Sure, President Bush and V.P. Cheney think that torture of Guantanamo prisoners is just fine. You remember Abu Zubaydah — the detainee that was labeled “high-value” and was waterboarded 83 times in August of 2002.
His is the man that we tortured and it was videotaped and the tapes were later conveniently destroyed. We alleged at one time that he planned the 9/11 attacks and was the No. 2 or 3 person in al-Qaeda. He is the man V.P. Dick Cheney publicly admitted that he personally approved of waterboarding.
George W. Bush, said he was one of al-Qaeda’s “top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States.” The Bush administration at the time claimed that Zubaydah was subjected to “enhanced interrogation” techniques because he had information about imminent attacks on the U.S. and knowledge about the inner workings of al-Qaeda.
According to this recent story and released court documents, apparently none of this is true.
For the first time, the government now officially admits that Zubaydah did not have “any direct role in or advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2020,” and was neither a “member” of al-Qaeda nor “formally” identified with the terrorist organization.
In other words, he’s totally innocent of the charges we leveled against him and couldn’t provide information after being waterboarded 83 times in a single month because he wasn’t involved in terrorist activities.
Oops.
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