Purpose of Bush Torture Program

Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish thinks he knows the real reason the Bush administration resorted to torture of high value detainees (hint: no ticking time bombs).

What torture is about is forcing a victim to tell you something you already think you know but want confirmed - either to prevent an attack or use as propaganda or deploy against another suspect. And, as one recalls, there are many things that Dick Cheney simply knows - even though the CIA, the State Department, and much of the professional machinery of government might disagree.

So what were the two things of which Cheney was completely sure after 9/11, regardless of the objective evidence? He was sure that there was an operational connection between Saddam and al Qaeda, and sure that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

Recall that McClatchy has reported that a main purpose of torture was to get a "confession" regarding links to Saddam from al Qaeda detainees. A reader of Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo agrees.

Really, where the torture scandal could break open is the exact nexus of who actually authorized the program and Cheney's frantic efforts to get information linking Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda. Wherever Iraq touches the torture question is going to be the flashpoint--it undercuts the "ticking time bomb" rationale for the program. It's also where politicals are going to have their deepest interactions with the program. That's where people need to look. Somebody needs to superimpose the timeline of the Iraq run-up over what we know about the timeline of the torture program. Anywhere Cheney, Iraq and torture meet is going to be radioactive.

UPDATE: Zachary Roth summarizes the evidence for this angle on Talking Points Memo.

--Ballard Burgher