CIA Chief defends ‘lawful’ interrogation practices

CIA Director Michael Hayden defended his agency’s interrogation practices as political pressure mounted on President George W. Bush’s Attorney General nominee to reject a technique that allegedly was part of the CIA’s interrogation program.

“Our programs are as lawful as they are valuable,” Hayden said Tuesday to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “The best sources of information on terrorists and their plans are the terrorists themselves.”

Hayden said “the irreplaceable nature of that intelligence is the sole reason we have rendition, detention and interrogation programs.”

Several senior Senate Democrats had vowed to vote against the president’s nominee for attorney general, Michael Mukasey, unless he stated unequivocally that the practice of “waterboarding” is torture. That would render the practice illegal. The U.S. military already forbids it.

In September ABC News reported that Hayden had banned waterboarding in CIA interrogations in 2006. Agency officials have neither confirmed nor denied waterboarding prisoners in the past.

After his remarks in Chicago, an audience member asked Hayden: “Is waterboarding torture and will you continue to waterboard? Yes or no.”

In his answer, Hayden briefly discussed constitutional law, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Convention before ending: “Judge Mukasey cannot nor can I answer your question in the abstract. I need to understand the totality of the circumstances in which this question is being posed before I can give you an answer.”

Chicago, Wednesday, AP