pour a little water over a terrorist's head and get life saving information
TERRORIST TURNED TO WATER
By CHUCK BENNETT
December 11, 2007 -- Thirty-five seconds of waterboarding was all it took to get a top al Qaeda terrorist to break, his CIA interrogator revealed yesterday.
Abu Zubaydah, a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden captured in March 2002, gave up his conspirators after a half-minute of the technique, according to now retired CIA officer John Kiriakou.
"The next day, he told his interrogator that Allah had visited him in his cell during the night and told him to cooperate," Kiriakou told ABC News.
"From that day on, he answered every question."
He added, "The threat information he provided disrupted a number of attacks, maybe dozens of attacks."
Zubaydah was reportedly the first insider to finger Khalid Sheik Mohammed as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, as well as Jose Padilla's alleged dirty bomb plot.
Zubaydah's aggressive interrogations were secretly videotaped by the CIA. The CIA said those tapes were destroyed to protect the identity of its officers.
Today, CIA chief Gen. Michael Hayden is expected to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on why the videotapes were destroyed.