My Tortured Decision

[elleng]

FOR seven years I have remained silent about the false claims magnifying the effectiveness of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding. I have spoken only in closed government hearings, as these matters were classified. But the release last week of four Justice Department memos on interrogations allows me to shed light on the story, and on some of the lessons to be learned.

One of the most striking parts of the memos is the false premises on which they are based. The first, dated August 2002, grants authorization to use harsh interrogation techniques on a high-ranking terrorist, Abu Zubaydah, on the grounds that previous methods hadn’t been working. The next three memos cite the successes of those methods as a justification for their continued use.

It is inaccurate, however, to say that Abu Zubaydah had been uncooperative. Along with another F.B.I. agent, and with several C.I.A. officers present, I questioned him from March to June 2002, before the harsh techniques were introduced later in August. Under traditional interrogation methods, he provided us with important actionable intelligence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/opinion/23soufan.html?th&emc=th

[lostnotforgotten]

1. There You Have It - The Techniques Do Not Work

eom

[Warren Stupidity]

2. There you have it again: memo's advocating criminal behavior

even when issued from the highest levels of the DOJ do not fool honest people into committing crimes. Apparently these memos did not convince an entire organizational branch of the DOJ, namely the FBI, that anything other than illegal abuse of detainees was going on.