Dick Cheney to help on the hunt (let's hope that poor old Harry Whittington stayed home this time).

The story of how we tracked down bin-Laden and killed him on May 1, 2011 is a myth in the making - real prime time FOX-sorta of fake reality show stuff. Let's review the facts, neatly and logically laid out by a number of people who track these things a lot closer than I do: the NY Times and Michael Isikoff's fine analysis follow.

From Michael Isikoff: NBC's National Investigative Correspondent, in part (emphases are mine):

"The trail that led to the doorstep of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan began years earlier with aggressive interrogations of al-Qaida detainees at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and CIA “black site" prisons overseas, according to U.S. officials.

"It was those sometimes controversial interrogations that first produced descriptions of members of bin Laden’s courier network, including one critical Middle Eastern courier who along with his brother was protecting bin Laden at his heavily fortified compound in Abbottabad on Sunday. Both the courier and his brother were among those killed, along with bin Laden, in the dramatic raid by U.S. special forces.

"The behind-the-scenes story of how bin Laden was finally located is yet to be fully told, but emerging details seem likely to reignite the debate over whether “enhanced interrogation” techniques and other aggressive methods that have been widely criticized by human rights groups provided useful – or timely -- intelligence about al-Qaida. While some current and former U.S. officials credited those interrogations Monday with producing the big break in the case, others countered that they failed to produce what turned out to be the most crucial piece of intelligence of all: the identity and whereabouts of the most important figure in bin Laden courier's network.

“Multiple sources of intelligence led us to where we are,” one senior U.S. intelligence official, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity told reporters. "Key information was gleaned from detainees (and) that detainee reporting provided insight into the (bin Laden) courier network.”

Continue reading Isikoff here

The New York Times presents a timeline of events that is worthwhile reading (here). A few highlights follow (again, the emphases are mine):

"As intelligence officials disclosed the trail of evidence that led to the compound in Pakistan where bin-Laden was hiding, a chorus of Bush administration officials claimed vindication for their policy of “enhanced interrogation techniques” like waterboarding. Among them was John Yoo, a former Justice Department official who wrote secret legal memorandums justifying brutal interrogations. He wrote in part this in the National Review: “President Obama can take credit, rightfully, for the success. But he owes it to the tough decisions taken by the Bush administration.”

The key parts we must focus on continue to perplex people:

"But a closer look at prisoner interrogations suggests that the harsh techniques played a small role at most in identifying bin-Laden’s trusted courier and exposing his hide-out. One detainee who apparently was subjected to some tough treatment provided a crucial description of the courier, according to current and former officials briefed on the interrogations. But two prisoners who underwent some of the harshest treatment — including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times — repeatedly misled their interrogators about the courier’s identity..."

The NY Times continues here

A good summary from my standpoint is best summarized this way:

“The bottom line is this: If we had some kind of smoking-gun intelligence from waterboarding in 2003, we would have taken out Osama bin Laden in 2003,” said Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council. “It took years of collection and analysis from many different sources to develop the case that enabled us to identify this compound, and reach a judgment that Bin Laden was likely to be living there.”