[Lazamataz]

Here is a statement by John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent who actually waterboarded Abu Zubaydah:

ABC reported yesterday that John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent who interrogated al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah, claims that subjecting Zubaydah to 35 seconds of waterboarding produced valuable information that thwarted terrorist attacks … and it was necessary torture:

“A leader of the CIA team that captured the first major al Qaeda figure, Abu Zubaydah, says subjecting him to waterboarding was torture but necessary. In the first public comment by any CIA officer involved in handling high-value al Qaeda targets, John Kiriakou, now retired, said the technique broke Zubaydah in less than 35 seconds.

“The next day, he told his interrogator that Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate,” said Kiriakou in an interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC News’ “World News With Charles Gibson” and “Nightline.”

“From that day on, he answered every question,” Kiriakou said. “The threat information he provided disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks.”

Kiriakou said the feeling in the months after the 9/11 attacks was that interrogators did not have the time to delve into the agency’s bag of other interrogation tricks. “Those tricks of the trade require a great deal of time — much of the time — and we didn’t have that luxury. We were afraid that there was another major attack coming,” he said.”

How does it feel to be wrong so often?

[Dick Holmes]

You wrote, "Here is a statement by John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent who actually waterboarded Abu Zubaydah"

On the second to last page of his 2010 memoir entitled "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror"[ Random House. ISBN 9780553807370] Kiriakou acknowledged that he was not present during Abu Zubaydah's interrogations, and had no first-hand knowledge of Abu Zubaydah's waterboardings: "I wasn't there when the interrogation took place"

Oh, and 35 seconds? Didn't have time to do it right, 'cause waterboarding got instant results? Abu Zubaydah got religion the next day? Then why did he have to be waterboarded 83 times?

How does it feel to be wrong so often?