Ex-CIA agent: 35 seconds of waterboarding 'broke' terrorist

David Edwards and Jason Rhyne Published: Tuesday December 11, 2007  del.icio.us
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Although he didn't personally witness it, a former CIA field officer says that 35 seconds of waterboarding was all it took for interrogators to "break" a suspected terrorist held at a secret agency prison.

In an interview with ABC's Brian Ross, retired CIA officer John Kiriakou described how severe methods he now believes to be torture were used to extract information from Abu Zabaydah, an alleged al-Qaeda operative said to have helped plan the Sept. 11 attacks. But Kiriakou, who was a team leader for the joint CIA/FBI squad who apprehended Zabaydah in Pakistan in 2002, says he believes the techniques were necessary.

"At the time, I was so angry and I wanted so much to help disrupt future attacks on the United States, that I felt it was the only thing we could do," Kiriakou said.

When Zabaydah refused to give up "actionable intelligence" about terrorist activities following his capture, the former agent says his team received a greenlight from CIA officials in Washington to initiate waterboarding.

Kiriakou, who says he did not himself participate in or witness the extreme technique being applied, said fellow agents informed him that Zabaydah "was able to withstand the waterboarding for quite some time -- and by that I mean probably 30, 35 seconds."

Shortly thereafter, the detainee "told his interrogator that Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate because his cooperation would make it easier on the other brothers who had been captured," according to Kiriakou. "And from that day on, he answered every question..." The agent told Ross that waterboarding effectively "broke" Zabaydah, and "disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks."

Asked if he believed waterboading was torture, Kiriakou said that he didn't so at the time, but his opinion on the subject had shifted. "I think I've changed my mind," he said. "And I think that waterboarding is probably something that we shouldn't be in the business of doing."

Added Kiriakou, "We're Americans and we're better than this. And we shouldn't be doing this kind of thing. But at the same time, what happens if we don't waterboard a person and we don't get that nugget of information. I would have trouble forgiving myself."

This video is from ABC's World News, broadcast on December 10, 2007.