It all started with a prisoner who was mentally ill, by a very reliable account, and then it expanded into a collaborative effort involving Cheney and the most senior Bush appointees in the intimate details of torture.
It didn't matter to the senior officials if the detainee was mentally ill and a spent vessel in terms of new information. His capacity to deliver information in a reliable fashion was not an issue. They needed a "mastermind." It didn't matter that the officials were involved in morally repellant and illegal acts of torture. All that mattered was the opinion of President George W. Bush "I said he was important."
That's all it took.
END
N.B. Abu Zubaydah is a major source of information in the 911 Commission Report.
Resources: Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of its Enemies Since 9/11 and "April 9, 2002 and After: Bush Administration Exaggerates the Value of Al-Qaeda Prisoner Zubaida for Political Gain," Cooperative History Research Commons
Special thanks to Jill Hayroot and Susannah Pitt for their contributions.
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