Former FBI Interrogator Tells Senate Committee Torture Doesn't Work

Former FBI Interrogator Ali Soufan (who was profiled by Newsweek's Michael Isikoff a few weeks ago) testified on the use of torture before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee today and stated that the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques are." Soufan was able to obtain valuable intel using techniques labeled the "informed interrogation approach", which are consistent with the Army Field Manual. His testimony is fascinating.

Soufin was the agent who first interrogated Abu Zubaydah, the man now famous for being waterboarded 83 times. Zubaydah had been badly wounded in the struggle to capture him and was almost immediately taken to a hospital. It was there that Soufin began his interrogation, and

Zubaydah"Agency operatives were aiming to crack him with rough and unorthodox interrogation tactics—including stripping him nude, turning down the temperature and bombarding him with loud music.ZubaydahZubaydah Zubaydah

Zubaydah

Soufan describes his methods as follows:

He then critiqued the "enhanced techniques":

The Army Field Manual is not about being soft; it's about outwitting, outsmarting, and manipulating the detainee. The approach is in sharp contrast of the enhanced interrogation method that instead tries to subjugate the detainee into submission through humiliation and cruelty. The idea behind it is to force the detainee to see the interrogator as the master who controls his pain. It's merely an exercise in trying to force compliance rather than elicit cooperation.

Later, Senator Lindsey Graham asked Soufan point blank whether torture worked. Here's the exchange:

Graham: Is it your testimony that enhanced interrogation techniques that were employed right after 9/11 yielded no good information?
Soufan: I can only speak about my own personal experience.
Graham: And that's the point, isn't it?
Soufan: Yes

For more about Soufan's (like, for example, how he knew, after pouring over intelligence file, to call Zubaydah "Hani" which was his mother's nickname for him) you should read Isikoff's piece.