Interrogation Techniques

As we mark the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death , President Obama deserves credit for making the right choice on taking out Public Enemy No. 1. But his administration never would have had the opportunity to do the right thing had it not been for some extraordinary work during the George W. Bush administration. Much of that work has been denigrated by Obama as unproductive and contrary to American principles. He is wrong on both counts. Shortly after bin Laden met his maker last spring, courtesy of...

Sen. John McCain on Sunday renewed his threat to place a hold on John O. Brennan's nomination as CIA director, saying his decision depends on Brennan's answers to his questions about the terrorist attack last September in Benghazi, Libya, and his knowledge of harsh CIA interrogation techniques. "He needs to answer these questions," McCain (R-Ariz.) said on CNN's "State of the Union. " "I don't want to put a hold on anybody, but the American people deserve answers. " As the administration heads into a...

CRAWFORD, Tex., April 11 -- President Bush said Friday that he was aware his top national security advisers had discussed the details of harsh interrogation tactics to be used on detainees. Bush also said in an interview with ABC News that he approved of the meetings, which were held as the CIA began to prepare for a secret interrogation program that included waterboarding, or simulated drowning, and other coercive techniques. "Well, we started to connect the dots, in order to protect the American people" by learning what...

A former CIA officer who was among the first to go public with details about the agency's use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques was sentenced to 2½ years in prison Friday for disclosing a covert operative's name to a reporter. John Kiriakou, 48, of Arlington has portrayed himself as a whistleblower concerned about the use of the harsh tactics, but U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema emphatically rejected that idea in federal court in Alexandria. "This is not a case...

Former vice president Richard B. Cheney personally oversaw at least four briefings with senior members of Congress about the controversial interrogation program, part of a secretive and forceful defense he mounted throughout 2005 in an effort to maintain support for the harsh techniques used on detainees. The Cheney-led briefings came at some of the most critical moments for the program, as congressional oversight committees were threatening to investigate or even terminate the techniques, according to...

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. is a 31-year veteran of the CIA. He is the author of "Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives," written with former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, who also contributed to this essay. It is an odd experience to enter a darkened room and, for more than 2 1 / 2 hours, watch someone tell a story that you experienced intimately in your own life. But that is what happened recently as I sat in a movie...

The long trail to Osama bin Laden began with the arrest in 2005 of a senior al-Qaeda operative known as Abu Faraj al-Libbi. He had spent the previous two years as bin Laden's "official messenger" to others within the terrorist group, according to military documents. And now, Libbi was being turned over to the CIA. The resulting interrogation provided critical early intelligence that allowed the agency to begin unraveling bin Laden's courier network and eventually to discover his hideout in the garrison...

After a contentious closed-door vote, the Senate intelligence committee approved a long-awaited report Thursday concluding that harsh interrogation measures used by the CIA did not produce significant intelligence breakthroughs, officials said. The 6,000-page document, which was not released to the public, was adopted by Democrats over the objections of most of the committee's Republicans. The outcome reflects the level of partisan friction that continues to surround the CIA's use of...

O sama bin Laden's welcome death has ignited debate over whether the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques used on enemy prisoners were instrumental in locating bin Laden, and whether they are a justifiable means for gathering intelligence. Much of this debate is a definitional one: whether any or all of these methods constitute torture. I believe some of them do, especially waterboarding, which is a mock execution and thus an exquisite form of torture. As such, they are prohibited by American laws and...

A former CIA officer who was among the first to go public with details about the agency's use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques was sentenced to 2½ years in prison Friday for disclosing a covert operative's name to a reporter. John Kiriakou, 48, of Arlington has portrayed himself as a whistleblower concerned about the use of the harsh tactics, but U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema emphatically rejected that idea in federal court in Alexandria. "This...

President Obama is assembling a national security team designed for an era of downsized but enduring conflict, a team that will be asked to preside over the return of exhausted American troops and wield power through the targeted use of sanctions, Special Operations forces and drone strikes. Obama's nominations of former senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary and White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan as CIA director signal second-term course adjustments at...

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. is a 31-year veteran of the CIA. He is the author of "Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives," written with former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, who also contributed to this essay. It is an odd experience to enter a darkened room and, for more than 2 1 / 2 hours, watch someone tell a story that you experienced intimately in your own life. But that is what happened recently as I sat in a...

At a time when pop culture is awash in a sea of random-but-connected data points — touching on everything from torture, the war on terrorism and self-censorship to gun violence, race and history — leave it to the audience to provide clarity and consensus. That, at least, is the cautiously optimistic message of the past week, when movies as diverse as "Zero Dark Thirty," "Jack Reacher" and "Django Unchained" have provided filmgoers with ways to process and respond to...

Depictions of waterboarding in a new movie about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden are "grossly inaccurate and misleading" and the film's producers should make clear to viewers that the production is a dramatization of actual events, three senior senators said late Wednesday. The movie "Zero Dark Thirty," which was released in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday, dramatically depicts efforts over the past decade to capture and kill the al-Qaeda leader. Producers describe the film as...

After a contentious closed-door vote, the Senate intelligence committee approved a long-awaited report Thursday concluding that harsh interrogation measures used by the CIA did not produce significant intelligence breakthroughs, officials said. The 6,000-page document, which was not released to the public, was adopted by Democrats over the objections of most of the committee's Republicans. The outcome reflects the level of partisan friction that continues to surround the CIA's use of...

Mark Boal, screenwriter of the new movie "Zero Dark Thirty," says he wanted to tell a story that conveyed the moral complexities of the hunt to kill Osama bin Laden. The debate already churning around the film shows that he and director Kathryn Bigelow succeeded in that, and much else. The movie tells the story of the relentless pursuit of bin Laden, seen through a character called "Maya," who is based on one of the real-life CIA targeters who tracked down the al-Qaeda leader. It was Maya's good sense to focus on the...

Depictions of waterboarding in a new movie about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden are "grossly inaccurate and misleading" and the film's producers should make clear to viewers that the production is a dramatization of actual events, three senior senators said late Wednesday. The movie "Zero Dark Thirty," which was released in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday, dramatically depicts efforts over the past decade to capture and kill the al-Qaeda leader. Producers describe the film as "an exciting...

 Torture, liberals like me often insist, isn't just immoral, it's ineffective. We like this proposition because it portrays us as protectors of the nation, not wusses willing to risk American lives to protect terrorists. And we love to quote seasoned interrogators' assurances that building rapport with the bad guys will get them to talk. But the killing of Osama bin Laden four weeks ago has revived the old debate about whether torture works. Could it be that "enhanced interrogation...

The baseball world is among the most superstitious in sport. Watching the Washington Nationals' Michael Morse in the on-deck circle, you appreciate that routine is important to success. With puzzlement, I have read scores of articles trying to explain the Nats' Division Series Game 5 defeat. All of that analysis has missed the point. The real reason we couldn't retire the side with two outs and two strikes in the ninth is because Teddy Roosevelt cheated...

A new report from a human rights group accuses the CIA of using harsh interrogation measures on detainees who were subsequently imprisoned in Libya and cites claims by one former detainee that he was subjected to waterboarding. The report, by Human Rights Watch, is based on accounts from Libyans who allege that they were tortured by the CIA in Afghanistan, transferred to Libya in 2004 and held in that country's prison system until the uprising against dictator Moammar Gaddafi last year.