Ex-FBI Interrogator: Harsh Methods Didn't Work
LARRY MARGASAK | May 13, 2009 01:09 PM EST | AP
WASHINGTON — A former FBI man who interrogated an al-Qaida leader said Wednesday extreme techniques used by the Bush administration were "ineffective, slow and unreliable" and caused the prisoner to stop talking.
Ali Soufan, testifying to a Senate panel behind a screen to hide his identity, said that his interrogation team obtained a "treasure trove" of information from Abu Zubaydah using a non-threatening approach that outwitted the detainee _ even getting him to talk by using his childhood nickname.
Soufan said his team had to step aside when CIA contractors took over, using simulated drowning, sleep deprivation and other harsh methods. He said those techniques caused the prisoner to "shut down."
Soufan testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, holding the first hearing on extreme interrogation methods since the Obama administration last month released Bush administration legal opinions that justified the techniques.
The hearing quickly became partisan when the panel's chairman, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., promised to unravel "our country's descent into torture" and vowed to expose "a bodyguard of lies" by the Bush administration.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked whether "we would have this hearing if we were attacked this afternoon."
Graham called the hearing a "political stunt," and said Democrats were trying to judge officials who _ soon after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks _ "woke up one morning like most Americans and said, 'Oh my God, what's coming next.' "
Soufan countered that his personal experience showed that the harsh interrogation techniques didn't work even when there wasn't a lot of time to prevent an attack.
"Waiting 180 hours as part of the sleep deprivation stage is time we cannot afford to wait in a ticking bomb scenario," he said.
Soufan said the harsh techniques were "ineffective, slow and unreliable and as a result, harmful to our efforts to defeat al-Qaida."
Graham at times appeared irate, commenting at one point, "The people we're prosecuting didn't rob a liquor store."
He said former Vice President Dick Cheney has suggested there was "good information" obtained from the extreme methods. "I would like the committee to get that information. Let's get both sides of the story here," Graham said.
The South Carolina senator contended that Soufan didn't know all the information obtained from Abu Zubaydah.
Soufan responded that some Bush administration claims of success using harsh methods against Zubaydah were "half truths." |
