The video for this story is not available, but you can still read the transcript below.
No image

Congress Renews Debate Over Waterboarding

Questions stirred anew this week on the legality of waterboarding, a controversial interrogation tactic, after new Congressional hearings examining its use on terrorist suspects. After a recap of the hearings, analysts Mark Shields and David Brook weigh the debate.

Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

  • JIM LEHRER:

    Waterboarding, several high-ranking members of the Bush administration this week gave differing views on that interrogation technique. NewsHour correspondent Kwame Holman has that.

  • KWAME HOLMAN:

    Before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, CIA Director Michael Hayden became the first Bush administration official to confirm publicly the CIA had subjected three senior al-Qaida prisoners to waterboarding following the 9/11 attacks.

    Waterboarding has been described as controlled drowning, an interrogation technique many consider to be torture.

  • GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, CIA Director:

    The CIA has not used waterboarding for almost five years. We used it against these three high-value detainees because of the circumstances of the time. Very critical to those circumstances was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were imminent.

  • KWAME HOLMAN:

    Later, Senator Dianne Feinstein asked the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, to explain remarks he made to the New Yorker magazine concerning waterboarding.

    SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), California: I gather that you felt that, for yourself, if used, waterboarding would, in fact, constitute torture. Is that correct?

    VICE ADM. MIKE MCCONNELL (Ret.), Director of National Intelligence: No, ma'am, it's not correct. The question is, is waterboarding a legal technique? And everything I know, based on the appropriate authority to make that judgment, it is a legal technique used in a specific set of circumstances. You have to know the circumstances to be able to make the judgment.