[JessicaLin]

Top Republican senators said they were troubled by the decision to begin a new investigation, which they said could weaken U.S. intelligence efforts. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the revelations showed the Bush administration went down a "dark road of excusing torture."

Investigators credited the detention-and-interrogation program for developing intelligence that prevented multiple attacks against Americans. One CIA operative interviewed for the report said the program thwarted al-Qaida plots to attack the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, derail trains, blow up gas stations and cut the suspension line of a bridge. More of this complete and utter horseshit?! We've heard this line before:

That claim however says euphemistically named “enhanced interrogation techniques,” broke up the plot, at least half a year before the Bush administration claims it started to use enhanced interrogation techniques.

FBI supervisory special agent among those confirming today through professional experience that torture does not work. Ali Soufan, one of the FBI agents to question Abu Zubaydah for March to June 2002, before Zubaydah was tortured, writing a “New York Times” op-ed that traditional interrogation methods gained important actionable intelligence, including that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and leading to the arrest of Jose Padilla, the alleged “dirty bomber.”

Defenders of torture have claimed the crucial information about Padilla was tortured out of Zubaydah. Mr. Soufan writing that the timeline on that does not add up. Torture methods for use against Mr. Zubaydah, having been approved in August of 2002, Mr. Padilla had been arrested in May 2002, three months earlier. The timeline also fails in already dubious claim about a plot to blow up L.A.‘s Library Tower, which we have been told was discovered under interrogation with enhanced interrogation techniques that we now know the Bush administration claimed it was not using until August 2002.

But President Bush‘s counter-terrorism chief, Frances Townsend, having told reporters in a White House briefing, that the cell leader behind the plot was arrested in February 2002. Mrs. Townsend adding, quote, “At that point, the other members of the cell—later arrested—believed that the west coast plot has been canceled was not going forward.”

The subsequent fact sheet distributed by the Bush White House is stating pretty much the same thing, quote, “In 2002, we broke up a plot by KSM, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to hijack an airplane and fly it into the tallest building on the West Coast.” Problem, the first torture memo justifying the policy is dated August 1st, 2002 -- one, two, three, four, five, six months after February. Then Khalid Sheikh Mohammed himself was not captured until March 2003. Once the Bush Administration starts getting specific on days and information learned, it's obvious they'll just spinning lies.