Banned Techniques Yielded âHigh Value Information,â Memo Says
By PETER BAKER
Published: April 21, 2009
WASHINGTON â President Obamaâs national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.
âHigh value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qaâida organization that was attacking this country,â Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.
Admiral Blair sent his memo on the same day the administration publicly released secret Bush administration legal memos authorizing the use of interrogation methods that the Obama White House has deemed to be illegal torture. Among other things, the Bush administration memos revealed that two captured Qaeda operatives were subjected to a form of near-drowning known as waterboarding a total of 266 times.
Admiral Blairâs assessment that the interrogation methods did produce important information
was deleted from a condensed version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
âI like to think I would not have approved those methods in the past,â he wrote, âbut I do not fault those who made the decisions at that time, and I will absolutely defend those who carried out the interrogations within the orders they were given.â
A spokeswoman for Admiral Blair said the lines were cut in the normal editing process of shortening an internal memo into a media statement emphasizing his concern that the public understand the context of the decisions made in the past and the fact that they followed legal orders.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/politics/22blair.html