Ex-CIA agent admits waterboarding, but calls it torture

[ProSense]

Ex-CIA agent admits waterboarding, but calls it torture

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A retired CIA agent confirmed in a US interview that interrogators used a simulated drowning technique on an Al-Qaeda suspect and admitted that the disputed method is a form torture.

In an ABC News interview aired Monday, retired agent John Kiriakou, who led a CIA team that captured and interrogated Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah, said using the "waterboarding" technique was necessary and yielded crucial information.

Kiriakou said the method broke Zubaydah -- one of the first top Al-Qaeda suspects captured after the September 11, 2001 attacks -- in less than 35 seconds, according to ABC.

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Although Kiriakou admitted that waterboarding was used, he did not entirely approve of it: "We're Americans, and we're better than this. And we shouldn't be doing this kind of thing."

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Kiriakou's comments come amid a growing scandal over the CIA's destruction in 2005 of videotapes made in 2002 of interrogations of Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, another top Al-Qaeda operative, as first reported by The New York Times.

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[Solly Mack]

1. Oh, I think by his own admission that he isn't better than that

Let's watch and see if this admitted war criminal is prosecuted


(good money says not gonna happen)

[ProSense]

2. Kick! n/t