Wayne Simmons says ACLU and American press are in terrorists' pocket
Reported by Chrish - June 1, 2005
John Gibson had former CIA operative Wayne Simmons on The Big Story yesterday, 5/31/05, to discuss the report from the Washington Times that Al Queda trains terrorists to cry "torture" when in captivity as a tactic to disrupt the imprisoners.
GIBSON: Wayne, these allegations of abuse, are they part of a bigger plan to hurt the image of the US and its military?
SIMMONS: Absolutely. Look, terrorism 101, if I'm teaching the course I'm teaching you to disrupt the power grids, and the financial districts, the transportation grids, AND to use the press to your advantage. The one thing the AQ and the other terrorists have in their favor is that they have the New York Times and the LA Times, but to name a few, who are helping to facilitate that. That is way beyond the pale.
GIBSON: Does this mean, Wayne, that these incidents of abuse, I'll stop short of calling them torture, didn't occur? just because AQ tells its guys to cry torture, does that mean it didn't?
SIMMONS: I would suggest that it probably didn't. Look we've done tens of thousands of interviews and interrogations, and yet we have a very small, less than 40, I would suggest, of actual proveable incidents where maybe some people went a little overboard, were a little too zealous. But the bottom line is, the handbook, John, absolutely tells you step by step on how to act. The irony is John, if I get captured by Al Queda, who am I going to complain to? I can't complain, it doesn't hold water in any other country "because the terrorists know that they have the press and they have the ACLU in their pocket." There is no other place in the world where you could use those tactics.
GIBSON: Wayne, there is the story that a lot of these guys at Guantnamo Bay were sold to the CIA, and the American Forces, by Afghans. Just grab this guy, turn them over to the CIA, say he's Al Queda, I get the the big reward, go on my merry way, meanwhile some chicken farmers in Guantanamo Bay were interrogated.
SIMMONS: There's lots of different scenarios of things, good things and bad things, that can happen. We're in the middle of a war. That's not justification, it only is a point, that we have again tens of thousands of suspects that we have to interrogate. There will be mistakes made, no one I think would deny that mistakes have not been made (?), but when you have your own press, there is such responsibility that goes along with the power of the First Amendment that is being abused by our own press, that you have to be very very careful. These are incendiary charges that they used and they leveled a couple of weeks ago. People lost their live, John, you know that.
End of interview
Comment: This is a typical right-wing Bu**sh** charge. Any truthful report, if it exposes wrongdoing on the part of the administration or the military, should be covered up "to protect the troops", "to protect America's image", to protect BUSH. The abuse of prisoners is a disgrace and un-American and once it was exposed and there was public outcry the administration said they'd do something about it. It is the DUTY of journalists to expose wrongdoing, not to protect anyone. They are there for US, Wayne. (Except Fox, obviously. They are in the administration's pocket. Front right.)
And we all know, John, that Newsweek has been exonerated for the loss of life Simmons attributed to that blurb.
Amendment: Friday night, 6/3/05, after the regular news cycle had ended, the Pentagon released a report that in essence said that there had been desecration of the Qu'aran at Gitmo.
