GOP repeats dubious claim about Mohammed interrogation; The Hill echoes it

Written by Tom Allison

Published

The Hill newspaper uncritically reported that in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, several Republican senators claimed that the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed “produced information that 'was absolutely vital' to capturing other terrorists and preventing other attacks on the United States, such as a plot to destroy the Library Tower in Los Angeles.” In fact, that interpretation conflicts with the chronology of events put forth on multiple occasions by the Bush administration, as Slate.com's Timothy Noah noted.

Hill echoes GOP claim about Mohammed's interrogation being “vital” to preventing Library Tower attack

In a press release accompanying the letter, the Republican senators claim:

The interrogation of KSM yielded information that was vital to apprehending other al Qaeda terrorists and preventing additional attacks on the United States, including the plot to destroy the Library Tower in Los Angeles.

The Hill article similarly asserts:

The senators argue that the interrogation of Mohammed produced information that “was absolutely vital” to capturing other terrorists and preventing other attacks on the United States, such as a plot to destroy the Library Tower in Los Angeles.

But Bush administration claimed Library Tower plot foiled more than a year before Mohammed's capture

Former Homeland Security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend stated plot was “canceled” before Mohammed's capture . As Slate.com's Timothy Noah noted, Townsend stated in a February 9, 2006, White House press briefing that Mohammed was not captured until more than a year after the individuals planning the Library Tower attacks had concluded that the plot had been “canceled, was not going forward.”

Bush administration fact sheet also conflicts with GOP claims. Noah also noted that a May 23, 2007, Bush administration fact sheet stated that the administration “broke up” the Library Tower plot “in 2002” -- before Mohammed was captured..

Noah concluded:

Conceivably the Bush administration, or at least parts of the Bush administration, didn't realize until Sheikh Mohammed confessed under torture that it had already broken up a plot to blow up the Library Tower about which it knew nothing. Stranger things have happened. But the plot was already a dead letter. If foiling the Library Tower plot was the reason to water-board Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, then that water-boarding was more than cruel and unjust. It was a waste of water.

Experts doubt Library Tower plot was serious threat

Reported “deep disagreement” about Library Tower plot among U.S. intelligence officials. Following President Bush's February 9 account of how the government successfully thwarted the Library Tower plot, The Washington Post reported that U.S. intelligence officials “said there is deep disagreement within the intelligence community over the seriousness of the Library Tower scheme and whether it was ever much more than talk.” The Post also noted that Rand Corp. terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman commented that we still didn't know “whether this was a plot that was derailed or preempted, or a plot that was more in the realm of an idle daydream.”

Law enforcement official: Plot not gone “much past the conceptual stage.” A February 10 Los Angeles Times report similarly quoted a law enforcement official's assessment that the Al Qaeda plot “didn't go” and “didn't happen” and paraphrased his determination that the plot “was one of many Al Qaeda operations that had not gone much past the conceptual stage.”

From the August 19 article in The Hill:

Several Republican senators are urging Attorney General Eric Holder to scrap plans to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate CIA officials who interrogated suspected terrorists.

In a letter to Holder sent Wednesday, nine GOP Senators including Sen. Kit Bond (Mo.), the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, said that the appointment of a special prosecutor could “have serious consequences, not just for the honorable members of the intelligence community, but also for the security of all Americans.”

[...]

In their letter to Holder, the Republican senators are taking issue with reports that the special prosecutor would particularly be looking into how CIA interrogators treated Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The senators argue that the interrogation of Mohammed produced information that “was absolutely vital” to capturing other terrorists and preventing other attacks on the United States, such as a plot to destroy the Library Tower in Los Angeles.