torture

By Benjamin G. Davis, Associate Professor of Law, University of Toledo College of Law On Sunday, many people may have missed the 60 minutes interview with Ali Soufan, the former FBI agent who was a central interrogator of Al-Qaeda suspects in the early days after 9/11. Everyone should watch that interview (here is a link to a Washington Post story on it http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/fbis-secret-weapon-speaks-out-on-al-qaeda/2011/09/12/gIQALLOwMK_video.html?wpisrc=emailtoafriend) (Update 9/15: the episode is now online at http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7380678n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox).  Here is a BBC story from today that captures some of it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14891439 .  Unfortunately the full 60 minutes interview is not up yet. The key points for me are the presentation of the two cases of Abu Jhandal who he interviewed days after 9/11 and the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah - the detainee number one for the introduction of enhanced interrogation techniques. On Abu Jhandal, as is also detailed in the movie the Oath, Jhandal had been in prison in Yemen for 7 months when 9/11 happened and Soufan interrogated him in prison within a week of that horrible day. Soufan read Jhandal Miranda rights and proceeded to deconstruct Jhandal and get him to reveal the Al Qaeda link and 100 pages of information about Al-Qaeda.

Last spring I assigned a SALT intern to the task of documenting Vice President Dick Cheney’s public admissions that he supported and had authorized the use of torture, specifically in the form of water boarding, on suspects held in the “war on terror,” in the aftermath of the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.