Video: Ex-CIA agent John Kiriakou says waterboarding “saved lives”
posted at 10:13 am on December 12, 2007 by Bryan
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John Kiriakou was on the team that interrogated al Qaeda capo Abu Zubaydah. Kiriakou says that he did not waterboard Zubaydah but did question him. According to Kiriakou, Zubaydah was uncooperative for weeks after his capture, willing to discuss the finer points of Islam vs Christianity (probably attempts to proselytize his captors) but would not divulge a thing that he knew either about al Qaeda or about ongoing attacks. Waterboarding him changed that in 35 seconds, and Zubaydah became a most cooperative witness. Kiriakou also says that the destruction of the CIA’s interrogation recordings should not have been done.
Kiriakou also says that waterboarding was necessary early in the war but isn’t now. Like all complex issues, this one is worth looking at in the full context of the kind of people we’re dealing with.
CNN has set up its page so that links to it will take you to two videos, the first a description of waterboarding and the second the interview with Kiriakou.
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Watrboarding them will be the least of our worries in the future. There is no negotiating with mad men who desire world destruction. Big stick ,baby.
bbz123 on December 12, 2007 at 10:18 AM
What he said (above).
LtE126 on December 12, 2007 at 10:24 AM
I listened to that execrable Reid yesterday claiming that eliminating waterboarding is going make our soldiers safer.
From what? Beheading? Not bloody likely.
It’s of no value to waterboard lower level operatives of any kind. That’s why it’s been used only three times. I think our soldiers would welcome waterboarding as a step up from the treatment they normally get at the hands of Al Qaida.
Waterboarding is useful and does work. There is a difference between obtaining information and getting someone to say something you desire. That’s a nuance completely lost on idiots like Reid. As I sit here, I feel my fists clench in between typing efforts. I’d welcome the briefest opportunity to knock that moron Reid on his ass.
After excoriating him, of course.
drjohn on December 12, 2007 at 10:25 AM
On second thought no- before excoriating him.
drjohn on December 12, 2007 at 10:26 AM
What a mild-mannered looking torturer Kiriakou is! Looks more like an accountant than an ex-spook.
aero on December 12, 2007 at 10:31 AM
now that someone from the CIA is publicly admitting to Waterboarding…….will the Pres. Candidates like Romney and the Pres. himself be able to say: “We do not discuss specific interrogation techniques, because we do not want the enemy to be able to train against them…”
jp on December 12, 2007 at 10:32 AM
OT/ Gilcrest of the Minuteman project endorses Huckabee???? Tancredo must be crushed.
jp on December 12, 2007 at 10:33 AM
I’m bored with this whole pseudo scandal. Note to Reid and Code Pink: No one cares if a bunch of terrorists get waterboarded. Especially if it saves lives from a terrorist attack.
Nice try though.
Haven’t they noticed that NO ONE is paying attention to them anymore? Or too narcissitic for that?
mjk on December 12, 2007 at 10:33 AM
Mo Rocca?
Mazztek on December 12, 2007 at 10:34 AM
Yesterday CNN had a poll on their homepage which looks like its gone now that asked if you approve of waterboarding. This morning I saw after close to 50K votes that the approval kept getting bigger. At 17K votes it was 53% and this morning at close to 50K votes it was 57% approved. I wish the narrative that the American People dont approve of these techniques would be extinguished.
broker1 on December 12, 2007 at 10:35 AM
According to Alcohol Alert, over 16,000 Americans die as a result of drunk driving each year. I propose we introduce mandatory public (perhaps televised) waterboarding for everyone caught driving drunk. We now know that waterboarding is not torture and causes no lasting harm, but the procedure is unpleasant enough that it will be a sufficient deterrent for at least some people. If we manage to deter only 20% of potential drunk drivers, we will have saved more people each year than we lost on 9/11.
Sounds like a no-brainer, no?
factoid on December 12, 2007 at 10:36 AM
Waterboarding will be the featured amusement ride at next years San Fran Freak Fest.
bbz123 on December 12, 2007 at 10:39 AM
What saved our lives then will not save our lives now.
Why is that, exactly?
Because everybody shot their stupid mouths off about an effective method, maybe?
Kiriakou should be practicing the art of being cleverly quiet.
Not undermining the West along with the diarrhrea-mouthed rest.
They are all only aiding the jihadis.
Whose torture methods are the real variety.
(And who follow only one “convention”: destroy the enemy and win.)
Spooks like this will be creating more ghosts on our side.
And not just 3,000 next time.
profitsbeard on December 12, 2007 at 10:41 AM
Is waterboarding now a lost “tool”? It sure looks like it. It is not even a new tool. But is most definitely now added to all terrorist training camp class schedules.
The glut of waterboarding stories on television last night was nauseating. They will be doing at frat parties by Friday.
ej_pez on December 12, 2007 at 10:42 AM
The same libs who find it perfectly okay to abort babies find it awful to waterboard terrorists. Go figure.
BobK on December 12, 2007 at 10:43 AM
Brilliantly succinct.
Matticus Finch on December 12, 2007 at 10:45 AM
In their eyes:
1.It’s not a baby yet
2. The terrorist is an innocent Freedom Fighter
3. The U.S. is EVIL
ej_pez on December 12, 2007 at 10:47 AM
Why is it wrong to show burning citizens falling from the 82d floor? Why is it wrong to show Nick Berg being butchered? To save our lunch? Stop lil Johnny from keeping the light on at night? Or is it to take the steel out of our spines and long knives out of our hearts?
Moral highground my fanny. It is considered ‘torture’ because it might give us the information we need to finish this war. A victory by America, for the left, will not be tolerated.
Limerick on December 12, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Did he have a straight face as he said that?
“Oh don’t worry about being captured by the great satan. They won’t torture us.”
Mazztek on December 12, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Good Job!
Shouldn’t Reid and the like be Celebrating this?
What part of Saved Lives don’t they get??
bridgetown on December 12, 2007 at 11:12 AM
I’m still a wee bit confused – weren’t the libs using waterboarding as a form of protest just a few weeks back?
Blight on December 12, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Blight-
But those people didn’t know anything worth divulging.
So it’s okay.
profitsbeard on December 12, 2007 at 11:44 AM
As I understand it, the “torture” from waterboarding derives from the fact that it’s scary as hell. That’s about it, yeah? Scary? Not dangerous? Isn’t that exactly the kind of “torture” we should be looking for?
Farmer_Joe on December 12, 2007 at 11:46 AM
Many of the lefties are pretty much purists on this. I saw one on TV saying that it would have been better if the nipped-in-the-bud plot to blow up all those planes over the Pacific had succeeded than if someone had been tortured to stop it. And these are folks who think “making someone feel bad about themselves” is torture.
eeyore on December 12, 2007 at 11:51 AM
I’m quite sure the jihadis have been aware of waterboarding for some time. It appears to be something that would be difficult to overcome by training, because the effect is to trick the body into using it’s own gag reflex to close the trachea. That is an involuntary response which is exacerbated by the water effect, to differentiate from simply being able to hold one’s breath for a long period without the drowning simulation.
a capella on December 12, 2007 at 11:55 AM
35 seconds of pure scary.
Topsecretk9 on December 12, 2007 at 11:55 AM
I wonder if the captured jihadist would choose waterboarding over a beheading or a plastic shredder?
Topsecretk9 on December 12, 2007 at 11:58 AM
I’m okay with that.
Farmer_Joe on December 12, 2007 at 12:08 PM
Perhaps Kiriakou is right that we no longer need to waterboard. I doubt it, but he may know more than I do. However, Kiriakou is utterly wrong to think we should keep the video of the waterboarding sessions. Enhanced interrogation works better when there is some mystery to it. The video of the waterboarding would ultimately be released by some leftist loon in Congress and thus reduce the effectiveness of waterboarding. The result being that we’ll have us harsher forms of treatment when confronted with terrorists like al-Queda.
Leftists never think the results of their behavior, and thus we get this typical perverse result that their efforts to end “torture” lead to greater torture. If leftist use leftist logic in chess, any normal twelve year old should be able to beat them in 30 moves.
thuja on December 12, 2007 at 12:21 PM
“Big stick”. Hmm… I seem to remember another important component to that quote. Can’t exactly recall what it was, though… Eh, probably doesn’t matter.
Yoosaion on December 12, 2007 at 12:35 PM
They keep saying how much they like being martyrs. This is a commendable example of cross cultural sensitivity. What’s the problem?
dhimwit on December 12, 2007 at 12:40 PM
How many times does the MSM need to have someone describe exactly what waterboarding is? Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve heard this explained and demonstrated 1000 times already.
“Yes ahh, could you explain just one more time now, exactly what IS waterboarding? And feel free to take all the time you want to explain and elaborate on this method of torture.”
nottakingsides on December 12, 2007 at 12:47 PM
If waterboarding’s torture, then why are the protesters so eager to undergo it?
(P.S. That’s a Greek name above, Ιωάννης Κυριάκου.)
Tzetzes on December 12, 2007 at 6:49 PM
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