Ex FBI Agent Decries Torture; Former Bush Administration Lawyer Calls for Inquiry
In a Senate hearing on torture today, former FBI Special Agent and Abu Zubaydah interrogator Ali Soufan decried so-called “enhanced interrogation” techniques used against detainees, calling them less effective than traditional methods of information gathering.
From CNN:
Soufan, who was involved in the interrogation of CIA detainee Abu Zubaydah, took issue with former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has said that enhanced interrogation techniques helped the government acquire intelligence necessary to prevent further attacks after September 11, 2001…
“From my experience — and I speak as someone who has personally interrogated many terrorists and elicited important actionable intelligence — I strongly believe that it is a mistake to use what has become known as the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’” Soufan noted in his written statement.
Such a position is “shared by many professional operatives, including the CIA officers who were present at the initial phases of the Abu Zubaydah interrogation.”
This comes on the heels of increased calls for investigation into abuses by former Bush administration officials who may have knowingly violated the law while advising the president.
On a related note, former Bush administration lawyer Philip Zelikow, whose 2006 memo opposing torture was ordered destroyed by the White House, added his voice to that growing chorus, saying that:
[O]ne of the reasons I support some kind of inquiry is to comprehend why so many people believed that a program like this was a good idea – since we now believe it was a mistake. So we can learn from the mistake. When there is this kind of collective failure, we need to learn from what happened.
Clearly there is a need for greater accountability in the executive branch than there has been in recent years. For a historical perspective and insight into what can be done to prevent future abuses, read ASP Senior Fellow Dr. Bernard Finel’s recent column on the issue.
This is amusing. So if American citizens lives are at risk we would not use these methods.
I wonder what methods would be use if Obama’s two children were kidnapped by terrorist, or if Nancy Pelosi’s grand children were.
Yeah, we all know the answer to that question! I guess only some of us have to die so the Democrats can hold the moral high ground!
You and I are expendable, but their loved one’s are not!