You do realize that Graham is opposed to torture, as well as to "waterboarding" (which, of course, isn't torture)?
Soufan was held up as an example of a great interrogator. And to be fair, he had a lot of experience. But his principal feature was that he was the only Arabic-speaking FBI agent working out of Alec Station.
The techniques he believed in were those that the FBI employs, which are much softer than what the CIA SHOULD use when necessary.
That said, Graham was just trying to get the facts out of him. He doesn't support torture in any way, shape or form that I can see.
But Ali was coming before the committee, totally INEXPERIENCED with the types of interrogations under discussion, and making claims that were basically incredible. Ali had made the statement that "These techniques, from an operational perspective, are ineffective, slow and unreliable, and as a result harmful to our efforts to defeat al Qaeda."
As far as I can see, the video you posted was merely Graham challenging a clearly incorrect claim made by Soufan.
Make no mistake, Soufan has been a great resource for the FBI over the last 15 years. His interrogations of suspects in the Embassy bombings and other attacks were crucial and his knowledge of AQ is absolute.
He just sees things differently from the CIA experts who are more knowledgeable on the subject of rougher interrogation techniques. |
