look at an activity from a personal point of view. If I found myself at Gitmo being tortured I would give accurate information. I think torture sucks but if it would induce me to tell the truth then it would probably have the same effect on anyone else. I endorse what works.  It is a good thing, however that information obtained through torture is not admissible in US courts.

In case you missed it, Brian Williams' intereview of Leon Pannetta lays the raid out pretty well on a number of issues.  Listen particularly to his words near the end re the value of waterboarding.  There's no way not to conclude that at least some info was gleaned via that tactic.  I, for one, am reconsidering my opposition to it because it was based not on moral grounds but on the belief that such measures do not result in accurate info.
PS:  If you believe the waterboarding did result in useful info, then it's hard to assert what was done under Bush did not contribute to the final result.  Of course, much else was required, mostly of the past  year or so, but it started back then.

-- Modified on 5/4/2011 11:09:36 AM

He said much the same thing in a CBS interview. It's a shame he has to backpeddle his opinion in order to tow the line.

Deciphering all the information the intelligence community gathers and sometimes stumbles across is tantamount to solving a four dimensional jigsaw puzzle whose pieces come from many different boxes. Rarely do very many pieces fit together let alone actually belong to the same end picture. They also change their image and shape over time.

Certainly some of the information obtained via EIT is incorrect and/or deceptive. But then again information ALL information that becomes potential pieces of the puzzle can be of suspect quality. The reliability and quality are just additional factors that must be analyzed. Given enough pieces, even the incorrect data can be useful.

One sad aspect today is those CIA operatives that put themselves out on a limb by using EIT should be receiving medals from President Obama along side the members of DEVGRU (Seal Team 6). Instead I fear they will be handed subpoenas from AG Holder.

Did anyone notice the most significant thing about the picture of the National Security Team in the Situation Room?  Joe Biden was awake!  Well, at least his eyes were open.
Also, re whether Bin Laden had a gun or not.  Who cares?  Were any of the 9/11 victims armed?

Though I agree with most of the rest of your post.  I don't think you need to worry about anyone in the CIA getting subpoenas from anybody.  As for EIT, it's still pretty unclear to me how much it helped -- and I'm willing to keep an open mind about it.  But reports now say KSM and Al-Libi both lied about the courier during waterboarding.  It was other sources, who were not waterboarded, who fingered the courier.  So the lies of Al-Libi and KSL were somewhat useful to the investigation, but only to backhandedly comfirm the other evidence.  Anyway, did we really need waterboarding to get these guys to lie?