CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

Former Agent Says the Enhanced Technique Was Used on Al Qaeda Chief Abu Zubaydah

A leader of the CIA team that captured and interrogated the first major al Qaeda figure, Abu Zubaydah, says subjecting him to waterboarding was torture but necessary.

In the first public comment by any CIA officer involved in handling high-value al Qaeda targets, John Kiriakou, now retired, said the technique broke Zubaydah in less than 35 seconds.

"The next day, he told his interrogator that Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate," said Kiriakou in an interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC News' "World News With Charles Gibson" and "Nightline."

"From that day on, he answered every question," Kiriakou said. "The threat information he provided disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks."

...

Now retired, Kiriakou says he has come to believe that waterboarding is torture.

"We're Americans, and we're better than this. And we shouldn't be doing this kinda thing," he said.

But he says the urgency in the wake of 9/ll led to a desire to do everything possible to get actionable intelligence.

"What happens if we don't waterboard a person, and we don't get that nugget of information, and there's an attack," Kiriakou said. "I would have trouble forgiving myself."


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=3978231&page=1

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edit: I thought the excuse for destroying the CIA tapes was to protect the identity of the interrogators? :shrug:

[bemildred]

1. It is illegal, dimwit. Against the law.

Do we have the rule of law here, or the rule of expediency, where spooks and cops are judge, jury, and executioner, whenever they say so?

[saigon68]

3. Faceless thugs supporting a Capitalist class of Gangsters

[peacetalksforall]

2. It is very difficult to read words like this when you don't believe that

outside Islamic forces were responsible for that day in September.

[truth2power]

23. I struggle with that all the time...

They didn't do it. Or maybe they were dupes. But they weren't the moving force.

[mikelgb]

4. this guy dosn't know what he thinks

does he think he should be tried for torture then?

[sabra]

5. 9/11 changed everything...

:sarcasm:

[Solly Mack]

6. and they continue to admit to using torture and YET.....

they are free to give interviews to the press and to BOLDLY claim they torture because...who's going to go after them? Who's going to prosecute them for war crimes?

[yava]

22. abuse

Who is more guilty?
A waterboarder? a pilot who phosphorous-bombs homes? an infantry soldier who uses depleted uranium as missile head for armor steel perforators (later burning into nanoparticles of uranium oxide that cause cancer for thousands)?, a person who orders death for hundreds of thousands of civilians? a group that takes parents away from a hundred thousand children forcing them into slave labor?

[The Stranger]

7. Why hasn't Kriakou been arrested? He just admitted to a crime.

[understandinglife]

11. He certainly incriminated himself about as publicly as possible ...

[louis-t]

8. And in the same breath, the crazies admit

"torture doesn't work, they will say anything to stop the pain." AAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!

[grahamhgreen]

9. We cannot govern without torture!

We cannot have democracy without torture!

They MADE us torture them!

Torture, although distasteful, is GOOD!

God would approve, remember the Inquisition!

[L. Coyote]

10. Someone didn't get the memo. The US does not torture. But, when it does, who does is secret.

[Xipe Totec]

12. We must destroy American values in order to preserve them

Jesus H. Christ, what an imbecile.

[Hissyspit]

13. he's incompetent if he has to rely on torture

[LynnTheDem]

14. America tortures people...but we're better than the terrorists.

No, actually, we aren't.

Torture; it is ILLEGAL, IMMORAL and WRONG. No matter who does it.

[Canuckistanian]

15. "Bank Robber calls hold-ups 'regrettable but necessary'"

I don't think that headline would fly, either.

[niceypoo]

17. Dillinger:

Reporter: "Why do you rob banks, John?"
Dillinger: "Cuz that's where they keep the money."

[niceypoo]

16. Pat Robertson calls Armageddon necessary but Holocaust

This makes about as much sense..

[fascisthunter]

18. The Insane Have a Tendency to Rationalize

the worst in human nature as being a "necessary evil".

[IsItJustMe]

19. This type of the-ends-justified-the-means thinking will eventually take down any society and/or

culture. We have to be better than that.

[defendandprotect]

20. Trying to separate out "waterboarding" from other tortures . . ..

It's all torture and it all has to STOP ---

[defendandprotect]

21. In fact, I think if we waterboard Bush + Cheney they will admit to 9/11 . . . whatta ya think?

[Brrrp]

24. There is no such thing as an "ex" CIA agent.

The CIA is putting this preppie dweeb torturer out there as the new face of abusive interrogation. He's supposed to be viewer-friendly. This is meant to put the US in a new light as the McTorturechamber on the Hill.

[truthisfreedom]

25. Oh, such cherry-picked, lovely parsed words.

Go fuck yourself, g-man. Be the difference you want to see in the world, or simply die, you piece of propagandist shit.

[MrSlayer]

26. I think that we've always tortured and it's such a big deal now because it's so baldfaced.

I think it's incredibly naive to think that operatives of the United States in any form and from any time period were not torturing captured enemies or perceived enemies for information. The difference is it was never as openly stated and talked about the way it is now. We have Republican candidates practically tripping over themselves to be the hooded one delivering the pain. All that type of shit is supposed to be secret. And they are making no secret of it.

[Heywood J]

27. Pick him up.

Arrest him on felony war crimes charges. If prosecutors refuse to do it, he should be citizen-arrested. He's just made a televised confession to war crimes and torture.

[baldguy]

28. CNN sez "Waterboarding saved lives"

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/11/agent.tapes/index.html

James Stockdale & John McCain & hundreds of other Americans were tortured too. How many lives were saved then?

[Supersedeas]

29. Kiriakou just appears out of thin air -- how convenient and great timing too...no?