World

Former FBI Interrogator Dispels Claim of Usefulness of Torture

by Karen Hatter | May 14, 2009 at 05:53 am

242 views | 14 Recommendations | 4 comments

Ali Soufan, former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interrogator, instrumental in gathering information from one of the so called high profile prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Zubaydah, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts on May 13, 2009 that he accomplished his task using what he considered standard techniques to acquire the information.

His testimony revealed the prisoner refused to cooperate after being subjected to torture, also referred to as "enhanced interrogation techniques", a phrase adopted by the Bush administration.

An excerpt from an article from MSNBC :

Soufan said the harsh techniques were "ineffective, slow and unreliable and, as a result, harmful to our efforts to defeat al-Qaida."

Soufan testified that "many of the claims made" by the Bush administration were inaccurate or half-truths.

He cited these examples:

The administration said Abu Zubaydah was not cooperating before Aug. 1, 2002, when waterboarding was approved. "The truth is that we got actionable intelligence from him in the first hour of interrogating him" before that date. The administration credited waterboarding for Zubaydah's information that led to the capture of Padilla, who received a 17-year, four-month sentence, although prosecutors did not present any dirty-bomb information. Padilla was arrested in May 2002, months before waterboarding was authorized, Soufan said. Bush officials contended that waterboarding revealed the involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks of al-Qaida mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Soufan said the information was discovered in April 2002, months before waterboarding was introduced.

Mr. Soufan testified before the committee from behind a partition to conceal his identity. The hearing sought to shed light on the process used by the Office of Legal Council (OLC), involved in crafting the justification for the use of the techniques used on prisoners during the Bush administration.

This was the first of several investigations expected to be seeking answers to the evolution of the process and its implementation.

Click here to read the complete article.

2 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend Sign In or Join to post comments

Laughing-Samurai (not verified)

at 09:08 on May 14th, 2009

Karen how can we believe, accept any evidence obtained from torture. If you torture me, I'll tell you anything you want!

Karen Hatter

at 09:27 on May 14th, 2009

That was the account Senator McCain relayed regarding his own imprisonment and torture and he would know first hand!

A. Tran

at 08:32 on May 16th, 2009

With due respect and I hope this observation would not side-track the news about the FBI testimony. I am mindful of the moral outrage about torture by the public, now that it has come to light, but I wouldn't necessarily agree with using Senator McCain's experience in North Viet Nam as proof example. Senator McCain broke his arms when his plane crashed due to rockets, they weren't reset by his captors, and the NVN knew that John McCain was the son of a Navy Admiral from the beginning. He was offered to be released, but declined, which is why Americans celebrated his act of courage.

Karen Hatter

at 08:42 on May 16th, 2009

That is true, Pythiian1.

What I really had in mind when I wrote my comment was the interview that first appeared in U.S. News and World Report in May 1973, when the senator spoke of his torture, saying he complied with his captors' requests and said what they wanted him to say after he watched a fellow serviceman suffer due to his untreated injuries.