Contrary to widespread belief, he says, the group never provided any valuable intelligence to the Americans about Mr. Hussein's government.
Several senators repeatedly asked him about an incredibly lengthy, classified report their committee has produced, which concludes that the torture techniques didn't yield much, if any, valuable intelligence.
It also said that the repeated waterboarding applications of Zubaydah, KSM and Al-Nashiri did not produce any valuable intelligence and often resulted in "fabricated information," a charge the CIA disputes in its response to the committee. .
Two members of the Senate intelligence committee, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, said last week that they had not seen any evidence to show that the "NSA's dragnet collection of Americans' phone records has produced any uniquely valuable intelligence".
Now, it's happening again with the National Security Agency: Senator Mark Udall has written, "We have not yet seen any evidence showing that the NSA's dragnet collection of Americans' phone records has produced any uniquely valuable intelligence".
Nor has it been demonstrated that this program even provides any uniquely valuable intelligence".
I also am not convinced, based on my knowledge of the facts, that this bulk collection of Americans' private information has provided any uniquely valuable intelligence that has disrupted terrorist plots.
Rahman's death was also highlighted in the Senate's torture report, which concluded that torturing detainees did not produce any "unique" or "valuable" intelligence about pending terrorist attacks.
And he may not have provided any of the valuable intelligence he turned over to the FBI, which skillfully questioned him, after seeking and obtaining the support and assistance of his family, over the course of the next few weeks.
The chairwoman of the committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, said in an introduction to the report that she believes detainees in the custody of the CIA were tortured, and that the intelligence gleaned after detainees were subjected to the techniques did not produce any unique or valuable intelligence.
Isn't it further possible that, aside from the damage to what we consider our values as a free, democratic society, the disclosure of some of our actual practices (Guantánamo, waterboarding and so on) has done more to promote sympathy for anti-American terrorism than whatever the net gain, if any, has been in valuable intelligence information?
