Download Download

Last night's ABC News interview with former CIA Agent John Kiriakou has raised more than a few eyebrows. Perhaps Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report gets it exactly right when he wrote:

As a matter of crass politics, Kiriakou’s assessment seems to offer a little something for everyone. For the right, Kiriakou is saying that torture produced intelligence that saved lives and thwarted possible attacks. For the left, Kiriakou is conceding that the Bush administration authorized and utilized torture (i.e., committed a felony), and he now believes the U.S. should stop using these “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

There is, however, one angle that warrants a closer look: whether torturing Zubaydah actually produced actionable intelligence. The answer is far from clear.

It may be that Kiriakou is merely a plant to help the CIA's battered reputation, and that if investigations should ever go anywhere (as they just might) the blame will go elsewhere.

Judge for yourself in this excerpt in what was a lengthy interview.