Page 64 - Interrogation Techniques News Today

>> coming upon on the real story the deal for the enhanced interrogation techniques. john risso will tell us who knew what and when. well hear from the former military man sought to be the architect of the enhanced interrogation techniques program. he survived being attacked by a bear not once but three times and find out how he brought that big guy down. join us. >> and instead of digging through your wallet. whip out your cell phone. state of iowa has a free app and the image rotate and users

>> welcome back to "hardball." the intelligence committee report put out today contained details about a man once called a senior lieutenant to osama bin laden. zubaydah was captured after 9/11 and subjected to extreme interrogation techniques at a cia site in thailand. he was one of the first to be waterboarded. joining me now the attorney who represents abu zubaydah. thank you for joining us. what is your view of torture and what it achieves or doesnt? >> before i go to that, i have to correct...

Years i was present with many conversations involving the president where techniques were discussed. so i just assumed that someone, someone had given him a briefing about what was actually going on because he certainly seemed to be aware of it. if you read his book, decision points, beginning 2002 he talks about conversations he had with tenet about interrogation techniques, i dont know how much detail the conversations went into but clearly the president was aware, had a general knowledge abou...

He gathered. >> thats the way i see the world. who needs snowden when we have the democrats releasing the reports. >> it is good to have both. >> there are two issues here. maybe there are three or four actually. the first is did we do the things described in the report? nobody seems to be saying we didnt. i think. the second is did those things work? the report says no. heavy hitters in the intelligence committee says yes. the third thing is if we grant that the torture worked, does it make it ...

Intelligence committees so-called torture report looks at 20 specific detainee cases. it concludes the approved enhanced interrogation techniques were not effective. >> i know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. >> reporter: the abuse began with the cias first detainee. al qaeda operative abu zubaydah who was subjected to approved waterboarding, seen her in a demonstration. in one session, zubaydah became completely unresponsive with...

Because shes been on this for years. this does feed into party orthodoxy about the evils of the cia and all the rest of it, but its very hard to explain dianne feinsteins behavior here. i find it striking. look, the thing about this fight, this will renew the debate over enhanced interrogation techniques, but that debate ended years ago. one side won and it was her side. in my view, this is reopening an old wound and a debate long ago settled in favor of discontinuing the practices that she now ...

Didnt stake their reputations on saying what they did without good reason as well. and the cartoon image of torture that might have been done in egypt or someplace where theyre twisting an arm and asking questions, thats not what this is. these people were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques for a matter of days or weeks at most. and then for three years later, thousands and thousands of absolutely verifiable intelligence came out of khalid sheikh mohammed, abu zubaydah. the informati...

Complicated there was a brief period of time from august of 2002 it to early 2003, where the guidelines werent set in stone. they had the legal authority to do the enhanced interrogation techniques there were a few months where it was a little bit influx. i think thats what he was pointing to. there was a short period of time where the guidance wasnt totally. >> i dont want to do speculation. but that took me aback a little bit. okay. i believe its a partisan report. i believe that the democrats...

By the release of this torture report saying mistakes were made. former top c.i.a. officials are only beginning to speak out, defending their actions. it was stinging criticism for the c.i.a. from a sitting president. in an interview with telemundo, president obama says the agency was wrong to use harsh interrogation techniques on terror detainees after the 9/11 attacks. that amounted to torture. >> i think in the midst of a national trauma, anden certainty as to whether these attacks were going...

Press secretary under president obama and executive of global strat jess group. president obama came out today and said enhanced interrogations made it harder to pursue intelligence with our partners. lets assume thats true. why keep highlighting that? >> i think as you had in that clip from joe biden. its a uniquely american thing to take something from -- something that americans did, didnt do right and actually explore it, explain it to the american people and make a clean break from the past...