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Well, it's official now: John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn't know what he was talking about.
Kiriakou, a 15-year veteran of the agency's intelligence analysis and operations directorates, electrified the hand-wringing national debate over torture in December 2007 when he told ABC's Brian Ross and Richard Esposito in a much ballyhooed, exclusive interview that senior al Qaeda commando Abu Zubaydah cracked after only one application of the face cloth and water.
"From that day on, he answered every question," Kiriakou said. "The threat information he provided disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks."
No matter that Kiriakou wearily said he shared the anguish of millions of Americans, not to mention the rest of the world, over the CIA's application of the medieval confession technique.
The point was that it worked. And the pro-torture camp was quick to pick up on Kiriakou's claim.
"It works, is the bottom line," conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh exclaimed on his radio show the day after Kiriakou's ABC interview. "Thirty to 35 seconds, and it works."
A cascade of similar acclamations followed, muffling -- to this day -- the later revelation that Zubaydah had in fact been waterboarded at least 83 times. Had Kiriakou left out something the first time?
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.
"Now we know," Kiriakou goes on, "that Zubaydah was waterboarded eighty-three times in a single month, raising questions about how much useful information he actually supplied."
nobody cares s0n............
We used water boarding on 3 people. Supposedly we received some valuable information from them that probably saved American lives. At the time it was sanctioned by the Government, now it isn't. I don't know about this former agent and why he would lie. Obviously we cannot believe anything he says now.
I believe that we were justified in the use of enhanced measures, and I believe they were only used when it was thought that lives could be saved.
lmao....NOW....you believe him
thread fail
The non torture rules are there to help protect our troops if they are captured.
If you support torturing prisoners then you do not support our troops.
lmao....NOW....you believe him
thread fail
Nope, just posting the fact at the very least he lied originally. So therefore his testimony that waterboarding was the magical cure all was bullshit.
lmao....NOW....you believe him
thread fail
Nope, just posting the fact at the very least he lied originally. So therefore his testimony that waterboarding was the magical cure all was bullshit.
The non torture rules are there to help protect our troops if they are captured.
If you support torturing prisoners then you do not support our troops.
Bullshit. How many heads have we cut off?
bull...you clearly believe him now, your thread title and comments show this
The non torture rules are there to help protect our troops if they are captured.
If you support torturing prisoners then you do not support our troops.
Bullshit. How many heads have we cut off?
The non torture rules are there to help protect our troops if they are captured.
If you support torturing prisoners then you do not support our troops.
Bullshit. How many heads have we cut off?
How many have we blown off?
Your point is totally off base with mine.
In any case are we to become like them?
Well they did it first sounds kinda childish.
Bullshit. How many heads have we cut off?
How many have we blown off?
Your point is totally off base with mine.
In any case are we to become like them?
Well they did it first sounds kinda childish.
i thought killing people was ok, it is dripping water on their heads that is not
The non torture rules are there to help protect our troops if they are captured.
If you support torturing prisoners then you do not support our troops.
Bullshit. How many heads have we cut off?
So Ollie
Do you endorse US soldiers being tortured if the information they give up will save lives?
