Page 18 - Intelligence Value News Today

Ground in syria. raids like this that gather that type of inform it and leverage it and we need to be doing more. we need to have better insight into what this threat is doing in their backyard. as long as we continue to allow them to have a safe haven to operate, they are going to continually be a threat. >> i want to talk to you about the intelligence that would be gathered. you have been involved in these kind of special operations in the clandestine service. we know the guy they were trying ...

Do you think for intelligence purposes its better to shut the accounts down or is it better to keep them open so the u.s. and other western intelligence agencies to monitor them? >> its better to shut down. this has been a big debate for a long time. there are concerns on both sides. the intelligence value versus the others. you have foreign fighters who have gone to iraq and syria than went to afghanistan during the war. it has been an enormous magnet. it has helped radical groups to dominate w...

Was actual torture by any other definition? >> no, i felt the measures were tough. i knew we would pay someday. by the sort of water cooler at the cia, we talked about it all the time, what we called endgame. we began conversations with the white house saying, when the prisoners we hold no longer have intelligence value, what do we do with them? we are not jailers, we are interrogators and professionals. we knew part of that endgame would be judgments about us and judgments that history would ma...

Consequences and the behavioral science says in interrogating al qaeda suspects, theres a study by lawrence ellison at the university of liverpool, 181 interrogations of al qaeda-related terrorists showed that empathy, respect, and an adaptive approach ended up systematically reducing counter interrogation strategies. so thats -- >> and that generally is when you did interrogations, oversaw interrogations, that was the approach you took. >> yes. >> its sort of like a, for lack of a better word, ...

The idea that somehow or another these techniques -- we knew about canary wharf and heathrow and on military bases abroad from people who were subjected to these techniques and provided useful information. >> you know, brennan doubled down on that. he said for someone to say there was no intelligence value that came from those detainees once subjected to those enhanced interrogation techniques lacks any foundation at all. he said again that he wishes they just asked someone who was actually ther...

Think the answer is no. especially i if its the criterion you late out. if it were done to americans, would it be torture? we water boarded, in the s.e.a.l. program, we water boarded our s.e.a.l.s and we didnt consider it torture. at the beginning of the report, it so says 7 of 9 detainees produced any unique intelligence value. what about the others? theres 82% that they cant account for. the report claims with sort of a wave of the hand, there was no intelligence of value produced that we woul...

Arrested. one of al b-baghdadis wives isn custody. who is this woman and what kind of information she may have, if any? >> reporter: i was told she was a former wife of abu bakr al-baghdadi and contacted him. theres the personal connection but in addition to that, told by lebanese intelligence officials shes believed to have a role, some significant role in the terrorist organization. gave her intelligence value enough to make her the target of this operation. she wasnt picked up by accident. sh...

Leading to his capture, and that is how big of a target he is. and now, someone close to him is has been arrested. one of al baghdadis wives is in custody. who is this woman and what kind of information she may have, if any? >> reporter: i was told she was a former wife of abu bakr al baghdadi and mother of his child. and that he had reached out to contact her. and she had reached tout contact him. theres the personal connection but in addition to that, told by lebanese intelligence officials sh...

Conversations on e-mail or social media that were caught in the spy agencys traps. 90% of the individuals were ordinary users, not targets of the government. but just because the government collects it doesnt mean it reads it. the white house not responding to inquiries, but officials say the agency routinely filters our communications that are of no intelligence value. so maybe john berman, specifically your fitness selfies. >> i take topless photos of myself working out, i just dont want the g...

Holders were not the people the agency was trying to target. nearly half the surveillance files are from americans. former nsa analyst edward snowden provided the documents to the post. however, the article also points out how much valuable intelligence has been picked up in the sweep. quoting from the article, discoveries of considerable intelligence value in the intercepted message. to avoid interfering with on going operations, there are fresh revelations about a secret overseas nuclear proje...