Torture report footnote speaks volume of Bush era skullduggery

It was never mentioned on mainstream media, but Torture Report footnote 857 should have been front and center. That's because it strongly hints at the real reason America tortured after 911: finding evidence of Iraq's connection to justify our attack.
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"Ibn Shaykh al-Libi reported while in [Egyptian] custody that Iraq was supporting al-Qa’...ida and providing assistance with chemical and biological weapons. Some of this information was cited by Secretary Powell in his speech at the United Nations, and was used as a justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Ibn Shaykh al-Libi recanted the claim after he was rendered to CIA custody on February [redacted], 2003, claiming that he had been tortured by the [redacted], and only told them what he assessed they wanted to hear. For more more details, see Volume III."
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While we'll never see Volume III for more details, there is much corroborating information to confirm that linking Iraq to 911 was the real thrust of America's descent into the torture game. The two gents tortured a total of 266 times, Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheik Muhammed, spiked the CIA's water bill between August, 2002 and March, 2003, the exact run up to the made up Iraq war based on lies and disinformation, some no doubt supplied by torture victims. In addition, a former high level former US intelligence officer told the McClatchy News Agency in 2009, " [F]or most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld were also demanding proof of the links between al-Qaeda and Iraq. … There was constant pressure on the intelligence agencies and the interrogators to do whatever it took to get that information out of the detainees, and when people kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people to push harder."

To paraphrase a famous aphorism: "Oh what a tangled web we weave...when first we torture to deceive".