The Unknown Candidate: "The President Knows more than He Lets on"

Monday, October 30, 2006

"The President Knows more than He Lets on"

Interview with Terror Expert Ron Suskind:

One hundred suspected terrorists from all over the world are still being held in secret American prisons. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, CIA expert Ron Suskind accuses Washington of "running like a headless chicken" in its war against al-Qaida. He reserves special criticism for the CIA's torture methods, which he argues are unproductive.

Excerpt:
"...[P]eople in the counter-terrorism community in the United States are terrified at this point.... They wanted to send out a signal and say: "We need to have a real strategy here that is not only tactically forceful, but where the left hand of the US foreign policy doesn't undermine what the right hand is doing." Right now we often run like a headless chicken. We need a strategy. And we need it immediately because, in some ways, we are less safe then we were on Sept. 12."

"Must Read" interview here.

Photo: Ron Suskind. (Nancy Crampton/Spiegel Online)

"For years, Ron Suskind has been considered one of the best-sourced reporters when it comes to the CIA or the US government. The author and former Wall Street Journal reporter has high-level access to sources in the US administration. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his investigative reporting and his new book, "The One Percent Doctrine," has been the subject of critical praise around the world. In the book, Suskind describes how George W. Bush and his advisors completely reshaped US foreign and security policy after Sept. 11, how they hunted in vain for Osama bin Laden and turned torture into a regular part of CIA interrogations of suspected terrorists. In the exposé, Suskind also reports for the first time about terror attacks that have been successfully foiled and about one al-Qaida turncoat who served for years as an informant against bin Laden and Co. Suskind lives and works in Washington, DC."