An Oct. 31 Newsmax article by Ronald Kessler attacking Democrats for for making an issue of waterboarding in the confirmation of Michael Mukasey for attorney general quotes Robert Grenier, the former chief of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, whom Kessler states he talked to “for my book ‘The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack,’ which comes out Nov. 13.”
Newsmax’s promotional page at its online store for Kessler’s book, meanwhile, features blurbs touting the book, including this one: “Ron Kessler is unique in his ability and willingness to tell the unvarnished truth about what it will take to protect America from the next major terrorist attack. This is a book that every informed and responsible American should read.” Who said that? Robert Grenier.
Doesn’t it compromise Grenier’s objectivity and credibility to promote a book for which he serves as a source?
Indeed, Kessler’s entire column seems to be an suggestion that his book will be straining objectivity and credibility and be the kind of Bush administration fluff job he’s so adept at providing. At one point, he states: “As normally defined, torture is the infliction of severe pain. While waterboarding causes fear because it simulates drowning, it is painless.” Er, not so much.
Kessler also claims:
The technique was used in interrogating Abu Zubaydah, Osama bin Laden’s field commander or chief of operations, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 plot.
In both cases, these and other coercive techniques — like subjecting prisoners to frigid temperatures or forcing them to stand for hours — have worked and have led to a takedown of other key al-Qaida operatives when they were planning more attacks.
Again, not so much. The waterboarding of Zubaydah apparently produced a stream of statements from Zubaydah of such dubious quality, according to journalist Ron Suskind, that intelligence officers now widely believe any evidence gleaned from Zubaydah to be utter garbage. And according to ABC News, it produced “debatable results” from Mohammed.