Torture Leads to U.S. Troop Deaths/Maimings

A Bronze Star awardee and former Special Intelligence Operations Officer in Iraq who obtained the information that lead to the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq has concluded that the mistreatment and torture of prisoners by American authorities and contractors has lead to a significant portion of the deaths and maimings of American troops in Iraq.HE has written a book; How to Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq and an article for the Washigton Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802242_pf.html

He discovered that the interrogation techniques developed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba were transferred to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and that the outrage over the torture and abuse that occured at Abu Ghraib was a primary monivating factor for foreign fighters to go to Iraq and attack American troops. He also notes that the revelation, not long after the Abu Ghraib atrocities, that the CIA's repeated use of waterboarding at it's black sites around the globe and by proxy through it's extraordinary rendition program of snatching people, including innocent people and sending them to other countries like Syria and Egypt to be tortured on our behalf added more fuel to the fire, further deminished America's moral standing in the world and provided a great recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.

He concludes that Americans and military officers need to fight to protect our values from al-Qaeda and from those in our own country who would erode them.

And here's another little tidbit for those so enamored with extra-judicial detention and torture, a quote from Bush's, and soon to be Obama's Secretary of defense Robert Gates, stating on Tuesday that closing Gitmo will be a "high priority" and that; “I think it is possible to close it. I think it does require a joint effort with the Congress. I think some legislation probably is needed as a part of it. And I think that it will—I think trying to move forward on that, at least from my standpoint, should be a high priority.”

Change is coming and for the good.