The ABC News interview with former CIA interrogator John Kirikaou (transcript here and here) seems to sidestep what was reported two days ago in the NY Times: that Abu Zubaydah was giving vital information to the FBI before being tortured by the CIA. Kiriakou’s view, that waterboarding is wrong but it works, also obscures the fact that it isn’t just confirmed Qaeda operatives like Zubaydah who have been tortured. As Andrew Sullivan notes, “We have evidence of over a hundred deaths in interrogation, of which less than a score have been acknowledged by the Pentagon as examples of torturing-to-death. Whatever moral decision we come to with respect to the torture of Abu Zubaydah, it is essential to understand that no authorized act of torture stands alone.” Kiriakou also confirms that torture was OK’d up the chain of command; he claims that waterboarding saved lives but he’s hazy at best on the details. More of Sullivan’s take on Kiriakou here.
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