CIA Acknowledges Waterboarding 3 Suspects

Senate committee hears specifics, warning of possible Al-Qaeda spread

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 5, 2008 3:45 PM CST

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CIA Acknowledges Waterboarding 3 Suspects — Protestors demonstrate the use of water boarding to volunteer Maboud Ebrahim Zadeh, Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, in front of the Justice Department in Washington. The demonstration was to highlight the use of water boarding as torture, to protest the nomination of Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey.... (Associated Press)

The CIA used waterboarding three times following the 9/11 attacks, the agency's current director testified today. Interrogators used the method on suspected attack planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two top al Qaeda members, Reuters reports. Michael Hayden's statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee marks the first time a US official has publicly confirmed specifics of the use of a technique many consider torture.

At the same hearing, the director of intelligence chief warned that Al-Qaeda is targeting the US, gaining strength, and spreading. The terrorist group "is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the US: the identification, training, and positioning of operatives for an attack in the homeland," Michael McConnell said in a report released today, the New York Times reports. (More CIA stories.)

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