Letter to the Editor: There's more to the story [about 9/11 and torture]

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090531/OPINION02/905310309

There's more to the story

Published: May 31, 2009

Barrie Dunsmore's article of May 17 was basically saying that torture has been used for centuries and that Cheney and the CIA claim that torture works. The FBI disagrees. Dunsmore quoted Cheney as saying it has "kept America safe from further major acts of terrorism" (presumably like 9/11).

After describing the pros and cons of torture, Dunsmore said: "I get very nervous when I hear talk of punishing high-ranking members of the Bush administration for war crimes. … The resulting congressional gridlock would inevitably impede Obama's important agenda on which the country's future greatly depends."

As I read this, I thought of the CIA water-boarding Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the so-called 9/11 mastermind, 183 times and I wondered: "What question could the CIA have possibly asked that 183rd time that wasn't asked during the previous water-boardings, or was the point to destroy his credibility (and mind) for any further 9/11 questioning at a trial? I wonder if the CIA thought to ask Shaikh Mohammed why and how he caused the 47-story World Trade Center Building 7 (of which the CIA was a tenant) to completely collapse, disassembling thousands of tons of structural steel at a free-fall speed, on cue, on the afternoon of 9/11? Also did they think to ask Shaikh Mohammed how he obtained and placed the nano-thermite explosive in the three WTC high-rise buildings? Residue of nano-thermite has been independently confirmed in random samples of the 9/11 dust. The destruction of Building 7 was completely ignored by the 9/11 Commission report that was directed by Philip Zelikow of the Bush administration.

I suggest that Dunsmore investigate a little further before he suggests that the Bush administration officials be placed above the law for political purposes.

William Rice

Randolph Center