Another Terror Legend Who Wasn’t

Andrew Cohen: Bush Administration Oversold The Importance And Value Of Terror Suspects

(CBS)  Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

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The news that heralded terror “mastermind” Abu Zubaydah was not an al Qaeda leader after all is as unsurprising as it is disturbing. Over and over again, and especially within the first few years after the terror attacks on America, the Bush Administration oversold the importance and value of its terror suspects. It was a colossal waste of credibility, time, and money.

Worse, thanks to Peter Finn and Joby Warrick of the Washington Post, we now have more solid confirmation that intelligence officials were hurt as much as they were helped by “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as water-boarding. Not only were those measures probably illegal, not only did they harm our global reputation, we now know that they also caused our anti-terror forces to waste precious time and money following false leads around the world. The Post reports that not a single indictment resulted from Zubaydah’s post-torture “confessions.”

We have seen this play before. When he was first charged, Zacarias Moussaoui was labeled by the government as the “20th hijacker” of Sept 11. He was called the Face of Terror. Turns out he was neither. The main reason why Moussaoui is in federal prison today is that he faced a Virginia jury and declared his defiance for America. I’m still convinced he’s little more than a mentally-ill loser who was fired from al Qaeda by Khalid Sheik Mohammed because Moussaoui kept bugging his would-be boss with cell-phone calls.

When he was first arrested, U.S.-born Jose Padilla was labeled a “dirty bomber” bent on irradiating Americans with a sinister device. Turns out he was little more than a street punk who had some nebulous contacts with a few low-level terrorist wannabes. Kept incommunicado and without charges for years as an “enemy combatant,” Padilla was ultimately convicted of conspiracy by a Florida jury after embarrassingly short deliberations. Made mentally unstable by his long confinement, I would be shocked if we ever learn that Padilla gave intelligence officials any useful information.

Meanwhile, when he was first apprehended, Bush officials declared that Yaser Esam Hamdi was too dangerous to even be allowed to speak to a lawyer. Like Padilla, he too was kept on ice for years in a military brig as an “enemy combatant.” And then, after a few court setbacks, including a Supreme Court decision that declared his confinement dubious, Hamdi was suddenly set free and allowed to return to his native Yemen. Never mind, the government said to the man they had imprisoned for all those years.

For years, the Bush Administration tried to build up Zubaydah, too. He was placed by government tribunes, on- and off-the-record, into the pantheon of terror leaders responsible for the destruction of the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, on par with people like Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh. But Finn and Warrick tell us this simply wasn’t true. “Abu Zubaida was not even an official member of al Qaeda…” the Post reports. “Rather, he was a ‘fixer’ for radical Muslim ideologues, and he ended up working directly with al-Qaeda only after Sept. 11 -- and that was because the United States stood ready to invade Afghanistan.”

It was natural, even predictable, for the government to make mistakes when it snagged so many terror suspects in the days and weeks after Sept. 11, 2001. A doctrine of “better safe than sorry” made some sense back then. But it never made sense for Bush officials to try to pretend that men like Zubaydah were more dangerous than they were privately known to be. And it never made much sense to water-board, either, because intelligence officials knew long before the terror attacks upon America that torture typically does not generate accurate intelligence information.

The Obama Administration already has taken steps to ensure there will be no more counterproductive torture of terror suspects. The day of the tough-talking, reckless approach to these men appears to be over. Now the feds must move to regain their credibility when it comes to the legal war on terror by candidly telling us from here forward who the really bad guys are, who the really bad guys aren’t, and how and why they know the difference. The idea of crying wolf isn’t just a fairy tale; it’s bad policy.

[taxguydave]

I'm much more concerned about radical Christians and their continuous attempts to impose Levitican law here. They have a big enough voting block to get an idiot elected President.

[sjc_1]

There are several types of Muslims, like there are several types of Christians. You may not like all of them. Even within a religious sect, you may not like all of the members. The one thing in common is the bad guys are real bad. They are zealots and will stop at nothing. Just keep this in mind the next time you try to paint with a broad brush. Generalities are distortions through prejudice.

[PVperson2]

No zeitmin77, what the writer of this article and the rest of us Americans would expect is that our country at least try for accuracy in it's prosecution of a war and not just plain old propaganda, but then that propaganda certainly brained washed you, didn't it?

[zeitmin77]

Revisionists like the writer of this article expect everything in the war on terror to be clinically factual like the commentary of a match between Nadal and Federer.Luckily ,journalists are not responsible for the security of a country.

[grvmstrj]

Bush is a terrorist and his bac kers are idiotic morons that worship $$$$$$ and division above all. HOW ABOUT THAT RUSH-you most likely are on a "rush"!

[inventagod]

Bravo, tincup356

kudos.

[juwboy]

didserve == bluestardad/Blue Dastard

[didserve]

Start war crimes trials Now!

Europe is now setting the stage to prosecute Bush officials!

Justice is starting to stand up!

America stand up for justice!

[bobbyduck1]

Thanks to the Bush administration's total incompetence, the terrorists have won. They have changed America forever and not for the better. Not only have civil liberties been eroded the country's standing in the world has fallen so far it will never recover. The "war on terror" has simply served as a recruiting device for every anti-American group on the planet.

Shall we also discuss the loss of the budget surplus and the now-highest national debt in the history of the world? Yes, the Bush policies have really worked out well. I hope those A-H's and all their supporters roast in hell.
Posted by Slrman at 3:54 PM : Mar 31, 2009

Gee...hours have passed now and the usual crowd of right-wing neowhacks are nowhere in sight! Embarassing for them isn't it?

Bhwaahahahahaha

[Slrman]

Thanks to the Bush administration's total incompetence, the terrorists have won. They have changed America forever and not for the better. Not only have civil liberties been eroded the country's standing in the world has fallen so far it will never recover. The "war on terror" has simply served as a recruiting device for every anti-American group on the planet.

Shall we also discuss the loss of the budget surplus and the now-highest national debt in the history of the world? Yes, the Bush policies have really worked out well. I hope those A-H's and all their supporters roast in hell.

[tincup356]

The 911 investigation was a sham. It followed no normal guidelines for any kind of homicide investigation,,,,,it ignored scientific data that would have eliminated the excuses they gave for buildings to collapse the way they did,,,,,ALL the debris was hauled off and dumped without close investigation,,,,,it was NOT handled as a crime scene.......Our government NEVER gave any reason why trade building 7 fell,,,,,after not being hit by a plane or burning.....then there was the pentagon......which everything about that attack was reported much different than what happened,,,,,757's dont just fold up and go through a ten foot circular hole in concrete steel reinforced walls 3 foot thick...and leave no wreckage,,,,,,,much less evade video cameras....Have YOU EVER seen a video of a identifiable 757 hit the pentagon? I haven't....they showed one video that looked like a cruise missile.....but no 757...............G. W. BUSH and company were behind the attacks,,,,,,who else had so much to gain through a privatized war? After all he profited 6 billion last year alone through Carlyle group,,,,Many Americans do not realize ...HE IS STILL MAKING BILLIONS OFF OF THE WAR through the same Carlyle group,,,that controls 85 % of the pentagons private security contracts......BOTH wars are lies to rob the people and to destroy the economy. The only weapon of mass destruction in Iraq?......The cost to the American people.,,,,,,,,And WHY are we spending 10 billion a month to find Usama Bin Laden?......He has never been charged with ANY crime related to 911.

[roger3816]

One would think with all the "masterminds" the shrub administration captured we would have long since won the war on terror.

[thechinaman1]

Wow, Mr. Cohen. Way to go out on a limb there buddy. "Not only were those measures probably illegal..." Probably? Way to put yourself out there.

Fanatics in the White House let 19 guys destroy the what once was the last, best hope for humanity. You can be sure we won't see another again in ours, our children's, or our grandchildren's lifetimes.

[mswolfestock]

That retarded SOB - he did more to ruin this country than any other group or individual. I expect to be long gone, cold in my grave, before the US recovers its cred.

Bushit ruined my country and I will never forgive him.

[skyk-2009]

Bush LIED to us again?? No! Please say it ain't so! LOL Bush was and will always be a LIE and the Worst President in US History. The ONLY issue at hand here is how long it will take the New Generation to bring him to Justice.