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December 2, 2008 5:12:45 AM CST

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Waterboarding Returns to Spotlight

Posted Jan 29, 08 1:30 PM CST in Politics,  US 

(Newser) – American interrogators' tactics included waterboarding sometime before 2005, but the tactic "has not been used in years," the ex-director of national intelligence says. John Negroponte's acknowledgment, the most definitive confirmation yet of the Bush administration's use of waterboarding, comes as Michael Mukasey prepares to return to Capitol Hill to address questions about the interrogation program, Reuters reports.

Waterboarding “wasn't used when I was director of national intelligence, nor even a few years before that," Negroponte, whose served from 2005 to 2007, told the National Journal. The new AG, who tangled with the Senate over the question during his confirmation hearings, said, "I didn't say that I wouldn't answer it, I didn't say that I would."

Source Reuters

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U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in a Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007 file photo. Negroponte told the National Journal that waterboarding was a thing of the past. (AP Photo/Ceerwan Aziz, Pool)   (Associated Press)
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in a Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007 file photo. Negroponte told the National Journal that waterboarding was a thing of the past. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)   (Associated Press)
Anti-Mukasey protestors hold demonstration of "waterboarding."   (Getty Images)
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