Republicans love the myth that fictional character Jack Bauer mirrors what happens in the real world of fighting back against international terrorists. Unfortunately, that just isn't the case. Investigators who have procured information from these people have already said that it doesn't work, but now we have even more evidence that waterboarding fails to help dismantle terror plots. In fact, it can lead to false information that wastes valuable time of our law enforcement capabilities.
From The Washington Post:
When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.
The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.
In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida -- chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates -- was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.
The Post's article goes on to detail the story of Abu Zubaida and highlights the failings of using torture on captured al-Qaeda members. The facts are out there and anyone out there that still believes what they watch on "24" as truth needs to wake up. This isn't about being weak with those that wish to attack and kill Americans, it is about being smart, something the United States failed to do under eight years of George Bush.
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