CIA Kidnapped, Tortured Wrong Guy
JUSTICE, 31 Oct 2011
PressTV – TRANSCEND Media Service
A former CIA agent reveals that the agency kidnapped and tortured a man they wrongfully believed to be a top member of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s personal banker.
Glenn Carle, a veteran CIA agent, told Truth-out.org on Monday [24 Oct 2011] that he had been asked by Rob Richer, the No. 2 ranking official in the CIA’s clandestine service, in 2002 to go on a temporary assignment.
Carle was told that a covert operative fluent in French was needed to take over the interrogation of a detainee in Morocco, who was purported to be Osama bin Laden’s personal banker as well as financier for a number of suspected terrorists.
I believed the agency had captured a “significant al-Qaeda leader” who had been a concern to US intelligence agencies “for a long time,” Carle said, during the on-camera interview.
While Carle is not allowed to disclose the name of the detainee or the location where he was tortured, a report published in Harper’s in July first suggested that the prisoner was an Afghan citizen in his mid-forties named Haji Pacha Wazir.
Carle was told to do “whatever it takes to get this man to talk,” which he understood to mean using torture to “break this fellow’s will” and obtain intelligence.
Although Carl said that he refused to torture the detainee and used standard rapport-building techniques and “psychological manipulation,” he believed that even the psychological methods used to disorient detainees rose to the level of torture.
“It was instantaneously, completely black, not dark, black, a darkness where literally I could not see my hand…Totally black,” Carle said about a CIA prison site in Morocco.
“And there was loud incessant noise or a series of other sounds. Babies wailing, sounds that would appear to be someone being hit or car crashes or wheels screeching. The goal is to play upon the senses so as to disorient the prisoner,” he added.
Carle concluded not long after he began interrogating the detainee that the agency had “kidnapped” the “wrong guy” and that the man, who ran an informal money-transfer business, was not a “committed jihadist” or Bin Laden’s personal banker.
“Slowly, progressively, first in dismay, then in anger, I had realized that on the CAPTUS case the Agency, the government, all of us, had been victims of delusion,” Carle said, using CAPTUS to refer to the wrongfully detained man.
Carle asked for the prisoner immediate release, however, the CIA’s position did not change, as they believed the detainee was holding intelligence due to the fact that he could not answer specific questions.
The US government eventually moved the prisoner from Morocco to the infamous Salt Pit prison in Afghanistan, and then transferred him to the Bagram Detention Center, before releasing him eight years after his capture.
Go to Original – presstv.ir
DISCLAIMER: The statements, views and opinions expressed in pieces republished here are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of TMS. In accordance with title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. TMS has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is TMS endorsed or sponsored by the originator. “GO TO ORIGINAL” links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the “GO TO ORIGINAL” links. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.