Reply #1: I have to strongly disagree. AZ was lucid, rational, and mentally competent when he was captured in

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March 2002. Here's part of a first-hand ABC interview with his initial CIA interrogator, John Kiriakou. His apparent brain injuries occurred while he was in CIA custody in the course of 83 waterboarding sessions conducted during August 2002: http://abcnews.go.com/images/Blotter/brianross_kiriakou_transcript1_blotter071210.pdf

Yeah. In fact, I was the first person that spoke to him when he came out of his coma. BRIAN ROSS: And what'd you say? JOHN: He asked me-- well, first I went up to him, and I-- I asked him in Arabic what his name was. And he shook his head. And I asked him again in Arabic. And then he answered me in English. And Intv John Kiriakou ABC (tape1).doc
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MEDIA ID: TAPE #1 Pg.9 he said that he would not speak to me in God's language. And then I said, "That's okay. We know who you are." And then he asked me to smother him with a pillow. And I said, "No, no. We have-- we have plans for you." And I encouraged him from the very beginning to cooperate and to tell us what he knew. Frankly there were lives at stake. And we knew that he was the biggest fish that we had caught. We knew he was full of information. And-- and we wanted to get it. One of the reasons why it was of such-- importance to us that night is the room where-- where he was when the raid began had a table in it. And on the table Abu Zubaydah and two other men were building a bomb. The soldering arm was still hot. And they had the plans for-- for a school on the table. So we knew that there were-- immediate threats that he could-- he could help us with. Intv John Kiriakou ABC (tape1).doc
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MEDIA ID: TAPE #1 Pg.10 BRIAN ROSS: A school where? JOHN: In Lahore. In Lahore, Pakistan. BRIAN ROSS: A Pakistani school. JOHN: We think it was the American school. Or the British school I guess it was. Not the American school. BRIAN ROSS: So you felt that he was-- he was very current. He knew what was going on. JOHN: Very current. On top of-- of the current threat information he-- he was so well tied into the al Qaeda leadership, and he was-- he was highly thought of in al Qaeda, and he was very, very good at logistics, that we knew that he knew everybody who was worth knowing in al Qaeda. He knew cell leaders. Intv John Kiriakou ABC (tape1).doc
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MEDIA ID: TAPE #1 Pg.11 He knew logistics people. He knew finance people. We knew that he was really one of the intellectual leaders of the group. BRIAN ROSS: And when you began to speak with him then did you-- revert to Arabic? JOHN: No. He would never speak to me in Arabic. And frankly he was very polite about it. We never exchanged a harsh word. He was a-- he was an interesting person to sit and have a conversation with. But he would never speak to me in Arabic. And his English was quite good. BRIAN ROSS: (UNINTEL) JOHN: It was fluent. BRIAN ROSS: He was fluent in English. JOHN: He was. Intv John Kiriakou ABC (tape1).doc
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MEDIA ID: TAPE #1 Pg.12 BRIAN ROSS: And what was his demeanor? JOHN: He was a very-- (LAUGHS) it's-- it's funny to have to say it like this. But he was a very friendly guy. Later on he did things like he wrote poetry. Or he would debate-- the merits of Islam. Or he would wanna talk about the differences or similarities between Islam and Christianity. He wanted to talk about current events. He-- he told us a couple of times that he had nothing personal, there was nothing personal against the United States. It was Israel that he wanted to fight. And that the United States was close to Israel. And we had been caught up in whatever it was that-- that bothered him. And-- he-- he-- he regretted having to help plan attacks against Americans. But because these were, in the end, attacks against Jews and Israelis, it was something that he felt he had to do. Intv John Kiriakou ABC (tape1).doc
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MEDIA ID: TAPE #1 Pg.13 BRIAN ROSS: So there was no attempt on his part to deny involvement? JOHN: Oh, no, not at all. Not at all. He was quite open. BRIAN ROSS: And did he talk about 9/11? JOHN: Yeah. He said that-- that 9/11 was necessary. That although he didn't think that-- there would be such a massive loss of life, his view was that 9/11th-- 9/11, rather, was supposed to be a wake-up call-- to the United States. It wasn't supposed to be something that so shook the United States that it led the US to attack-- al Qaeda's bases in Afghanistan. In previous attacks, the USS Cole, the embassy bombings in-- in East Africa, the US government responded with missile strikes against alleged al Qaeda sites. And they truly believed that that's Intv John Kiriakou ABC (tape1).doc
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MEDIA ID: TAPE #1 Pg.14 how we were gonna respond to September 11th. They didn't think that there would be an all-out attack. BRIAN ROSS: So they didn't anticipate the death toll being so-- large? JOHN: They didn't. They didn't think the buildings would collapse. BRIAN ROSS: And-- JOHN: That's been told me. BRIAN ROSS: As you began to talk to him-- was time of the essence? Did you feel you had to get him to talk? JOHN: Yes. Because in the beginning, while, like I say, he was friendly-- and he was willing to talk about philosophy, he was unwilling to give us any-- any actionable intelligence. Intv John Kiriakou ABC (tape1).doc
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