Who disputes the value of the methods?
In an op-ed column published April 23 in the New York Times, Ali Soufan, a former FBI interrogator who questioned Zubaydah from March to June 2002, says Zubaydah gave up valuable information before he was waterboarded, not after. As to claims that he fingered Padilla, Padilla was arrested in May 2002 — two months before the August memo authorizing the techniques. “There was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn’t, or couldn’t have been, gained from regular tactics,” Soufan wrote. On April 19, the New York Times cited unnamed former intelligence officers who said interrogators in Thailand believed that Abu Zubaydah had nothing left to offer but that superiors at CIA headquarters ordered them to use waterboarding. He revealed nothing of substance afterward, the New York Times story said. A footnote in one of the 2005 Justice Department memos seems to corroborate that, saying the harsh tactics appeared “unnecessary.” (Hayd
