Former FBI Agent Doubts Effectiveness of 'Enhanced Interrogation'

A former FBI supervisory agent was present during some of the enhanced torture sessions. Ali Soufan is now speaking out against the effectiveness of these techniques.

Now that the documents have been declassified, a former FBI agent has weighed in on the true effectiveness of enhanced interrogation methods that have been seen as torture by some. Ali Soufan, an FBI supervisory special agent from 1997 to 2005, wrote in a New York Times column that the interrogation methods were not entirely as effective as some of the memos have claimed. Soufan cites that the memos approved enhanced interrogation use on Abu Zubaydah was only done because other methods of interrogation did not work. However, Soufan was present during the interrogations and claims that Zubaydah provided useful information through traditional interrogations from March until June 2002.

We discovered, for example, that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Abu Zubaydah also told us about Jose Padilla, the so-called dirty bomber. This experience fit what I had found throughout my counterterrorism career: traditional interrogation techniques are successful in identifying operatives, uncovering plots and saving lives.

Soufan also doubts that information leading to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed’s top aid Ramzi bin al-Shibh or the arrest of the “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla was gained from enhanced interrogation of Zubaydah; he says it came from another source.

The information that led to Mr. Shibh’s capture came primarily from a different terrorist operative who was interviewed using traditional methods. As for Mr. Padilla, the dates just don’t add up: the harsh techniques were approved in the memo of August 2002; Mr. Padilla had been arrested that May.

Soufan also claims that when he doubted the effectiveness of the enhanced techniques, FBI director Robert Mueller ordered a stop to them. However, CIA agents who also doubted the effectiveness were instructed to continue. Soufan believes that contractors, not CIA Agents, were the ones that approved of the methods.