The New York Times reports:
“High value information came from interrogations in which those
methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al
Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm.
Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to
his staff last Thursday.
This would seem to be an important part of the overall torture
debate, but somehow this portion of the memo was conveniently
left out by the Obama administration when it released the
Bush-era interrogation memos last Thursday:
Admiral Blair’s assessment that the interrogation methods did
produce important information was deleted from a condensed
version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also
deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors
who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“I like to think I would not have approved those methods in the
past,” he wrote, “but I do not fault those who made the
decisions at that time, and I will absolutely defend those who
carried out the interrogations within the orders they were
given.”
Blair later clarified:
"The information gained from these techniques was valuable in
some instances, but there is no way of knowing whether the same
information could have been obtained through other means,”
Admiral Blair said in a written statement issued last night.
“The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around
the world, the damage they have done to our interests far
outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not
essential to our national security."
As I wrote
earlier , this is a very complex issue that often produces plenty
of heated accusations on both sides despite limited access to the
facts. Now that the cat is out of the bag, it's imperative that
we're given a full account not only about what techniques were
employed, but what information was gained as a result of those
interrogations.
