Pathways from September 11th to January 6th

Today’s focus is…

…on Ali Soufan, Lebanese-American patriot, former FBI agent serving
under FBI chief John O’Neill (see previous post) whose dedication to
American principles is informed by a childhood spent in the chaos of
Lebanon’s civil war. An Arabic speaker and expert interrogator in his
former role, he gained the information that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
was the mastermind of 9/11, as well as the identity of the 9/11 hijackers.

…once again, Ali Soufan talks with Karen Greenberg (Vital Interests Podcast)
about his book, “The Black Banners,” the Iraq war, the devastating
repercussions of the CIA torture program, and also about his world view
as it relates to national security and the importance of continued U.S.
leadership. Ali Soufan is the former FBI agent who worked under John O’Neill
in the lead-up to the September 11 attacks. He is founder of The Soufan
Group, a national security advisory in New York City.

(Some CIA and government officials continue to spread disinformation
with the claim that CIA Enhanced Interrogation produced what was, in
reality, produced by the FBI’s staunch adherence to traditional legal
techniques. In this 2018 article in The Atlantic Ali explains the
dilemma of pushing back against efforts to mislead the public about
torture: a disinformation campaign that he and many other
expert on-the-ground interrogators have been fighting against for two decades.)

The whole CIA torture fiasco is evidenced in the 6700-page Senate Select Report
on Torture, most of which remains classified in secrecy to date. Note: the
Inspector General of the CIA itself determined that the program did not yield
value in countering terrorism.

Link to the Summary of the Senate Selecte Intelligence Report of the CIA’s
“Enhanced Interrogation Program”

Ali Soufan appears in my film, UNCHECKED, which covers the lead-up to September 11 and how the FBI was derailed from stopping the attacks.

Link to the Summary of the Senate Select Intelligence Report of the CIA’s
“Enhanced Interrogation Program”

See more “Recent Posts” in this blog series: Pathways from September 11 to January 6th

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