CIA Caught on Film with Possible Pre-Knowledge of Prison Slaughter.

The following article was published in today’s Boston Globe and a similar was also published today in the New York Times.

The first thing that caught my amazement was the fact that CIA agents would allow themselves to be filmed while interrogating a prisoner. The other thing is that these CIA agents are revealing their pre-knowledge of the slaughter to come or at least the fate of those that do not cooperate.

This material puts into doubt the official line that the prisoners provoked the uprising. The treatment of prisoners may well have played a .role or the uprising scenario could be completely false and a pretext to a planned slaughter.

The smoking gun in what may have led to the uprising is in these words:

"The problem is, he’s got to decide if he wants to live or die," Dave says to Spann. "If he wants to die, he’s going to die here. Or he’s going to (expletive) spend the rest of his short (expletive) life in prison. It’s his decision, man. We can only help the guys who want to talk to us."

I am also amazed that the established press published the story. This story may also be the reason the Bush administration revealed CIA officer Spann’s identity and the circumstances of his death before the story broke hoping get ahead the outrage this material is going to create world wide by creating public sympathy for Spann and to show that the Bush Administration is open about it’s use of the CIA at the prison fortress.

From the Boston Globe – Friday December 7, 2001

Fighting Terror Interrogations

CIA TACTICS

American reportedly threatened

Reuters
Washington – CIA officers interrogated an American pro-Taliban prisoner at a fortress in northern Afghanistan shortly before a violent uprising and bluntly said his survival depended on giving them information, according to a Newsweek report.

One of the CIA officers, John Michael Spann, was killed in the revolt by Taliban prisoners last week.

It was unclear whether the CIA officers knew that the 20 year old prisoner, John Walker Lindh, was an American during the interview.

The interrogation, which took place shortly before the uprising, was videotaped by an Afghan cameraman, Newsweek said in the story posted on its Web site yesterday. It offered a rare inside look at how CIA operatives question prisoners.

Spann, with a Kalashnikov rifle strapped across his back, squatted near Walker, who was kneeling with elbows tied behind his back.

"What’s your name? Hey," Spann says, snapping his fingers twice in front of Walker’s face. Walker does not respond.

"Who brought you here? Wake up! Who brought you here? How did you get here? Hello?" Spann tries again.

Spann later confers with the second CIA officer known as "Dave."

"The problem is, he’s got to decide if he wants to live or die," Dave says to Spann. "If he wants to die, he’s going to die here. Or he’s going to (expletive) spend the rest of his short (expletive) life in prison. It’s his decision, man. We can only help the guys who want to talk to us."

Later Spann says to Walker: "They (Sept. 11 hijackers) killed other Muslims. There were several hundred other Muslims killed in the bombing. Are you going to talk to us?" Walker does not respond.

Dave says to Spann: "This guy got his chance. He got his chance."