Nafeez Ahmed's letter in Evening Standard

[xmasdale]

Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed, author on 9/11 and related topics (Latest book: a User's guide to the Crisis of Civilization) has an excellent letter on page 43 of tonight's Evening Standard. He talks of the iniquity of water boarding and other forms of torture, the unreliability of confessions thus gained and the way these confessions obscure FBI intelligence for example about the relationship between the Saudi elite, the bin Ladens including Osama and a crescendo of forewarnings about the 9/11 attacks.

Well done Nafeez!

Noel

[xmasdale]

Here is the full text:

Former CIA official Robert Baer told an interviewer over a year ago that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had been water boarded 183 times, leaving him “almost brain dead”, and that no useful intelligence was gained. Worse, he pointed out the transcripts systematically obscure the evidence that the Pakistani intelligence services, along with members of the Qatari and Saudi royal families, had harboured and aided Sheikh Mohammed specifically and Al Qaeda generally.
But Bush’s unapologetic lauding of waterboarding is little more than bravado to hide serious concerns about intelligence failings on his watch. Multiple FBI leads identifying key links between Saudi elites, the Bin Ladens and Osama himself were shut down in 2001, despite a crescendo of warnings about an impending attack involving planes used as bombs. The fact this took place against a background of financial deals between the Bush family and the Saudis raises awkward questions for the former President. Keith Vaz’s query about how US-UK intelligence really works is pertinent and welcome.

Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed, author, a User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization.

[xmasdale]

In my opinion it is a masterly letter since it makes so many diverse points in just two paragraphs. Moreover it is written in a tone which does not come across as a "conspiracy theorist". If he had, it wouldn't have been published.

[TonyGosling]

Yerright,
The man's a master, and to think his publisher had the cheek to do a 'find and replace' exchanging 'alleged bombers' for 'bombers' on his manuscript for:
The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry (22 Jun 2006)
Which came out within a year of the bombs going off