I guess the reverse is also true; the democrats want desperately want it NOT to be true that water boarding resulted in information but the proof is otherwise. Leon Panetta himself said that waterboarding got some information. Of course he didn't run for office denying the obvious.
Originally Posted by john_galt
I saw his NBC interview. He answered questions like a CIA man.
LEON PANETTA:
10:47:53:00 It-- you know, Brian, in the intelligence business you work from a lot of sources of information and that was true here. We had a multiple source-- a multiple series of-- sources that provided information with regards to the situation. Clearly some of it came from detainees and the interrogation of detainees but we also had information from other sources as well.
10:48:18:00
From Sigent intelligence, from imagery, from other sources that we had-- assets on the ground. And it was a combination of all of that that ultimately we were able to put together that led us to that compound. So-- it's-- it's a little difficult to say it was due just to one source of information that we got.
BRIAN WILLIAMS:
10:48:36:00 Turned around the other way, are you denying that water boarding was, in part, among the tactics used to extract the intelligence that led to this successful mission?
LEON PANETTA:
10:48:48:00 No, I think some of the detainees clearly were, you know, they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of these detainees. But I'm also saying that, you know, the debate about whether-- whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches I think is always gonna be an open question.
BRIAN WILLIAMS:
10:49:07:00 So finer point, one final time, enhanced interrogation techniques, which has always been kind of a handy euphemism in these post-9/11 years. That-
LEON PANETTA:
10:49:16:00 Right.
BRIAN WILLIAMS:
10:49:17:00 --in-- includes water boarding?
LEON PANETTA:
10:49:20:00 That's correct.
1) I can easily understand why someone would draw the conclusion that Panetta admitted that water boarding got some information. But, that's assuming Spook #1 is telling the truth and knows the facts. He should know, but he wasn't with the CIA back then.
2) Panetta went to great pains to squash the idea that torture resulted in the key piece of intel. From what I've seen torture resulted in the tortured person denying knowledge of a courier, which raised eyebrows. The nickname and real name weren't learned as part of torture. Put another way: If I claimed that I didn't know who John Galt was under torture, it wouldn't be the same as giving them the name 'John Galt' or his real name.
3) ...and this might be the important part...when I watched the video and read the transcripts they didn't match up.
What the HELL is 'Sigent'?!?!
EDIT: SIGINT=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signals_intelligence