“In May 2004, a senior general at the Pentagon who believed…’the United States is already on the road to defeat in Iraq,’ blamed his civilian superiors, Secretary [of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary [Paul] Wolfowitz. ‘I do not believe we had a clearly defined war strategy, end state and exit strategy before we commenced […]
5/8/2004
On May 8, 2004, “A recording attributed to Bin Laden showed him offering rewards in gold for killing top American and United Nations officials or citizens of any country which had troops in Iraq. The 20-minute audio message, posted on two Islamist websites, promised 10kg (22lb) of gold for the death of Paul Bremer, the […]
5/7/2004
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testified before the Senate and House Armed Services committees on May 7, 2004, regarding the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. He recalled, “I opened my testimony by raising the question of who bore responsibility for what had taken place. ‘These events occurred on my watch,’ I said. ‘As […]
5/7/2004
9/11 mastermind ” ‘KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed], an accomplished resistor, provided only a few intelligence reports prior to the use of the waterboard, and analysis of that information revealed that much of it was outdated, inaccurate or incomplete,’ according to newly unclassified portions of a [May 7] 2004 report by the CIA’s then-inspector general [John […]
5/7/2004
“[T]he CIA’s own inspector general [John L. Helgerson], in a [May 7] 2004 special review of the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’ refused to reach any conclusion as to whether these techniques were the reason [al Qaeda operative Abu] Zubaydah produced useful information. The CIA did learn more from Zubaydah after he was waterboarded eighty-three […]
5/7/2004
On May 7, 2004, “C.I.A. inspector general, John L. Helgerson, completed a devastating report. In thousands of pages, it challenged the legality of some interrogation methods, found that interrogators were exceeding the rules imposed by the Justice Department and questioned the effectiveness of the entire program. C.I.A. officials had sold the interrogation program to the […]
5/7/2004
“One of the most publicized and worst incidents [in Iraq] occurred [on May 7, 2004] when American contractor Nick Berg was beheaded by [al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab] al-Zarqawi in retaliation for ‘the treatment of Iraqi prisoners.’ That awful execution, which was filmed and released on the Internet, validated the brutality of the […]
5/7/2004
“Publication of the [February 2004 ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross)] report [which was leaked by The Wall Street Journal on May 7, 2004] opened a floodgate of leaked documents revealing not only that interrogation methods amounting to torture were in wide use in Iraq, as well as at Guantanamo and facilities in Afghanistan, […]
5/7/2004
“The [May 7] 2004 Inspector General’s [John L. Helgerson’s] report, known as a ‘special review,’ was tens of thousands of pages long. …It contained information, according to one source, that was simply ‘sickening.’ The behavior it described, another knowledgeable source said, raised concerns not just about the detainees but also about the Americans who had […]
5/7/2004
“After spending months investigating the Agency’s [CIA’s] interrogation practices, the special review [by the CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson, released on May 7, 2004] had concluded that the CIA’s techniques constituted cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, in violation of the international Convention Against Torture. But [CIA General Counsel Scott] Muller insisted that every single […]