Page 78 - Interrogations News Today

Media. and even as the cia directors denied that brutal interrogations were indeed torture, he now concedes that some of the tactics were abhorrent. cnns jim acosta at the white house with more. >> reporter: hi, carol. good morning. thats right, the cia director, john brennan, conceded the agency did make mistakes in using those harsh interrogation techniques after 9/11, but he also defended those methods in some instances, saying that its possible in some cases that they provided some useful in...

With the cias first detainee, al qaeda operative abu zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times. the report says that in one session, zubaydah became completely unresponsive with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth. the cia pushback was quick. director john brennan saying the harsh interrogations helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives. as for the claims that osama bin laden was tracked down based on information gained from enhanced interrogations, the senate committee...

>> absolutely. >> explain that a little more for our krurs now. >> absolutely. americans need to understand this. this is not about being soft and fuzzy wuzzy or anything like that. hard things need to be done. there are people trying to kill you or me or destroy our nation and who are antithetical to our way of life. thats a fact. however, the fbi, the u.s. military have long known how to conduct interrogations that are principled and effective and in accordance with our laws and our oaths and ...

One lawmaker calling director john brennan and his agency liars. accusing him of obstructing the senate and making a mockery of congressional oversight. this of course in the wake of the scathing senate report on c.i.a. torture tactics. >> meanwhile, the justice department ruling out any new investigations or prosecutions, they say, involving the spy agency. as former vice president dick cheney and other bush-era officials vehemently defend the interrogation tactics. >> the white house is steeri...

Americans think torture is wrong or does more need to be done? do heads need to roll? >> i think we sent a really strong message. by international standards, of course, impunity is something that were going to have to address as a nation, the administration and the department of justice have said they will not prosecute, but i think we have actually come to terms with the fact that the united states acted wrongly and immorally. the best way for us to move forward is to give the international com...

Not. there is truth to be had. no question in my mind we gained valuable information from those interrogations. jon: i know you are a friend and admire earlier of senator john mccain who also spent some time at the hanoi hilton. he is calling this torture. i want to play this for you. >> okay. >> knows from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. i know that victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think thei...

Torture including waterboarding him over 80 times. we now have all this incredible detail about how they treated abu zubaydah. harrowing reading that case. but it is not a historical case. abu zubaydah still right now is in u.s. custody. hes still ours, still a guest of the u.s. taxpayers currently residing at guantanamo. these guys are still around. these things the still exist. the consequences of how you cant put them on trial, all of that is still current news. theyre still in our custody. t...

Of the 9/11 attacks and other high ranking al qaeda leaders that allowed the cia to focus on that name, say thats the guy we need to find, he will lead us to bin laden. without those interrogations, he is just another name in another file with hundreds of other names. >> and he broke under waterboarding he was subjected to. looking back on this, do you have any moral problems with what you justified in the justice department? do you have any moral problems at all, did you make any mistakes? >> o...

Interviews of witnesses involved with the interrogations. >> you werent interviewed? >> i was never interviewed, no one ever contacted me. i dont believe anyone in the white house or justice department were ever interviewed for this report. it is stunning, it is as if you had a trial and the judge said only the prosecution gets to put on the case and no witnesses can be put on. >> why are you convinced we did get actionable intelligence that saved lives. what convinced you? >> you can look at th...

Kills those terrorists but then neighbors, family members, also get killed. josh earnest told me, look, theres safeguards in place to protect these innocent civilians. but as you know, pakistan, yemen, various countries, weve seen a lot of innocent civilians killed. so look, bush war on terror policies are certainly under the microscope. but this presidents policies are as well. >> ed, thank you. >> good to see you. also today former cia director is firing back against the senate democrats cla...