Torture and Its Aftermath...

Here is the smoking gun CIA memo that ties Colin Powell's testimony linking Al Queda and Saddam to a confession made by a captured terrorist that was basically buried alive for 17 hours.

But now, hearing how the information was obtained, the CIA was soon to retract all this intelligence. A Feb. 5 cable records that al Libi was told by a "foreign government service" (Egypt) that: "the next topic was al-Qa'ida's connections with Iraq...This was a subject about which he said he knew nothing and had difficulty even coming up with a story."

Al Libi indicated that his interrogators did not like his responses and then "placed him in a small box approximately 50cm X 50cm [20 inches x 20 inches]." He claimed he was held in the box for approximately 17 hours. When he was let out of the box, al Libi claims that he was given a last opportunity to "tell the truth." When al Libi did not satisfy the interrogator, al Libi claimed that "he was knocked over with an arm thrust across his chest and he fell on his back." Al Libi told CIA debriefers that he then "was punched for 15 minutes." (Sourced to CIA cable, Feb. 5, 2004).

Here was a cable then that informed Washington that one of the key pieces of evidence for the Iraq war -- the al Qaeda/Iraq link -- was not only false but extracted by effectively burying a prisoner alive.

This really cuts to the core of where we've gone off the tracks. The amazing thing is that this news has been out in the public domain for over a year, and that more has not been made of it. I guess we've been a bit too preoccupied with Brittany and Lindsay to focus on the fact that our government caused the torture of a captive and acted upon coerced information that they knew was wrong. The use of the confession has unequivocally harmed our national interest. The use of the confession has led to the death of our soldiers and thousands of innocent civilians, exposed the limits of our military strength, and inflamed the entire Islamic world. It has led us to cede the moral high ground that we occupied for the better part of our history and established us as a pariah. We have squandered our treasure and our blood upon these lies.

And the Democrats, facing a nation in which 50% of the population strongly disapprove of the job that the President is doing refuse to stand up to this administration for fear of appearing 'weak' on terrorism. How can they not see the results of eight years of an administration that is 'strong' on terror?