Former MI5 Head: 'Waterboarding Worked'

'Waterboarding Worked' Says Former MI5 Head -- The Telegraph

The former head of MI5 has said life saving information has been gained from waterboarding but criticised former senior American officials for making “exaggerated” claims.

Eliza Manningham-Buller admitted for the first time that the controversial technique had provided intelligence to prevent terrorist attacks.

But she criticised “high-up” former American officials who have claimed that British lives were saved, saying such claims were “exaggerated.”

“It’s not the case that torture always produces false information and actually it’s clear that torture can contribute to saving lives, but I don’t think that’s the point,” she said at the recording of her second BBC Reith lecture in Leeds. “The point is that it is not something that is right, legal and moral to do.”

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My Comment: The former head of MI5 has at least one defender.

Did Water Boarding Save British Lives?

George W Bush: 'waterboarding' saved British lives Photo: NBC/SPLASH

George W Bush: 'Waterboarding' Terrorists Saved British Lives -- The Telegraph

George W Bush, the former United States president, has insisted that the "waterboarding" of terrorist suspects by the CIA saved British lives by stopping Islamist attacks on Heathrow and Canary Wharf.

In an interview publicising his new book “Decision Points”, Mr Bush vigorously defended waterboarding, a kind of simulated drowning that was known as an “enhanced interrogation technique” by the Bush administration but regarded as “torture” by many opponents, some allies and a few internal dissenters.

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More News On Waterboarding And Its Impact On Saving British Lives

Bush says he personally authorized waterboarding 9/11 mastermind -- Canadian Press/AP
Bush on torture: Waterboarding helped prevent attacks on London -- The Guardian
George W. Bush: waterboarding saved London from attacks -- The Times
Waterboarding is torture, Downing Street confirms -- The Guardian
UK intelligence 'unaware' of waterboarding interrogation -- BBC
Bush says waterboarding saved UK lives -- Independent
No regrets on waterboarding terror suspects: Bush -- CTV
George Bush is right: Water-boarding terrorists saves innocent lives -- Con Coughlin, The Telegraph

Psychologists Told CIA Waterboarding Was Safe

Psychologists Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell shaped the CIA's interrogation program of al Qaeda detainees, including Abu Zubaydah. Both refused to speak to ABC News citing confidentiality agreements with the U.S. government. A re-enactment of waterboarding is pictured here. (ABC News Photo Illustration)

From ABC News:

Despite Red Flags, CIA Followed Interrogation Program of Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell.

There is new scrutiny into the role of two psychologists who made an estimated $1,000 a day to oversee and advise the CIA's interrogation of captured terrorists.

Both men, doctors Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, assured the CIA that their methods could 'break' a terrorist and would be safe, according to two former high-ranking CIA officials and a collection of recently declassified Bush administration memos.

The major problem, according to those who knew the two retired military psychologists, was that neither Mitchell nor Jessen had ever conducted a real interrogation, or been involved in an intelligence operation.

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My Comment: As predicted .... with the exception of only a few conservative bloggers and talk radio .... no outcry (like it was for Valerie Plame) on who outed these men.

9/11 Planners Were Waterboarded 266 Times

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind. Photograph: Guardian/AP

Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects -- The New York Times

C.I.A. interrogators used waterboarding, the near-drowning technique that top Obama administration officials have described as illegal torture, 266 times on two key prisoners from Al Qaeda, far more than had been previously reported.

The C.I.A. officers used waterboarding at least 83 times in August 2002 against Abu Zubaydah, according to a 2005 Justice Department legal memorandum. Abu Zubaydah has been described as a Qaeda operative.

A former C.I.A. officer, John Kiriakou, told ABC News and other news media organizations in 2007 that Abu Zubaydah had undergone waterboarding for only 35 seconds before agreeing to tell everything he knew.

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More News On The 9/11 Planners Being Waterboarded

CIA waterboarded al-Qaida suspects 266 times -- The Guardian
September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 'waterboarded 183 times' -- Times Online
9/11 'mastermind' was waterboarded 183 times by the CIA, new documents show -- The Daily Mail
Planner of 9/11 attacks waterboarded 183 times-NYT -- Reuters
CIA waterboarded 9/11 mastermind 183 times -- AFP
CIA Headquarters Overruled Interrogators to Begin Using Torture -- All Gov
They Waterboarded Him 183 Times In One Month - -The Atlantic
Frequently Using Water-Boarding -- Slate

My Comment: If you ask me .... the 9/11 planners got off light.