When the Time Bomb Doesn't Tick

[Valin]

The Weekly Standard:

Stephen F. Hayes

Mar 23, 2016

 

In 2014, a former senior interrogator with the CIA's High Value Detainee interrogation program drafted an article on "the ticking time bomb scenario" and interrogating terrorists. The article was approved by the CIA's Publication Review Board but given the time that lapsed in getting approval, it was never published. The events in Brussels this week make the subject matter highly relevant and we believe the article makes an important contribution to the critical international debate about securing populations from jihadist terror.

 

Salah Abdeslam was one of the key planners of the terrorist attacks in Paris, France, on November 13, 2015. He was detained in Brussels last Friday after an intense four-month search and his capture was greeted with great relief and even optimism. "It is of the utmost importance that Abdeslam was captured alive, because we can now try to reconstruct the entire scenario," Belgian state security chief Jaak Raes told a Belgian television network over the weekend. Abdeslam's attorney, Sven Mary, told news outlets that his client was "worth his weight in gold" because he was cooperating with authorities, who were keen to learn about possible planning of additional attacks in Europe. "He is not maintaining his right to remain silent." Belgian authorities were monitoring a network of radical Islamists in Brussels who were thought to be providing logistical support to Abdeslam and, they feared, plotting new attacks. "We know that a number of people are possibly on their way to Western Europe, with the intention of conducting an attack," said Raes. "We need to stay very vigilant about that."

 

On Tuesday, jihadists with ties to Abdeslam's network conducted twin attacks in Brussels, killing 31 and injuring 270. We don't know what, if anything, Abdeslam told authorities under questioning. But it's clear that he did not provide information that would have allowed Belgian security forces to prevent the attacks in Brussels.

 

(Snip)