CIA Agent Takes Back Waterboarding Claims

[kpete]

Source: CBS News

January 27, 2010 10:35 AM
CIA Agent Takes Back Waterboarding Claims


A former CIA operative who two years ago said a top al Qaeda member provided useful intelligence about the terrorist organization after being subjected to waterboarding for less than a minute is now saying he was wrong.

The former operative, John Kiriakou, concludes his new memoir, "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror," by telling readers he now doubts the usefulness of the intelligence Qaeda agent Abu Zubaydah provided because the information came not after a few seconds but after being waterboarded more than 80 times, Foreign Policy magazine reported.

In late 2007, Kiriakou told ABC News's Brian Ross that Zubaydah "answered every question" after being subjected to waterboarding for "30 to 35 seconds" during his interrogation.

"In retrospect, it was a valuable lesson in how the CIA uses the fine arts of deception even among its own," Kiriakou writes.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/27/world/worldwatch/entry6146610.shtml

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Now comes John Kiriakou, again, with a wholly different story. On the next-to-last page of a new memoir, The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror (written with Michael Ruby), Kiriakou now rather off handedly admits that he basically made it all up.

"What I told Brian Ross in late 2007 was wrong on a couple counts," he writes. "I suggested that Abu Zubaydah had lasted only thirty or thirty-five seconds during his waterboarding before he begged his interrogators to stop; after that, I said he opened up and gave the agency actionable intelligence."

But never mind, he says now.

"I wasn't there when the interrogation took place; instead, I relied on what I'd heard and read inside the agency at the time."

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/26/cia_man_retracts_claim_on_waterboarding?page=0,0

[fascisthunter]

1. see that you stupid freeps... it doesn't work

if any of you want, I could show you myself. In fact, give me an hour, and I'll make you say just about anything.

[TankLV]

7. What "freeps" - there were TOO MANY IDIOTS WHO BOUGHT THAT HERE ON DU!!!

They still have yet to either renounce their delusional "beliefs" or admit they're the nut job repuke moles we suspect they are...!!!

[fascisthunter]

13. true... sad but true

[renegade000]

10. heh, i think you give them too much credit

one minute is more like it :evilgrin:

[fascisthunter]

14. .

[grantcart]

2. I don't know lets try it on O'Keefe and see if it works on him.

[gateley]

3. Isn't it generally accepted that torture doesn't result in information, only in a

"confession" in order to appease the torturers?

[jtrockville]

6. False information. That's what the Bush administration sought.

They needed to link Saddam Hussein to the attacks on WTC and Pentagon. Torture is an excellent way to get false information.

[gateley]

9. Good point. So in their case, it DID work! nt

[Xipe Totec]

4. We didn't do it, and we promise not to do it again n/t

[pjt7]

5. I hope he comes out with what really happened on 9.11

.

[Arctic Dave]

8. The CIA lied!? Oh my FSM.

How could this happen?

We better not let this get out, it will ruin their credibility.

[24601]

12. Back up a second - both links are to current stories. Did he say

before that he was there (a lie) or that it provided valuable intelligence (wrong, but not a lie if he believed it). There are plenty of misstatements by people on both sides every day and to call each one a lie is to not understand what a lie is. You want to change the tone in DC? I do - I don't want to hear "Liar" everytime President Obama, Speaker Pelosi or Senator Reid trips up.

What's ground truth on what he said before?

[Arctic Dave]

15. "(wrong, but not a lie if he believed it)"

I'm not laying all the blame on him. If he was only repeating what her heard, then someone else started the lie. He comes out looking foolish either way.

[24601]

16. Thanks for the clarification - I'm a little sensitive when lying,

cheating or stealing are alleged. I lost approx 150 classmates (Class of 1977) in West Point's largest cheating scandal. Although about 2/3 were readmitted to subsequent classes, including one who became President of Costa Rica, it still stings. In my company, we started 2nd Class (Junior) Year with 30 classmates - only 10 of us graduated with our class.

[Soylent Brice]

11. K&R