Die of that then sitting at home. Ill like to present our guest with the National Press club mug. [applause] the fare is friday November November 18 and he will sign books there as well. So leave us with uh take away dont give away everything but i read this over the course of the week but what do i get . Induce a sense of the supreme so sacrifice in a very precarious position. We really could have won in 22 countries that that momentum was more than blind devotion it was adjusted quest for heroism or mythology but there was a belief it was complected some thought they were fighting for the union some thought they were fighting to free of the slaves some thought both but there was that kind current belief that it was different from many different perspectives for a cause greater than themselves with all the research that i had did. Thanks for being here. [applause]. Good morning welcome to a eia a. E. E i a now 15 years after the and 2011 attack and it feels like yesterdays everyone of us remembers birthday word and house sent the whole nation was that the ability of terror to penetrate our defenses we were all wondering what did they want and who attacked us and what were they planning . We take for granted we know the answers to those questions carried out by outcry that at the orders of the osama bin modern conceived and executed by a operational commander of Khalid Sheikh mohammed but in those early days we did not know that we knew almost nothing of the enemy or he was the operational commander for what they were planning and unbeknownst to less the way to carry out the second wave and then not northeast networks to a lookout for the arab men and they had a series of attack plans that are guest knows very ball. But not 9 11 reid did not know any of that. Beginning in 2002 leading to the capture senior terrorist leaders and the mastermind of 9 11, Khalid Sheikh mohammed and it allowed them to round up all key members and dismantled of to stop the attacks that they had planned. Today we year honored to have the man whod interrogated those terrorist and got them to provide that information the same time so Many American lives, james mitchell. Since those 15 years nobody has heard from k. As saddam. But dr. Mitscher hot has spent thousands of dollars to look directly into the sun evil and begin to understand the terrorist mind because he told him what drives them and now for the first time dr. Mitchell in is not sharing his opinions on the counterterrorism policy and plans for new attacks and ultimately by a ksm thinks they will prevail his new book enhanced interrogation inside the minds and motives of the islamic terrorists trying to destroy america offers a firstperson account of the Interrogation Program and those who would do that again if they had the chance this is the first time he is speaking and public about this sabir very honored that you chose to join us here at a e eye. Face for having me. So those details have been widely discussed and i am sure when we get to q a we can discuss that the primarily what have you learned . And just so people understand the conversations with ksm he was strapped to go water board can you explain the difference between enhance interrogation debriefing ksm to about three weeks. So our goal was to give them to be willing to engage for what they previously were doing in wednesday started be switched to social influence because we know the real way you get the cooperation is not to coerce it out but provide that information added is pressured it is an tabascos questions but i have dealt with 13 or 14 of the worst other than ksm. Nine of them refuse to identify what they had done. We werent looking for confessions because they will not stop the attack we need actual intelligence. But to get that deal with is to get through the enhanced interrogation is to use social influence after that to get the information that you want. So what we did is we moved very quickly to a debriefing and the way that worked with the caa interrogation to question nippers and deliberately trying to withhold information and was tossed dial and usually involve the possibility although we werent unauthorized. Singh is they started to work with us we moved away from that. After words gradually to bring that subject matter the guy you want to ask is whatever the question this that they have someone case the person who wrote the daily brief so we bring in other people without any type of coercion add all in one state were a complete any able so we setback to go live in the beginning but you need your wm the experts by huge numbers at experts in the field that i think is irrelevant to give me briefings, but was expected so interrogation stuck about two weeks so now the rest of the time with the c. I. A. There never subjected again. Never. Ksm had three weeks than never again that even when they were trying to find out the location or get him to provide information to allow us to identify the courier when we knew he was lying. But they would be used to stop catastrophic attacks and if not that he was not interested. And they were not interested either. They did not want them to find out where somebody was hiding. Their word interrogation san debriefings specifically with intelligence requirements and those with uh detainees. We did have grave concerns once started to work with us to go sour because they were an isolation with so we would stop by to pay board games or go to the Basketball Court or watch a movie. But in fact, we did a lot of bad n ksm he will sit there and talk but he wants to tell you things with it to clients of things that he did. He had a dry erasers board and he loves to lecture so be was listen to him lecture and occasionally something useful cannot of that but the other thing is team lead talk about lauzon his mind. So he would tell you about his religion in my book take all of those things from the beginning and bring them to gather to talk about in one setting but those things that i write about is not one session for we asked them to tell us about the religion. So they take people from resistance . But they never fully cooperated. There is nothing we could have done could have done to ksm but he told us inadvertently by lying. Lot of people said the Interrogation Program had nothing to do with the operation against osama bin modernday resisted bayou have nothing of value . It is true that ksm lied to us. What is not true is we did not know what that meant. It is true that they would like to u. S. But that does not sure we did not know what that meant. Ksm nephew, after we ran uh debriefing stage tells us that ksm told me that he delivered to a point m chief of external operations so now we year interested so we believe from 2002 but here we have the guy who says there is a courier that delivered of a letter so he said ksm did it he said no, no, no. He was a protege he was and is as yet he doesnt know what he is talking about. And then he said he lies. He is lying to you. I dont know what he said. So we wonder why he lies . It has to be important. What most people dont know is they had established a secret way to communicate with each other to get the messages out to the troops. But we knew that. It will left in their reappointed to see what he said. Asking him about and he says he quit then he puts in a secret message would everyone do dont tell them about the career. So what we are thinking is not here is a relatively cooperative died to probably experience is the worst that you can add is willing to risk going back to that identity of the one courier so a eventually they got to have mendes said i dont know who you are talking about. Said to last all of these other detainees. And was a facilitator of the highlevel facilitator working when if ksm and he as disappeared it could be him. He moves people he works for him to make it clear that the other was a smokescreen. Also we had one detainee who said one of to get to her but then they fell into place then those brilliant men and women and could put it together there was a partial trade name for the courier that was already in the database that we did not know how important that was. But i interrogated the shortest interrogation ever of 10 minutes and after that he move almost immediate the end to debriefing, he said this guy has a speech impediment. When he talks he talks in arabic and passed to pashtun then they can figure out where he lived because we were told he was likely to be staying left Osama Bin Laden because he had no outside contacts so then they tried to find out if he was staying with him. And dad is a process that happened. It wasnt that somebodys hands were on the Steering Wheel assembly was cutting off their fingers it was hard work done on the part of the cia analyst with that actionable intelligence as it becomes actionable only in us a greater context. They say we are already have the name it would have gotten this information anyway. The problem with acting is whiff a detainee in the beginning they say tallis everyone you think everybody with Osama Bin Laden but it does not highlight their importance suicide picking up the phone book to say that we should know he would rather gas station. That isnt the way it works. You need sound cue to take hugh to that piece of information to highlight the importance. It is clear in my book but, second use a happier the guy you gave them his name was dead. They thought he was dead. The smart and clever work by the analyst to could to determine they confused him with his brother and actually he was alive. In hindsight it is easy is site doing a puzzle because you know where they are at one. But the people who put this together, these analysts were brilliant to get back into that database and pieced together the matrix was amazing. What they use it is like putting together a puzzle with thousands of pieces and what day. But the only to detainees that word denied as the courier or ksm. The rest were providing bits and pieces of information. Nobody has heard from ksm since 9 11 we have not seen in interviewed or maybe just one picture after he was picked up. Is actual capture photo. In the book thiokol him the devil. In the beginning he was belligerent. Really belligerent. Here is what you need to know about ksm. Ksm tumor three days was held in pakistan and tried to be debriefed by cia officers and it is and one of those words dressed up in the pakistan redress and then later described as a clown. Most of the time and then he acted belligerently. That is a lesson for today. Some people say you to get more ad of the highlevel detainee but not with ksm. He said i will not give up my god for a handful of dates . Would rethinking . That is when he described the behavior of the other person. Then he went where he was treated badly but then any case he had an opportunity to answer the question with no coercion at also the way that it works with the assist to do something and say neutral assessment to say this is the information that we want to say we need to stop operations we have reason to suspect and said he may hear from me when i get back to washington dc talk to the cowboy george bush and talk to my lawyer. Said that would not happen but then he says he will not was asked about these other attacks he said he will know. Then i go into this thing great detail in the book but basically i am a little spiel that i say in every mans life in there are moments of opportunity and times with the decision they make forever changes your future in you cannot go back understand this is one of those times you havent so i walked out of this room. We know you dont know everything and people are doing things in your name. So then the next time but then to have the chance to think about it. So yes he was belligerent and madison to and then terming. And after they were over a would say sometimes you rub his belly sometimes you spoken in the iberian gabelli breading stage with ksm not the david really do some i poking but think they have to be perry mason but none of that was necessary. If you got sideways with him then heaven help you because i have not seen this much raw brainpower and replace. He is probably the brightest person i have never seen in my life and i have seen some pretty bright people. He was very charming. But if the evil lurks evil then you can push back if it is prince charming then bring people back and then to use that analogy these people out there are jeff warriors i was tall and i am a of a mitt jaw hygiene and along line. But the world is already under strict sharia law i am just the warrior when i fall another will come up. You have already lost you just dont know that. Is fascinating the way they think about that. Talk about the time you were in the cell. Vis that i have something important to tell you. Dont want to upset daniel pearls parents with the whole story. In the pakistanis said the hardest part is to get the new material. And what if we are to have it. And so, wmd expert, should be persistent in should be persistent in an affair because hes probably been out for about a month, month and a half. We are sitting in there with her and she was asking her questions and she is done. And she leaves. We do this thing i call the fireside chat. When you take people out of steam on situation the dynamics the interrogations over. Lets talk about how that went for you. Bruce whos incredibly empathetic and liked better [inaudible] bruce noticed you were uncomfortable at times about the sometimes been a lady would ask you questions come even seem almost like youre going to say something, but she was told back in you wouldnt say it. Live a couple couple of the sorts of things i like what were you thinking about that . Go get the lady who takes the notes, which is a which is such insultingly called every female person who is three times as smart as we were it was actually a questions. But aig hottie islamists who dont think very much of women. He does go get the lady who takes the notes, so we bring her back and described describes tidiness had been dismembering him and burying him in a hole. I dont recall whether his mere purse, but one asked was that difficult for you to do, thinking emotionally. He said no the toughest part was getting through the neck bone. Just like that. And then they started making concerted happy and it was creepy. Does when you asked me is zero to the tivo shines through. He referred to daniel pearl as daniel and just had tone of voice. What you have to understand his case then thought that what he was doing to daniel pearl showed his god, the god of islamists, not the god of islam, it showed his god how much he loved his god because taking the life of someone who is helpless to prevent it like you see a crisis in neighboring people in cages or crucify children, taking someones life is helpless to prevent it shows his glory and how much his influence lives. Its almost like an act of worship. Not a hostile act. So hes talking as if they had done an immense iron. After its over, we are walking back to the style and one of the guard says to me, that kind needs to die. He meant that the world would be a better place lets talk a little bit about islam. We often hear terrorist attacks on islam has nothing to do and pay a cent told you a lot about his fears. Islam is religion of peace. Ever answer that question but i want to make 1st. K. Sm. A person who wants to impose sharia law on the whole world. If youre muslim and youre not an islamist, im not talking about you. When people talk about the ku klux klan are not insulted because im not a member of the ku klux klan in spite of what some media people which have the belief. I just dont get insulted by that. Please dont take what im saying out of context. Im not attacking all of islam. What i am saying is these islamists who want to destroy our way of life have a set of beliefs that make you incredibly dangerous. So your question was. What did he tell you . He said that islam is a religion of peace. One of the conversations i had with him was i said you guys are telling us a pharmacy religion of peace. But that about . He said its a religion of peace. The world would be appeasement sharia law is imposed on the whole world. So we are religion of peace because we are trying to impose sharia law on the whole world. Right now its not at peace because you have all these different groups who believe that they can influence how things are going. He told me that the democracy and true sharia law could not coexist. We foolishly believe we get a vote in how is this. We can decide better fashions are, that we can decide the law sydney to be enforced, that we can change those laws. Not sure. In his mind, how were supposed to live was established 1400 years ago in the quran and the perfect words and deeds of the prophet. Theres no question how we do that. I said i was obeyed. How can you say that this freedom of choice in your version of islam. How can you say that . He goes well, i am free. The perfect words of the prophet vomited indeed in the carron tells me everything i need to do in my life so i have to make choices. So i am free to do whatever is allowed. The exact opposite of the way that i think. He told us that americans didnt have the moral purge to do what would be necessary in order to prevent them from prevailing, that we were he told us and this is one of those conversations. Not when it interrogated and get intel out of him. He told us that our civil liberties, our willingness to be tolerant of other people, and our openness, those were all flaws that allah had put into her character to ensure that islamists could win because they are just going to continue to do what they do what we make excuses for them. This excessive Political Correctness. Im sure if i sat down and said what he think of this . He was paid not a flaw. And tell me that essentially what happens is that the cloaking devices they can operate in the open without being confronted. That is a big deal. He said to me that al qaeda but he did 9 11 he was in a of al qaeda. So hes basically a free agent at that particular point. He said that al qaeda dreams of bringing down america is catastrophic attacks but thats not particularly practical. The real way to bring down america was with low tac lone wolf attacks because the target is not our military capabilities. Its not our buildings. Its not a rose. It the minds of americas. We dont have to defeat you. We only have to persist long enough to defeat yourself. We only have to persist long enough. I talked to apple hottie one time there was a military commander did a lot of attacks against americans. I was asking him how he stages ambitious, why they didnt stay there longer and try to kill more people. He said the only have to kill one or two americans because its not the americans over there we are trying to kill. We kill enough of them the American People want you to turn tail and run and when you do, we will deal with his takeover. That is the way theyve been. They think theyve been given a special position by their god and the right to dominion over the worl