Tortures

Declassified CIA File: Bin-Laden Aide Stopped Providing Intel After Torture

Recent declassified documents throw water on the CIA’s position that enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, which have been condemned worldwide as an act of torture, encouraged cooperation from detainees and led to actionable information.

Medical personnel who aided the CIA’s first simulated drowning reported that detainee Abu Zubaydah likely would have cooperated more with officials prior to undergoing torture.

For years, the intelligence community has maintained that waterboarding was a necessity during the first days of the War on Terror in order to obtain intelligence necessary to prevent another 9/11-style attack. But a heavily redacted document from the CIA’s Office of Medical Services (OMS) details that Abu Zubayadah’s willingness to cooperate with interrogators in 2002 "did not correlate that well with his waterboard sessions."