Torture and Sunday Mornings

General David Petraeus spoke eloquently this morning about the need to preserve our values even as we prosecute a fight against those who would do us harm.

Asked by CNN’s John King about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s assertion that President Obama was making America less safe, General Petraeus said:

PETRAEUS: Well, I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that, John. I think that, in fact, there is a good debate going on about the importance of values in all that we do. I think that, if one violates the values that we hold so dear, that we…

KING: You mean torture?

PETRAEUS: … we jeopardize — well, in fact, I put out a memorandum to the soldiers in the Multinational Force-Iraq, when I was the commander, because of concern that we may not be taking some of these seriously enough.

As you know, the field manual came out, from the Army, that is used by all of the different services that completely, clearly outlaws torture. So we think for the military, in particular, that can’t — that’s a line that can’t be crossed.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: So was the line crossed in the Bush administration?

Was the line crossed? Did you do things which you fundamentally thought were wrong and immoral?

PETRAEUS: We certainly did not. Now, there were some incidents that did, and we learned some very hard lessons from Abu Ghraib and other cases. And we believe that we took corrective measures in the wake of that. And that is very, very important.

But it is hugely significant to us to live the values that we hold so dear and that we have fought so hard to protect over the years.

The full transcript can be found here, but the key sentence is this:

“It is hugely significant to us to live the values that we hold so dear and that we have fought so hard to protect over the years.”

General Petraeus got it exactly right.  And he did so on the same morning that Peter Finn and Joby Warrick of the Washington Post reported that despite the use of water-boarding on Abu Zubaida, once hailed as the Operations Chief for Al Qaeda, the “intelligence” gained from torture foiled no plots.

When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.

The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.

In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida’s tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida — chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates — was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.

So once again we have learned:

• Torture doesn’t work and often produces false-leads that waste precious resources.
• Torture isn’t necessary—Zubaida gave up his information prior to being water-boarded.
• Torture is contrary to our values—and our values are worth defending.

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