An ex-FBI agent that interrogated terrorists told a Senate panel that no actionable intelligence was gained from “enhanced interrogations” such as waterboarding. “I strongly believe that it is a mistake to use what has become know as enhanced interrogation techniques,” said Ali Soufan who worked for the FBI from 1997 to 2005. “These techniques, from an operational perspective, are slow, ineffective, unreliable, and harmed our efforts to defeat al Qaeda.”

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Soufan said that intelligent interrogation techniques used by the FBI were “in sharp contrast to the enhanced interrogation method that instead tries to subjugate the detainee into submission through humiliation and cruelty. The idea behind it is to force the detainee to see the interrogator as the master who controls his pain. It’s merely an exercise in trying to force compliance rather than elicit cooperation.”

“I major problem is that it is ineffective. Al Qaeda are trained to resist torture,” he said.

“In contrast, when we interrogated using intelligent interrogation methods [on Abu Zubaydah] within the first hour we gained important actionable intelligence.”

This video is from C-SPAN 3, broadcast May 13, 2009.





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