The Japan Times: Spirituality on the rise

The Japan Times, EDITORIAL, Sunday, Sep. 30, 2012

Is Japan a spiritual-oriented or materialistic society? The answer is definitively spiritual, according to the most recent national livelihood survey by the Cabinet Office. The highest percentage of Japanese ever — 64 percent — said they are now placing priority on "spiritual fulfillment" rather than "material richness."

The survey also found the lowest percentage ever, 30.1 percent, pursuing wealth as their main priority in life. The percentage of those pursuing spiritual matters has led the annual survey since 1979. However, the relative difference between spiritual and material values reached its highest gap this year.

Watching the tragic destruction caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 surely changed many people's life priorities. The sustained economic downturn has also shown many people, whether they wanted to see it or not, that they can enjoy their lives with less money than they once imagined.

The turn away from affluence showed up in another result of the survey. According to 66.5 percent of people, what is most in need of improvement in Japan is the economy. That doesn't necessarily mean they seek affluence. The ideal of the Japanese economic miracle is receding even further into the past, replaced by the realities of the current economic situation. People do not want to get rich; they want the economy to function.

The ongoing trend in Japanese life also involves a revaluation of lifestyle issues. More of those surveyed, 37.7 percent, said they preferred pursuing leisure and recreational activities, rather than a higher income (33.3 percent). Personal fulfillment and human relations have begun to receive greater attention and concern.

Unfortunately, government policy and foreign relations do not always reflect this national mood. It is not that the government should interfere in spiritual matters, much less promote them, but the economic engines should not be repaired simply to pump up the level of affluence, but to allow people to get on with their other interests.

The survey indicates that people now have concerns that go past the limits of material acquisitiveness.

Politicians on all sides of the political spectrum would do well to understand this ongoing shift in public values. The survey indicates that Japan is moving beyond the past overemphasis on economic and material growth, both individually and nationally, to a more balanced view of what life entails, a view that includes more nuanced and complex aspects of human experience.

That change can only be for the good.

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Will Influential Asia Shape the World?

Japan's new first lady says rode UFO to Venus (Aug 2009) 

Japan's premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama (not pictured) and his wife  Miyuki
 pose for the media after casting their absentee ballots at a polling station in
Tokyo August 26, 2009. (Credit: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version) 

Will Influential Asia Shape the World?

Jakarta Globe, Shoeb K. Zainuddin, September 29, 2012

Customers talk to a salesperson at a Lenovo shop in Shanghai in this
February 17,  2011 file photo. Experts urged the West not to underestimate
China. (Reuters Photo/Aly Song)

            

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New York. Fueled by rising incomes and a half billion new consumers by 2020, Asia will dominate the global economy over the next few decades, forcing the world’s financial and security architecture to reflect the rise of emerging nations.

This point, made by Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, at the 12th annual Leadership Forum in New York, was countered by billionaire investor George Soros, who said that many emerging powers do not have strong internal systems, such as democratic institutions, to play a leading role on the global stage.

The forum — titled “Defining the Future: How Emerging Powers Will Shape The World Order” and co-sponsored by Strategic Review, an Indonesian journal of leadership, policy and world affairs — brought together Mahbubani, Soros and Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations Special Representative for Syria.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who delivered the keynote address, laid the groundwork for the debate when he said the seismic power shifts now underway would continue to have an impact as the Cold War gives way to “Warm Peace.”

“One of the challenges of the Warm Peace is how to accommodate the rise of emerging powers such as Brazil, Argentina, India, Indonesia, China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia,” he said. “Economic growth is what makes a country strong, and it determines a country’s influence in the community of nations.”

The emerging powers, he added, are even more influential today given the gloomy economic outlook in the developed world. “As a result, emerging powers are not just hard to ignore but they are new partners in reshaping the global landscape,” the president said.

This point was picked up by Mahbubani, who argued that despite uncertainty in the short term, the long-term outlook appeared bright as growing numbers of people from emerging powers join the ranks of the middle class.

“Indonesia is part of the larger story and the key word is confidence, which is incredibly high within the emerging countries,” he said.

“But how do we restructure the global order to reflect this significant change? The UN Security Council must change as the current permanent members are dictators as they cannot be voted out.”

Soros, however, was not convinced, saying that the collapse of the Soviet Union and other past emerging powers proved that democracy and freedom of expression are vital components of a nation’s power.

“We must consider this when we talk about the emerging powers and the West, especially so for China. Will it become an open society? That is the single most important development for the world to consider,” he said.

Mahbubani countered by urging bystanders to not underestimate China, because that would be dangerous.

“The Chinese Communist Party of today is very different from the past. More than 70 million Chinese travel every year and they can see how the rest of the world is developing,” he said, adding that the Western mindset is a black-and-white one and cannot comprehend the complexity of China.

Another region of the world that is poorly understood is the Middle East, Brahimi said. The region, he noted, has had many false starts but the Arab Spring has given people a new voice and they are not going to be silenced.

The West, he added, is too preoccupied with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who will soon leave office.

“But Iran is an ancient civilization that has been around for a long time and will continue to be around in the future.”

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Associated Press, Tamara Lush, Sep. 29, 2012

Vice President Joe Biden greets supporters during a campaign event at the
Century Village Clubhouse in Boca Raton, Fla., Friday, Sept. 28, 2012.
(AP Photo/Terry Renna)

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden says that he and President Barack Obama had been on the job less than a week when a top economic adviser told them the country was facing a trillion-dollar budget deficit.

Biden says that Obama replied, "But I haven't done anything yet."

Biden blames the deficit on the previous Bush administration, adding that it "put two wars on a credit card" and gave tax cuts to the wealthy after inheriting a balanced budget and revenue surplus from the Clinton administration.

Biden hammered GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney for comments on a leaked video in which Romney describes 47 percent of Americans as paying no federal income tax and believing "they are victims."

Biden made his remarks Saturday to more than 2,000 people in Fort Myers, Fla.

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This video is banned for broadcast on News Networks in USA, Israel and Europe. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel and US does not want you to see. Jewish leaders and prominent businessmen Greet Ahmadinejad with Inshallah and Bless him for long life. Jews have lived in Iran for thousands of years. Over 50,000 Jews live in Teheran. Israeli Jews Love Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Please also watch http://www.youtube.com/watch.....

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"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ..... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening. ....."

(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

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Burma leader Thein Sein pays tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi

BBC News, 27 September 2012

Burma's Transition 

• Suu Kyi: 'My regrets'
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• Ethnic strife remains
• What now?

The Burmese president said

Burma's President Thein Sein has paid tribute to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in his address to the UN General Assembly in New York.

He also said radical democratic reforms in his country were irreversible.

Thein Sein referred to Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time as a Nobel laureate, and congratulated her on the honours she recently received in the US.

Ms Suu Kyi was under house arrest for 15 years under the previous military government in which he served.

Earlier this month, the Nobel laureate - who is also currently in the US - received a top honour, the Congressional Gold Medal, and called for sanctions to be eased.

"As a Myanmar citizen, I would like to congratulate her for the honours she has received in this country in recognition of her efforts for democracy," the Burmese president said.

In his speech, also scheduled for broadcast inside Burma, he told the UN that Burma had left behind its system of authoritarian government. But, he said, the democratic transformation would be a complex and delicate task that required patience.

Burma's civilian-led government has undertaken a series of reforms since the end of outright military rule last year.

Thein Sein also said the government placed a high priority on ending armed conflicts with its ethnic minorities through peace talks and confidence-building measures.

But he revealed no new initiative on the recent serious unrest in Rakhine state - involving Buddhists and mainly Rohingya Muslims - which is currently the subject of a national commission of inquiry, correspondents say.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would ease its import ban on goods from Burma.

Mrs Clinton said the step came in recognition of Burma's continued progress towards reform and in response to requests from both the government and opposition there.

Thein Sein said he was grateful for the decision - which is the latest in a series of such moves since the process of reform in Burma got under way.

The US lifted sanctions against Burma's president shortly before his visit to the US and relaxed its financial restrictions after by-elections were held earlier in the year.

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Third Reich - Operation UFO (Nazi Base In Antarctica) Complete Documentary

http://www.exopolitics.org.uk

For the first time, the legendary 2006 Russian documentary 'Third Reich - Operation UFO' in its entirety, fully translated into English and available for free viewing. Many thanks to Irina Du Toit for the translation and the saucer people for the subtitles.

The film explores the historical mysteries and rumours of a Nazi secret base in Antarctica, the 1947 flying saucer attack on Admiral Byrd's ill-fated 'Operation Highjump' expedition and the occult origins of Third Reich anti-gravity engines, flying discs and ancient Atlantean technologies viewed through the lens of perhaps the three most mysterious twentieth century German organisations of all: the 'Thule Society, 'Vril Society' and the 'Ahnenerbe'

One of the core themes of the film is the alleged existence of 'Base 211', the legendary underground Nazi base in the Antarctica. Drawing upon the pre-war Nazi interest in Antarctica and the creation of 'New Swabia'; the testimony of German U-Boat submarine commanders and the alleged disappearance of thousands of Nazi scientists and engineers at the end of the war, personnel that cannot be accounted for by the Vatican and Odessa 'rat lines' or American 'Operation Paperclip' activities. In addition, the film analyses the actual geo-physical possibilities of an underground base in Antarctica.

The other core theme is the alleged existence of a Nazi flying saucer program and the many evidential strands that this area generates. From the supposed channeling of extraterrestrial engineering schematics by members of the German occult group 'Thule Society' in the early part of the twentieth century to the 'implosion engine' of Viktor Schauberger and its possible appropriation by the Third Reich.

Bringing us to the the latter part of the twentieth century the documentary illustrates the many sightings of unknown crafts around the Antartic region and the theoretical basis for polar wormholes as entrance and exit points for visiting extraterrestrial spaceships and the possible involvement of HAARP, as well as asking why nearly all American Antarctic bases seem to be populated by agents of the National Security Agency and CIA.

Like the study of any phenomena and/or events that exist at the edges of consensus reality, occupy imaginal realms and are subject to historical revisionism; the interface of myth and reality is a shifting mosaic of fact, speculation, disinformation and fantasy, or to use the phrase of head CIA counter-intelligence spook, James Jesus Angleton, we have entered a "wilderness of mirrors".

Certainly there are elements in the documentary that give cause for concern such as the alleged "Special Bureau 13", the Nazi secret flying saucer research group and its similarity to the top secret government agency in the early eighties role playing game "Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic " (though equally the RPG title could be an insider homage to this secret Nazi organisation). Likewise, there is the lack of information on the existence of the US Navy destroyer 'Murdoch' in the testimony recounted by pilot 'John Sireson' in his description of the flying saucer attack on Admiral Byrd's fleet (testimony taken from an interview by the late pioneering American researcher Leonard Stringfield).

Equally, the testimony of Admiral Byrd that flying saucers attacked the 'Operation Highjump' fleet is of historical record as is his testimony to Congress of enemies that have the ability to fly "pole to pole". Likewise, the creation of 'New Swabia' is as much a historical fact as the 'impossible' existence of the 'Piri Reis' map.

What sets this documentary apart from most others of its kind is the inclusion of high ranking Russian scientists and military personnel and their testimony should not be discounted.

As the great American anti-fascist researcher Dave Emory says of many elements of deep politics: "its food for thought and grounds for further research".

Exopolitics UK and 'The Saucer People' are looking for other non-English UFO/alien related videos to help translate and subtitle, we have dozens of Russian documentaries waiting to be translated into English. If you speak Russian and are interested in translating any of this material please get in touch.

Likewise, if your country of origin has produced any UFO/alien documentaries and are interested in creating English translations to be subtitled please contact us.

It took a lot of hard work to make the translation of this documentary into English and create the subtitles and we would like to dedicate our work to the late American researcher Wendelle Stevens who is quoted in the film, In our opinion, Wendelle, who sadly died in 2011 was one of the few genuine professional researchers in the UFO community who like Linda Moulton Howe, actually went and spoke to the subjects and witnesses and researched cases first-hand.

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“… Now, in the process of all of this, there's going to be renewed interest in Antarctica, and you're going to find some interesting things about the land under the ice. The topography of the land under the ice does not match the topography of the ice above. Some astonishing shapes will be revealed when you map the actual land under the ice. Points of mountains are going to be revealed, giving an entire different idea of what Antarctica might have been and what its purpose really is. The continent that is uninhabitable by Human Beings may very well be the engine of life for Human Beings. And I will leave it at that. …”

Islam's age-old dogmas shape protests

Deutsche Welle, 26 September 2012

The demonstrators protesting against the abusive anti-Muslim film are shaped by conservative forces rooted in 19th century Islamic experiences, say scholars. But there are reform-oriented interpretations of Islam.

Anger and outrage can be spontaneous. But they can also be rooted in history, fed by extremely old cultural traditions. What seems to be impulsive fervor may also be tied up with feelings associated with certain religious ideologies. According to some Islam scholars, such patterns can be recognized in the recent demonstrations against the abusive anti-Islamic video released on the Internet.

Religious hardening

Consciously or unconsciously, the protesters are identifying with an idea of Islam largely developed in the 19th century, these scholars say. In his book "The Culture of Ambiguity - an alternative history of Islam," Thomas Bauer, an Islam scholar at the University of Münster in Germany describes how Islamic radicalization developed as a result of Western imperialism. 

There have violent protests against
the film in recent weeks

At the start of the 19th century, as the French took over Algeria, Lebanon and Syria and the British occupied Egypt and Palestine, they subdued the conquered peoples culturally as well as politically. The European empires were guided by a worldview that saw the inhabitants of these countries as second-class human beings.

Bauer argues that under the pressure of these new conditions, Islamic teachers transformed their loosely structured religion into an inflexible dogma. Ambiguities were replaced by strict ideological edicts that crystallized religious views to this day.

"While traditional Islamic scholars celebrated the diversity of interpretative possibilities of the Koran, today's interpreters, whether in the West or the East, whether fundamentalist or reform-orientated, believe they know exactly what the one true meaning of any particular part of the Koran is," writes Bauer. 

God's word

This hardening of positions has had consequences beyond religion that have fused religious and legal dimensions, says Bonn-based sociologist and lawyer Werner Gephart. This has created its own problems.

"In Western law, the distinction between law and religion is typical," says Gephart. "But in the Islamic tradition, not only are religious and legal norms summed up under the vague term 'Sharia,' so are elements of everyday life." This has turned Sharia into an ideological system that tries to regulate all aspects of life.

Sharia gains it power from the fact that its source - God's revelations - cannot be contradicted, says Gephart. "That means that there is always a spiritual dimension. If you want to read it from a legal point of view, it is an implicit will by which an entire social order can be organized by totalitarian means."

Power of conservative theology

The competition between different meanings of Islam is based on the fact that the interpretation of religious as well as secular texts can never be unambiguous. But in large parts of the Arab world, influential conservative theologists will not accept modern, historically-argued readings of the Koran.

No one knew this better than Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid, an Egyptian reformer theologian who died in July 2010. Several years ago, Zaid was forced to leave Egypt after being accused of blasphemy. In an interview with Deutsche Welle shortly before his death, he explained why historical and critical readings of Islam are so fraught with difficulty. 

Zaid was an Egyptian scholar
exiled for his reformist views

"This method dramatically endangers the power of religious authorities," he said. "Because they give the individual more opportunity to interpret the texts less dogmatically. The religious powers have fought this ever since this kind of non-dogmatic Koran exegesis was developed, because it is of course a challenge, even a threat, to dogma."

Military and theological power

The dogmatic interpretation of the Koran, as it is taught at the famous Azhar University in Cairo, still has influence on a lot of Muslims. Relatively few people oppose this point of view.

One of them is Syrian philosopher Zadik Al-Azm. He says that in the Middle East, one has to decide whether one wants to live under the hegemony of the military or the Islamists. "For me it's clear: I want to live under military law," he told DW. "At least there I can sign petitions to suspend the law. But who would dare sign a petition calling for the suspension of divine law?"

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"Perceptions of God" – June 6, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Quantum Teaching, The Fear of God, Near-death Experience, God Becomes Mythology, Worship, Mastery, Intelligent Design, Benevolent Creator, Global Unity.... etc.) (Text version)

“.. For centuries you haven't been able to think past that box of what God must be like. So you create a Human-like God with wars in heaven, angel strife, things that would explain the devil, fallen angels, pearly gates, lists of dos and don'ts, and many rules still based on cultures that are centuries old. You create golden streets and even sexual pleasures as rewards for men (of course) - all Human perspective, pasted upon God. I want to tell you that it's a lot different than that. I want to remind you that there are those who have seen it! Why don't you ask somebody who has had what you would call a near-death experience?

"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

" ..... If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening. ....."

Ex-FBI interrogator 'gagged' over 9/11 backstory

BBC News, By Gordon Corera & Steve Swann, 12 September 2011

Related Stories 

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A former FBI agent who worked at the heart of America's battle against al-Qaeda has told the BBC he is being prevented from telling the truth as he challenges the back story of 9/11 and what has happened since.

Ali Soufan says techniques like water
boarding were ineffective against 
terrorists

Mr Soufan also argues against the effectiveness of interrogation techniques used by the CIA, such as water boarding.

Ali Soufan has not appeared on camera before, but he has now decided to speak out to counter what he sees as a misleading narrative about the last 10 years.

Mr Soufan has direct, first-hand experience of some of the most heated controversies of the past decade: whether 9/11 could have been prevented and whether tactics like the water boarding of al-Qaeda suspects were effective and justified.

Born in Lebanon, Mr Soufan came to America as a teenager and joined the FBI in the 1990s. As one of the only Arabic speakers he was assigned to early investigations on al-Qaeda.

'I threw up'

When the 9/11 attacks occurred, he was in Yemen investigating the bombing of the USS Cole.

The day after the attacks, he met a CIA officer at the US embassy in Yemen. The officer passed him an envelope.

Inside was a report detailing links between people Mr Soufan had been investigating for the warship bombing and two of the hijackers - who had been living in the US for months.

Mr Soufan says that written requests for this kind of information had been made three times before without any result.

"I think it was probably the worst feeling I have ever experienced in my life," he told the BBC in an interview.

"It was a combination of frustration, anger, sadness, betrayal. The only thing I recall is I left the office, went across the hall to the bathroom and I just threw up."

He believes the material would have made a difference.

"We were looking for them overseas. They were here. People in our government knew that they were here. We were not told," he says.

The CIA denies that it failed to share the intelligence.

"Any suggestion that the CIA purposely refused to share critical lead information on the 9/11 plots with FBI is baseless," a CIA spokesperson told the BBC in a statement.

Interrogator as God

The first senior figure linked to al-Qaeda to be arrested was Abu Zubaydah. He was taken to a secret CIA site. Mr Soufan was told to go out and interrogate him.

He still cannot disclose the site's location, but the BBC believes it to be Thailand. Zubaydah was still in pain from being shot during his capture.

Mr Soufan says he was able to extract valuable intelligence with traditional interrogation techniques. This included the first identification of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks.

But some in Washington believed Abu Zubaydah knew more. They sent out a CIA contractor to test out his theories.

Zubaydah would become the guinea pig for what the CIA called "enhanced interrogation techniques". 

Mr Soufan says his more orthodox
 interrogation of Zubaydah (pictured)
 gained useful information

The techniques began with nudity, sleep deprivation and loud noise.

"The idea was the detainee has to look at the interrogator as if he is his God. He is the one who determines if his life is going to be better or worse," Mr Soufan says of the CIA contractor's ideas.

Mr Soufan's objections to the techniques are primarily about their effectiveness.

"I'm not going to lose any sleep if a terrorist is nude," he says. "These things don't work.

"It's not going to work on a top-notch terrorist. My experience is you can catch way more flies with honey than vinegar."

Mr Soufan stood back as the CIA tested out its theories. He says it soon became clear that the techniques employed by the CIA contractor were not working.

The pressure was on to go further.

Mr Soufan became increasingly concerned - witnessing techniques he believed would be criminal in the US. He told the FBI he would arrest the contractor if he stayed.

The FBI told him to come home, and withdrew itself from the interrogation process. Zubaydah was then water boarded 83 times.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney has argued these techniques were "legal, essential, justified, successful".

Mr Soufan challenges this view.

"Everything the proponents of enhanced interrogation techniques claim was obtained because of enhanced interrogation techniques and water boarding on Abu Zubaydah, we got when we were there on the ground before even enhanced interrogations existed," he says.

In response to his story, a US counter-terrorism official told the BBC that the CIA and FBI had different roles.

"Mr Soufan and his colleague were part of the initial questioning, when Abu Zubaydah was hospitalised, and Mr Soufan was trying to build a rapport," said the official.

"Later when Abu Zubaydah recovered, he stopped any pretence of co-operation.

"The CIA claim that after the FBI pulled its officers from the debriefings, and the decision was made to focus the debriefings on collection of intelligence and on pending attacks, he became very co-operative. "

Major redactions

Mr Soufan - who left the FBI in 2005 - believes that his attempts to challenge the narrative of 9/11 and what came afterwards is being deliberately blocked by the authorities.

His book, The Black Banners, is published in the US and UK on Monday.

The FBI did not object to the manuscript, but the CIA demanded major redactions.

In some cases, entire pages of the book have been redacted, including parts of Mr Soufan's testimony before the US Senate.

In certain passages, the words "I" and "me" have been redacted where Mr Soufan is relating his own eyewitness account of events.

"The suggestion that the Central Intelligence Agency has requested redactions on this publication because it doesn't like the content is ridiculous," a CIA spokesperson told the BBC.

"The CIA's pre-publication review process looks solely at the issue of whether information is classified... just because something is in the public domain doesn't mean it's been officially released or declassified."

Mr Soufan believes that the process has not been about what is or is not classified.

"People over there are redacting narrative; they are not redacting national security information," he told the BBC.

"They are trying to stop me and others from telling the world what really happened."

FIND OUT MORE: Watch Gordon Corera's full report on Newsnight on Monday 12 September at 22:35 BST on BBC Two

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