1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:16,334 --> 00:00:18,417 (birds chirping) 4 00:00:32,918 --> 00:00:36,125 Alex Gibney: In 2002, from a secret location in Thailand, 5 00:00:37,209 --> 00:00:39,417 CIA officers cabled headquarters 6 00:00:39,500 --> 00:00:41,584 with details about the interrogation 7 00:00:41,667 --> 00:00:43,500 of a prisoner. 8 00:00:43,584 --> 00:00:45,626 Techniques to be used might cause him to die, 9 00:00:45,709 --> 00:00:47,751 in which case he would be cremated 10 00:00:47,834 --> 00:00:50,959 so his body would not be found. 11 00:00:51,042 --> 00:00:53,709 But if he survived, there was a concern. 12 00:00:53,792 --> 00:00:56,667 Would the agency give reasonable assurances 13 00:00:56,751 --> 00:00:59,584 that the prisoner would remain in isolation, 14 00:00:59,667 --> 00:01:01,584 possibly forever? 15 00:01:03,417 --> 00:01:05,042 Headquarters reassured the team. 16 00:01:06,626 --> 00:01:09,709 The detainee "will never be placed in a situation 17 00:01:09,792 --> 00:01:11,584 "where he has any significant contact 18 00:01:11,667 --> 00:01:12,918 "with others 19 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,167 "and should remain incommunicado 20 00:01:15,250 --> 00:01:16,959 for the remainder of his life." 21 00:01:31,584 --> 00:01:36,000 ♪ ♪ 22 00:01:43,042 --> 00:01:47,042 Nearly 20 years later, the CIA has kept its promise. 23 00:01:47,125 --> 00:01:49,292 The detainee lives in Camp 5 24 00:01:49,375 --> 00:01:50,709 in Guantanamo Prison 25 00:01:50,792 --> 00:01:53,667 on the southeastern tip of Cuba, 26 00:01:53,751 --> 00:01:55,709 a few hundred yards from an ocean 27 00:01:55,792 --> 00:01:58,709 he can hear but is not allowed to see. 28 00:01:58,792 --> 00:02:00,667 (waves crashing) 29 00:02:00,751 --> 00:02:03,125 He's never been charged with a crime. 30 00:02:03,209 --> 00:02:06,751 He's never been permitted to challenge his detention. 31 00:02:06,834 --> 00:02:09,959 He's been told that will never change. 32 00:02:13,042 --> 00:02:16,334 (somber music playing) 33 00:02:22,125 --> 00:02:25,083 (sirens wailing, people shouting) 34 00:02:31,125 --> 00:02:32,667 (loud boom) 35 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,500 (rumbling) 36 00:02:37,584 --> 00:02:40,042 (siren wailing) 37 00:02:47,042 --> 00:02:48,542 Alberto J. Mora: There was a fear and fury 38 00:02:48,626 --> 00:02:51,083 that gripped the nation after 9/11. 39 00:02:51,167 --> 00:02:54,042 I was in the Pentagon the day the aircraft hit 40 00:02:54,125 --> 00:02:57,792 and then worked in the Pentagon for the next four years. 41 00:03:00,626 --> 00:03:02,542 There was the fear that the next attack 42 00:03:02,626 --> 00:03:03,792 would come tomorrow 43 00:03:03,876 --> 00:03:06,417 or that afternoon or in the next half hour. 44 00:03:07,250 --> 00:03:08,959 And the fury 45 00:03:09,042 --> 00:03:13,167 at the sheer inhumanity of 3,000 murders. 46 00:03:14,876 --> 00:03:16,876 There was a bedrock conviction 47 00:03:16,959 --> 00:03:19,584 that the individuals who had planned this attack 48 00:03:19,667 --> 00:03:21,167 and executed it 49 00:03:21,250 --> 00:03:22,792 had opted out of the human race. 50 00:03:24,250 --> 00:03:26,083 I don't think there was an American who didn't feel 51 00:03:26,167 --> 00:03:28,417 that we had to go back hard. 52 00:03:29,459 --> 00:03:31,250 That was the national emotion. 53 00:03:31,334 --> 00:03:34,209 And I think in the process, we lost our bearings in time. 54 00:03:35,876 --> 00:03:37,584 Lawrence Wilkerson: We did some really stupid things 55 00:03:37,667 --> 00:03:39,918 in those first few days based on our fear 56 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,918 and based on an attempt to try and secure the people. 57 00:03:44,125 --> 00:03:45,626 There was this expectation 58 00:03:45,709 --> 00:03:47,334 we're going to get hit again, 59 00:03:47,417 --> 00:03:48,792 it's going to hit the White House 60 00:03:48,876 --> 00:03:50,125 is going to hit the State Department. 61 00:03:50,209 --> 00:03:52,584 I looked out my window and saw National Airport, 62 00:03:52,667 --> 00:03:55,626 and I said, whoa, that's about ten seconds away. 63 00:03:55,709 --> 00:03:57,959 And I didn't want to stay in my office, you know. 64 00:03:58,042 --> 00:03:59,918 That's how, that's how frenetic 65 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:01,667 the atmosphere was at that time. 66 00:04:08,292 --> 00:04:10,250 I think those first few days 67 00:04:10,334 --> 00:04:13,000 were a struggle in the mind 68 00:04:13,083 --> 00:04:15,500 for the President and the Vice President. 69 00:04:15,584 --> 00:04:17,083 They had failed 70 00:04:17,167 --> 00:04:19,834 to the order of Pearl Harbor. 71 00:04:19,918 --> 00:04:22,834 So they were very afraid the American people 72 00:04:22,918 --> 00:04:25,000 were going to throw them out. 73 00:04:25,083 --> 00:04:28,751 I want you all to know this nation stands 74 00:04:28,834 --> 00:04:31,167 with the good people of New York City 75 00:04:31,250 --> 00:04:33,125 and New Jersey and Connecticut 76 00:04:33,209 --> 00:04:35,292 as we mourn the loss 77 00:04:35,375 --> 00:04:37,751 of thousands of our citizens. 78 00:04:37,834 --> 00:04:40,500 Person (in crowd): George, we can't hear you! 79 00:04:40,584 --> 00:04:42,292 President George W. Bush: I can hear you. 80 00:04:42,375 --> 00:04:46,626 (cheering) 81 00:04:48,209 --> 00:04:51,459 I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, 82 00:04:51,542 --> 00:04:55,042 and the people who knocked these buildings down 83 00:04:55,125 --> 00:04:57,042 will hear all of us soon. 84 00:04:57,125 --> 00:05:00,209 (cheering) 85 00:05:00,292 --> 00:05:03,375 (whooping) 86 00:05:03,459 --> 00:05:05,209 Crowd (chanting): USA! USA! 87 00:05:05,292 --> 00:05:07,834 USA! USA! 88 00:05:07,918 --> 00:05:10,125 USA! USA! 89 00:05:10,209 --> 00:05:12,584 USA! USA! 90 00:05:12,667 --> 00:05:17,334 USA! USA! USA! USA! 91 00:05:17,417 --> 00:05:20,959 USA! USA! USA! 92 00:05:21,042 --> 00:05:24,167 Gibney: In its righteous anger, America would strike back... 93 00:05:29,334 --> 00:05:31,125 with unmatched fury and force. 94 00:05:31,209 --> 00:05:34,042 (explosions booming) 95 00:05:34,125 --> 00:05:35,876 The invasion of Afghanistan. 96 00:05:35,959 --> 00:05:37,751 Peter Jennings: If you're just tuning in for the first time 97 00:05:37,834 --> 00:05:39,083 to watch another program, 98 00:05:39,167 --> 00:05:40,417 it-it's hard to begin 99 00:05:40,500 --> 00:05:43,792 where to tell you how much has happened today. 100 00:05:43,876 --> 00:05:45,626 Gibney: Shock and awe in Iraq... 101 00:05:45,709 --> 00:05:46,792 (people cheering) 102 00:05:46,876 --> 00:05:49,500 ...which led to ISIS. 103 00:05:49,584 --> 00:05:53,584 Which led to more terror and more targeted killing. 104 00:05:53,667 --> 00:05:55,709 The global war on terror has cost us 105 00:05:55,792 --> 00:05:57,083 eight trillion dollars. 106 00:05:57,167 --> 00:05:59,542 Nine hundred thousand people have been killed. 107 00:05:59,626 --> 00:06:02,500 Thirty-eight million have been displaced. 108 00:06:02,584 --> 00:06:05,667 As President Bush promised, we have made ourselves heard. 109 00:06:05,751 --> 00:06:07,292 (explosion booms) 110 00:06:08,792 --> 00:06:10,584 With all our money and might, 111 00:06:10,667 --> 00:06:13,500 did we inspire the world with our ideals? 112 00:06:14,876 --> 00:06:17,125 We retreated from Afghanistan in defeat, 113 00:06:17,209 --> 00:06:20,292 leaving resentment and betrayal in our wake. 114 00:06:20,375 --> 00:06:22,876 What led us to this place? 115 00:06:22,959 --> 00:06:24,626 I would argue that it all started 116 00:06:24,709 --> 00:06:26,792 as a failure of intelligence, 117 00:06:26,876 --> 00:06:28,834 both of our intelligence agencies 118 00:06:28,918 --> 00:06:30,542 and ourselves as citizens 119 00:06:30,626 --> 00:06:32,667 in our refusal to listen to anything 120 00:06:32,751 --> 00:06:34,334 but what we wanted to hear. 121 00:06:36,042 --> 00:06:37,876 (triumphant theme playing) 122 00:06:37,959 --> 00:06:40,250 Announcer: Live from Camp David, 123 00:06:40,334 --> 00:06:42,626 a special edition of "Meet the Press" 124 00:06:42,709 --> 00:06:44,292 with Tim Russert. 125 00:06:44,375 --> 00:06:48,292 An exclusive interview with Vice President Dick Cheney. 126 00:06:50,500 --> 00:06:52,125 And we are green top in the shadows 127 00:06:52,209 --> 00:06:53,918 of the presidential retreat at Camp David. 128 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:55,667 Mr. Vice President, good morning and welcome. 129 00:06:55,751 --> 00:06:56,709 Morning, Tim. 130 00:06:56,792 --> 00:06:58,083 There have been restrictions placed 131 00:06:58,167 --> 00:07:00,792 on the United States intelligence gathering, 132 00:07:00,876 --> 00:07:03,542 reluctance to use unsavory characters, 133 00:07:03,626 --> 00:07:06,709 those who violated human rights to assist in intelligence gathering. 134 00:07:06,792 --> 00:07:08,751 Will we lift some of those restrictions? 135 00:07:08,834 --> 00:07:10,334 Well, I think so. I think, uh, 136 00:07:10,417 --> 00:07:13,417 if you're gonna deal only with, uh, sort of, uh... 137 00:07:13,500 --> 00:07:16,667 officially approved certified good guys, 138 00:07:16,751 --> 00:07:19,000 you're not going to find out what the bad guys are doing. 139 00:07:19,083 --> 00:07:22,959 It is a mean, nasty, dangerous, dirty business out there, 140 00:07:23,042 --> 00:07:25,083 and we have to operate in that arena. 141 00:07:25,167 --> 00:07:26,834 Uh, I'm convinced we can do it. 142 00:07:26,918 --> 00:07:28,876 We can do it successfully, but we need to make certain 143 00:07:28,959 --> 00:07:31,792 that we have not tied the hands, if you will, 144 00:07:31,876 --> 00:07:33,709 of our intelligence communities 145 00:07:33,792 --> 00:07:36,709 in terms of accomplishing their mission. 146 00:07:36,792 --> 00:07:38,417 John Rizzo: I knew based on my experience 147 00:07:38,500 --> 00:07:41,834 that CIA would be directed, 148 00:07:41,918 --> 00:07:45,834 be given legal authorities that it had never had. 149 00:07:47,083 --> 00:07:50,375 So I was trying to think of every conceivable 150 00:07:50,459 --> 00:07:52,709 and legal action we could take 151 00:07:52,792 --> 00:07:55,542 on a covert basis to counter what had just happened 152 00:07:55,626 --> 00:07:57,542 and also, above all, prevent 153 00:07:57,626 --> 00:07:59,209 another 9/11 from happening. 154 00:07:59,292 --> 00:08:01,417 Scatter, scatter, please go home. 155 00:08:01,500 --> 00:08:03,209 Rizzo: I remember that morning 156 00:08:03,292 --> 00:08:05,626 there was an evacuation of the CIA headquarters. 157 00:08:05,709 --> 00:08:07,000 Let's go. 158 00:08:07,083 --> 00:08:09,000 Rizzo: I saw my fellow employees walking, 159 00:08:09,083 --> 00:08:11,792 many running, to their cars. 160 00:08:11,876 --> 00:08:14,667 It quickly developed a huge gridlock. 161 00:08:14,751 --> 00:08:17,500 So I thought to myself, well, to hell with it, 162 00:08:17,584 --> 00:08:18,667 I'm just going to stay here. 163 00:08:18,751 --> 00:08:21,000 So I closed the door of my office. 164 00:08:21,083 --> 00:08:23,334 And honestly, in those first few minutes, 165 00:08:23,417 --> 00:08:24,834 I started scribbling down 166 00:08:24,918 --> 00:08:27,083 uh, the implications of what was happening 167 00:08:27,167 --> 00:08:30,709 and what CIA might be asked to do 168 00:08:30,792 --> 00:08:33,250 in the wake of these attacks. 169 00:08:33,334 --> 00:08:35,792 I was literally brainstorming at that point. 170 00:08:38,334 --> 00:08:40,000 Wilkerson: It was quite clear 171 00:08:40,083 --> 00:08:41,918 with a threat like Al-Qaeda, 172 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:45,709 we were going to have a problem with intelligence, 173 00:08:45,792 --> 00:08:48,292 especially the kind you get on the battlefield. 174 00:08:50,250 --> 00:08:52,292 So people started looking around 175 00:08:52,375 --> 00:08:54,459 for who could be the best 176 00:08:54,542 --> 00:08:58,584 to interrogate anyone detained on that battlefield. 177 00:08:58,667 --> 00:09:01,751 And lo and behold, there weren't any. 178 00:09:01,834 --> 00:09:05,459 The best we could do was 12 or 13 179 00:09:05,542 --> 00:09:08,751 who had done it before at the FBI. 180 00:09:08,834 --> 00:09:10,626 Daniel J. Jones: I came to the Senate from spending 181 00:09:10,709 --> 00:09:13,167 a number of years in the FBI doing counter-terrorism work, 182 00:09:13,250 --> 00:09:16,334 specifically Al-Qaeda international operations. 183 00:09:16,417 --> 00:09:18,626 And I think the CIA truly believed, 184 00:09:18,709 --> 00:09:20,834 Tenet particularly, that it was their fault 185 00:09:20,918 --> 00:09:22,209 for not catching 9/11. 186 00:09:22,292 --> 00:09:24,125 After all, they never passed information 187 00:09:24,209 --> 00:09:26,000 about the hijackers to the FBI. 188 00:09:26,083 --> 00:09:28,834 So they wanted to be the individuals with the successes. 189 00:09:28,918 --> 00:09:30,083 They wanted to be 190 00:09:30,167 --> 00:09:32,584 the tip of the spear, so to speak, in this fight, 191 00:09:32,667 --> 00:09:34,626 notwithstanding the fact that they weren't prepared. 192 00:09:34,709 --> 00:09:36,167 And this wasn't something the CIA 193 00:09:36,250 --> 00:09:37,792 has historically engaged in. 194 00:09:38,667 --> 00:09:40,250 But six days after 9/11, 195 00:09:40,334 --> 00:09:43,667 a covert action authority was signed by the President 196 00:09:43,751 --> 00:09:46,292 giving different US government agencies, 197 00:09:46,375 --> 00:09:49,667 particularly the CIA, special secret powers 198 00:09:49,751 --> 00:09:52,334 to battle Al-Qaeda and keep the country safe. 199 00:09:55,334 --> 00:09:59,500 Rizzo: Capture and detain senior Al-Qaeda officials. 200 00:09:59,584 --> 00:10:01,626 These are words I wrote that first morning. 201 00:10:01,709 --> 00:10:03,250 But of course, prior to 9/11, 202 00:10:03,334 --> 00:10:07,500 CIA had never captured or detained anybody. 203 00:10:07,584 --> 00:10:09,626 They would sometimes question people 204 00:10:09,709 --> 00:10:11,834 that a foreign allied government 205 00:10:11,918 --> 00:10:13,292 had captured overseas. 206 00:10:13,375 --> 00:10:15,834 But we had never operated a system 207 00:10:15,918 --> 00:10:17,792 where we would do the capturing 208 00:10:17,876 --> 00:10:20,542 and we would do the holding and we would do the detaining. 209 00:10:20,626 --> 00:10:24,459 So again, this was tabula rasa for us at that point. 210 00:10:26,876 --> 00:10:29,709 It was decided CIA would be responsible 211 00:10:29,792 --> 00:10:33,792 for the top echelon of Al-Qaeda. 212 00:10:33,876 --> 00:10:37,042 By that point, the military had stood up 213 00:10:37,125 --> 00:10:41,209 the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay. 214 00:10:41,292 --> 00:10:43,626 The thought was that would be largely preserved 215 00:10:43,709 --> 00:10:45,459 for lower-ranking officials 216 00:10:45,542 --> 00:10:47,375 but that the CIA would take the lead 217 00:10:47,459 --> 00:10:50,500 for capturing the higher-level officials. 218 00:10:52,083 --> 00:10:54,167 Jones: The CIA did do research on detention 219 00:10:54,250 --> 00:10:56,709 and eventually concluded it was a bad idea. 220 00:10:56,792 --> 00:10:59,209 Somebody said the thought of holding someone endlessly 221 00:10:59,292 --> 00:11:00,626 is incredibly scary to me. 222 00:11:00,709 --> 00:11:02,792 I don't want to be called back from retirement to say, 223 00:11:02,876 --> 00:11:04,334 what do I do with this guy? 224 00:11:04,417 --> 00:11:07,417 And yet they begin a detention interrogation program. 225 00:11:07,500 --> 00:11:09,667 Gibney: The interrogation program was designed, 226 00:11:09,751 --> 00:11:13,000 in the words of the CIA, to do something different. 227 00:11:13,083 --> 00:11:16,417 When publicly revealed, that difference set off 228 00:11:16,500 --> 00:11:17,626 a media firestorm. 229 00:11:17,709 --> 00:11:19,751 George Tenet: It's been portrayed as this-- 230 00:11:19,834 --> 00:11:21,959 we sat around the campfire and said, 231 00:11:22,042 --> 00:11:24,584 "Oh boy, now we go get to torture people." 232 00:11:24,667 --> 00:11:27,209 Well, we don't torture people. 233 00:11:27,292 --> 00:11:30,626 Let me say that again to you. We don't torture people. 234 00:11:30,709 --> 00:11:32,417 -Okay. -Come on, George. 235 00:11:32,500 --> 00:11:34,792 -We don't torture people-- -Khalid Shaikh Mohammed? 236 00:11:34,876 --> 00:11:36,042 We don't torture-- 237 00:11:36,125 --> 00:11:37,709 -Waterboarding? -We do not... 238 00:11:37,792 --> 00:11:39,918 -It's torture. -I don't talk about techniques, and we don't torture people. 239 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:42,000 Now listen to-- No, listen to me. 240 00:11:42,083 --> 00:11:43,209 I want you to listen to me. 241 00:11:43,292 --> 00:11:45,584 I know that this program 242 00:11:45,667 --> 00:11:47,209 has saved lives. 243 00:11:47,292 --> 00:11:50,209 I know we've disrupted plots. 244 00:11:50,292 --> 00:11:52,167 Gibney: For years, the CIA promoted 245 00:11:52,250 --> 00:11:56,292 its new interrogation program as a success. 246 00:11:56,375 --> 00:12:00,125 George Tenet was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 247 00:12:00,209 --> 00:12:03,209 The CIA worked closely with celebrated Hollywood filmmakers 248 00:12:03,292 --> 00:12:04,792 to promote a fable 249 00:12:04,876 --> 00:12:06,667 that its interrogation techniques 250 00:12:06,751 --> 00:12:08,125 were tough but necessary 251 00:12:08,209 --> 00:12:10,542 and were responsible for locating the hideout 252 00:12:10,626 --> 00:12:12,000 of Osama Bin Laden. 253 00:12:12,083 --> 00:12:13,751 It's one of the great stories of our time. 254 00:12:13,834 --> 00:12:15,918 Gibney: When critics tried to sort truth from fiction, 255 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,042 they found alternate accounts hidden 256 00:12:18,125 --> 00:12:20,417 behind the black lines of redactions 257 00:12:20,500 --> 00:12:22,792 and at the bottom of shredding machines. 258 00:12:24,500 --> 00:12:26,292 Finding out what really happened 259 00:12:26,375 --> 00:12:27,709 would require putting together 260 00:12:27,792 --> 00:12:29,417 bits and pieces of evidence that remained 261 00:12:29,500 --> 00:12:33,667 along with testimony not censored by the CIA. 262 00:12:34,918 --> 00:12:36,542 Rizzo: As soon as the President signed 263 00:12:36,626 --> 00:12:38,626 the Presidential finding, 264 00:12:38,709 --> 00:12:40,876 CIA began planning. 265 00:12:40,959 --> 00:12:43,709 The way I was thinking was to just pull everything 266 00:12:43,792 --> 00:12:44,918 out of the toolkit. 267 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:46,667 I mean, we were starting at square one. 268 00:12:46,751 --> 00:12:48,626 We were scouting potential locations 269 00:12:48,709 --> 00:12:50,667 where these Al-Qaeda officials, 270 00:12:50,751 --> 00:12:53,250 if captured, would be held. 271 00:12:53,334 --> 00:12:55,250 And the event that really propelled it, of course, 272 00:12:55,334 --> 00:12:58,459 was when we did capture our first high-level official, 273 00:12:58,542 --> 00:13:01,125 a man named Abu Zubaydah. 274 00:13:01,209 --> 00:13:03,083 News Anchor: US officials tell NBC News 275 00:13:03,167 --> 00:13:05,751 Zubaydah may have been nabbed just in time. 276 00:13:05,834 --> 00:13:08,792 Intelligence reports indicate he was already planning 277 00:13:08,876 --> 00:13:10,792 the next wave of terrorist attacks 278 00:13:10,876 --> 00:13:13,334 against US targets. 279 00:13:13,417 --> 00:13:15,834 Gibney: Abu Zubaydah is the forever prisoner 280 00:13:15,918 --> 00:13:17,417 at the heart of this story. 281 00:13:17,500 --> 00:13:20,792 His capture, detention, and interrogation by the CIA 282 00:13:20,876 --> 00:13:24,375 is the origin story of America's failure of intelligence 283 00:13:24,459 --> 00:13:26,209 and our retreat from the ideals 284 00:13:26,292 --> 00:13:28,083 we claim to be fighting for. 285 00:13:28,167 --> 00:13:31,042 For many years, it was an impossible story to tell 286 00:13:31,125 --> 00:13:34,542 because the CIA prevented key witnesses from talking. 287 00:13:34,626 --> 00:13:38,500 One of those was the ex-FBI agent Ali Soufan. 288 00:13:38,584 --> 00:13:40,334 When he first testified in Congress, 289 00:13:40,417 --> 00:13:42,167 he was behind a black screen. 290 00:13:42,250 --> 00:13:45,417 When he wrote his account of interrogating Abu Zubaydah, 291 00:13:45,500 --> 00:13:47,667 he was ruthlessly redacted by the CIA, 292 00:13:47,751 --> 00:13:50,000 which even censored the use 293 00:13:50,083 --> 00:13:52,500 of his own first person pronoun. 294 00:13:52,584 --> 00:13:55,542 It's very difficult, to me, to put it out for you 295 00:13:55,626 --> 00:13:57,250 when I cannot talk about the story, 296 00:13:57,334 --> 00:13:59,459 the, you know what's going on. 297 00:13:59,542 --> 00:14:01,542 So you can, you can see that. 298 00:14:01,626 --> 00:14:03,542 You can see here the one-letter word. 299 00:14:03,626 --> 00:14:05,918 Gibney: Rather than fight an endless legal battle, 300 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:10,083 Soufan chose to publish with whole pages blacked out. 301 00:14:10,167 --> 00:14:12,417 It was the protest that made my interview 302 00:14:12,500 --> 00:14:14,167 with Soufan very difficult. 303 00:14:14,250 --> 00:14:16,042 You call this guy Boris. 304 00:14:16,125 --> 00:14:18,667 -Is Boris his real name? -No. 305 00:14:18,751 --> 00:14:21,918 I cannot talk about, uh, about him, 306 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,959 and I cannot even mention his real name. 307 00:14:28,751 --> 00:14:30,959 Gibney: This is Boris. 308 00:14:31,042 --> 00:14:32,709 His real name is James Mitchell. 309 00:14:32,792 --> 00:14:36,250 He also wrote a book about the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. 310 00:14:36,334 --> 00:14:40,792 But Mitchell's book had the full cooperation of the CIA. 311 00:14:40,876 --> 00:14:43,959 Because Mitchell was the inventor of EITs, 312 00:14:44,042 --> 00:14:46,167 the acronym for what the CIA called 313 00:14:46,250 --> 00:14:48,209 Enhanced Interrogation Techniques 314 00:14:48,292 --> 00:14:51,334 and what the rest of the world called torture. 315 00:14:52,459 --> 00:14:54,417 If my boss tells me it's legal, 316 00:14:54,500 --> 00:14:57,334 especially if the President has approved it, 317 00:14:57,417 --> 00:14:59,334 I'm not going to get into the nuances 318 00:14:59,417 --> 00:15:01,709 about what some guy in the basement 319 00:15:01,792 --> 00:15:04,167 or what some journalist thinks about it. 320 00:15:04,250 --> 00:15:06,792 Because they're free to trade places with me 321 00:15:06,876 --> 00:15:08,918 any time they think they can do a better job 322 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,584 of protecting Americans. 323 00:15:11,667 --> 00:15:13,626 Gibney: If you hear a little bit of agitation 324 00:15:13,709 --> 00:15:14,959 in Mitchell's voice, 325 00:15:15,042 --> 00:15:16,792 it's on account of his own frustration 326 00:15:16,876 --> 00:15:19,459 with how the CIA has portrayed his role. 327 00:15:19,542 --> 00:15:22,250 So we agree to an interview. 328 00:15:22,334 --> 00:15:25,834 Then I sued the CIA to get Soufan's book unredacted. 329 00:15:25,918 --> 00:15:29,500 Unexpectedly, the CIA backed down. 330 00:15:29,584 --> 00:15:31,918 Soufan agreed to sit down one more time, 331 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,125 knowing he could now tell me what really happened. 332 00:15:36,709 --> 00:15:38,042 Since 9/11, 333 00:15:38,125 --> 00:15:41,667 I was nonstop traveling around the world, 334 00:15:41,751 --> 00:15:46,334 and finally, I came back around Easter of 2002, 335 00:15:46,417 --> 00:15:50,125 and I was hoping to go with, uh, spend some Easter time 336 00:15:50,209 --> 00:15:52,500 with the family in Pennsylvania. 337 00:15:52,584 --> 00:15:54,000 But I got a phone call. 338 00:15:54,083 --> 00:15:55,709 They said, "You're going to be going to 339 00:15:55,792 --> 00:15:58,292 interview Abu Zubaydah." 340 00:15:58,375 --> 00:16:01,334 They called me because I've been investigating 341 00:16:01,417 --> 00:16:02,959 Al-Qaeda for a while. 342 00:16:03,042 --> 00:16:06,250 I was involved in the East Africa embassy bombings, 343 00:16:06,334 --> 00:16:07,918 the "USS Cole" attack, 344 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,334 and I had sources reporting on Abu Zubaydah. 345 00:16:11,417 --> 00:16:12,918 So Abu Zubaydah wasn't 346 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:15,042 a character that came out of nowhere to me. 347 00:16:15,125 --> 00:16:16,918 Abu Zubaydah was an individual, 348 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:18,334 a terrorist, an operative, 349 00:16:18,417 --> 00:16:21,584 that I've been following, uh, on for a while. 350 00:16:21,667 --> 00:16:25,918 And that's why, at the time, the FBI and the CIA, 351 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,167 they felt that I should be there 352 00:16:28,250 --> 00:16:30,876 helping the CIA interrogating Abu Zubaydah. 353 00:16:38,417 --> 00:16:40,417 Rizzo: Abu Zubaydah was captured 354 00:16:40,500 --> 00:16:42,709 in a firefight in Pakistan, 355 00:16:42,792 --> 00:16:44,918 and he was immediately whisked 356 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:50,584 to the then brand-new first CIA detention facility. 357 00:16:50,667 --> 00:16:54,125 Personnel were assigned there in, literally, days. 358 00:17:03,792 --> 00:17:06,375 Ali Soufan: We came with the CIA, 359 00:17:06,459 --> 00:17:08,542 a couple of officers 360 00:17:08,626 --> 00:17:12,042 plus a medic and two doctors. 361 00:17:12,125 --> 00:17:14,542 They made it clear to us, me and Steve Gaudin 362 00:17:14,626 --> 00:17:16,209 who was my partner at the time, 363 00:17:16,292 --> 00:17:18,459 that we're not there to interrogate Abu Zubaydah. 364 00:17:18,542 --> 00:17:21,751 We're just there to assist the CIA in the interrogation 365 00:17:21,834 --> 00:17:25,584 because of the knowledge and the expertise 366 00:17:25,667 --> 00:17:27,500 we have on this subject. 367 00:17:27,584 --> 00:17:29,626 They basically read us these instructions of, 368 00:17:29,709 --> 00:17:31,959 "Hey, listen, it's a whole 'nother ball game. 369 00:17:32,042 --> 00:17:33,751 "It's a whole another world now. 370 00:17:33,834 --> 00:17:37,459 "This is all about preventing the next September 11th. 371 00:17:37,542 --> 00:17:39,500 This isn't about prosecution." 372 00:17:39,584 --> 00:17:41,584 It changed... 373 00:17:41,667 --> 00:17:45,417 the scope and nature of pretty much everything 374 00:17:45,500 --> 00:17:48,667 Ali and I had probably ever done before to that day. 375 00:17:50,417 --> 00:17:52,584 So we got to this location, 376 00:17:52,667 --> 00:17:54,751 pretty rural area. 377 00:17:54,834 --> 00:17:56,292 It wasn't like we walked into 378 00:17:56,375 --> 00:17:58,959 this nice, beautiful "site," so to speak. 379 00:17:59,042 --> 00:18:01,209 It was just like a house. 380 00:18:01,292 --> 00:18:03,542 Next thing we know, an ambulance gets there, 381 00:18:03,626 --> 00:18:06,751 and they carry Zubaydah by Ali and I 382 00:18:06,834 --> 00:18:09,000 into the house. 383 00:18:09,083 --> 00:18:11,292 Soufan: Abu Zubaydah was finally captured 384 00:18:11,375 --> 00:18:13,250 in Faisalabad, Pakistan. 385 00:18:13,334 --> 00:18:16,918 He tried to escape, and he was shot in the process. 386 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:21,125 So he required intensive medical care. 387 00:18:21,209 --> 00:18:23,417 Steve Gaudin: He had been shot a number of times, 388 00:18:23,500 --> 00:18:26,334 mostly abdominal and in the leg. 389 00:18:26,417 --> 00:18:29,500 But, and this was very strange to both Ali and I, 390 00:18:29,584 --> 00:18:31,584 the folks in charge for some reason 391 00:18:31,667 --> 00:18:33,125 were starting to doubt whether or not 392 00:18:33,209 --> 00:18:34,667 he was actually Abu Zubaydah. 393 00:18:36,792 --> 00:18:38,959 Soufan: We went to the chief of base, 394 00:18:39,042 --> 00:18:41,709 and we said, "When do you want to start the interview?" 395 00:18:41,792 --> 00:18:43,334 And he said, "Look, me and my guys, 396 00:18:43,417 --> 00:18:45,250 "we have no idea who the guy is. 397 00:18:45,334 --> 00:18:48,083 "We don't know anything about these groups. 398 00:18:48,167 --> 00:18:49,751 You know about this guy, don't you?" 399 00:18:49,834 --> 00:18:51,334 We're like, "Yeah." He said, "Well, pff, 400 00:18:51,417 --> 00:18:52,500 "what are you waiting for? 401 00:18:52,584 --> 00:18:54,584 Go and start interrogating him." 402 00:18:55,792 --> 00:18:57,876 So Steve and I, we go in. 403 00:18:57,959 --> 00:19:01,209 Abu Zubaydah was handcuffed to the gurney. 404 00:19:01,292 --> 00:19:04,709 He has a bag, a big bag on his, on his head. 405 00:19:05,959 --> 00:19:08,334 I said, "Salaam alaikum, alaikum as-salaam, 406 00:19:08,417 --> 00:19:11,500 peace be upon you." And I said, "What's your name?" 407 00:19:11,584 --> 00:19:14,209 And he looked very different than the pictures. 408 00:19:14,292 --> 00:19:15,876 He does not have a beard. 409 00:19:15,959 --> 00:19:17,918 It seems that he had some procedure 410 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:19,959 in order to alter his, his shape. 411 00:19:20,042 --> 00:19:22,959 And he had a cloudy eye. 412 00:19:23,042 --> 00:19:25,292 One of his eyes was, like, getting infected, 413 00:19:25,375 --> 00:19:28,250 and he was kind of looking confused, 414 00:19:28,334 --> 00:19:31,209 "Who the heck is this guy who's speaking Arabic to me 415 00:19:31,292 --> 00:19:33,500 and where the hell am I, right?" 416 00:19:33,584 --> 00:19:35,083 So I said, "What's your name?" 417 00:19:35,167 --> 00:19:38,542 And he said "Daoud," 418 00:19:38,626 --> 00:19:39,751 one of his aliases. 419 00:19:39,834 --> 00:19:42,083 It means David in Arabic. 420 00:19:42,167 --> 00:19:45,250 And I said, "Okay, so what if I call you Hani? 421 00:19:47,083 --> 00:19:50,709 He had that, "oh, my gig is up" look on his face. 422 00:19:51,834 --> 00:19:53,709 Hani is the name that his mother 423 00:19:53,792 --> 00:19:56,083 nicknamed him as a child. 424 00:19:56,167 --> 00:19:59,709 So he was shocked to hear that name coming from me. 425 00:20:08,667 --> 00:20:11,042 Hesham Abu Zubaidah: His birth name actually is Zayn al-Abidin. 426 00:20:11,125 --> 00:20:13,042 But my mother called him Hani. 427 00:20:15,959 --> 00:20:18,626 And he was five or six years older than me. 428 00:20:18,709 --> 00:20:22,375 He was a really great artist. He, he liked to draw. 429 00:20:24,334 --> 00:20:27,334 I remember the first drawing I saw from him. 430 00:20:27,417 --> 00:20:30,709 He had a hand holding a pen and drawing an eye. 431 00:20:30,792 --> 00:20:33,250 And the eye had a tear coming out it. 432 00:20:33,334 --> 00:20:35,334 He carried pain with him. 433 00:20:35,417 --> 00:20:38,209 He used to express his feeling by drawing. 434 00:20:40,626 --> 00:20:42,250 When I go through his diary, 435 00:20:42,334 --> 00:20:46,250 I have so much good memory with that guy. 436 00:20:46,334 --> 00:20:50,709 He was a really nice, funny older brother. 437 00:20:50,792 --> 00:20:52,542 I don't remember his being religious. 438 00:20:52,626 --> 00:20:53,709 He used to play piano, 439 00:20:53,792 --> 00:20:55,417 he used to have a girlfriend upstairs, 440 00:20:55,500 --> 00:20:56,918 you know, and he used to smoke, 441 00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,334 go out with his friends. 442 00:20:59,417 --> 00:21:01,959 Gibney: When Abu Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan, 443 00:21:02,042 --> 00:21:04,792 FBI and CIA agents thought they had nabbed 444 00:21:04,876 --> 00:21:07,083 a diabolical Al-Qaeda mastermind. 445 00:21:07,167 --> 00:21:09,834 They found photos of his many disguises, 446 00:21:09,918 --> 00:21:11,876 a bundle of fake passports, 447 00:21:11,959 --> 00:21:14,167 an address book of Al-Qaeda operatives, 448 00:21:14,250 --> 00:21:15,751 and a videotape 449 00:21:15,834 --> 00:21:17,792 taken from a hideout in Afghanistan. 450 00:21:24,542 --> 00:21:27,083 (speaking in foreign language) 451 00:21:37,209 --> 00:21:38,751 Gibney: If the video was incriminating, 452 00:21:38,834 --> 00:21:41,209 there were other materials that showed evidence 453 00:21:41,292 --> 00:21:42,876 of a more complex character. 454 00:21:42,959 --> 00:21:45,500 There was a diary in which the young Hani spoke 455 00:21:45,584 --> 00:21:47,083 to himself in the future, 456 00:21:47,167 --> 00:21:50,250 hoping that that future Hani, Hani number two, 457 00:21:50,334 --> 00:21:51,709 would have the wisdom to understand 458 00:21:51,792 --> 00:21:53,918 the troubled life of Hani one, 459 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:55,751 a Palestinian in exile. 460 00:21:55,834 --> 00:21:56,876 ♪ ♪ 461 00:21:56,959 --> 00:22:00,083 ♪ The ship is like a ghost... ♪ 462 00:22:00,167 --> 00:22:01,918 Gibney: After growing up in Saudi Arabia, 463 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,918 he left home and spent a few years traveling the world, 464 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:06,667 gliding in and out of colleges, 465 00:22:06,751 --> 00:22:09,083 odd jobs, and love affairs. 466 00:22:09,167 --> 00:22:12,000 His diaries are filled with hookups and romances 467 00:22:12,083 --> 00:22:14,667 as he tries to reconcile his sexual desires 468 00:22:14,751 --> 00:22:16,500 with the dictates of Islam. 469 00:22:16,584 --> 00:22:19,667 From Bangkok to Manila to St. Louis, 470 00:22:19,751 --> 00:22:21,417 he was a rootless wanderer 471 00:22:21,500 --> 00:22:24,584 whose life soundtrack was the music of Chris de Burgh. 472 00:22:24,667 --> 00:22:26,751 ♪ Sailor ♪ 473 00:22:27,626 --> 00:22:30,250 ♪ Can you hear me? ♪ 474 00:22:32,375 --> 00:22:34,042 ♪ Sailor ♪ 475 00:22:35,375 --> 00:22:38,500 ♪ Hear my call ♪ 476 00:22:38,584 --> 00:22:41,083 Gibney: In 1991, he found himself in India, 477 00:22:41,167 --> 00:22:44,000 harboring a growing anger over Israel's treatment 478 00:22:44,083 --> 00:22:45,459 of his fellow Palestinians. 479 00:22:46,542 --> 00:22:48,375 That sense of injustice led him, 480 00:22:48,459 --> 00:22:52,542 like so many Muslim men, to the land of jihad. 481 00:22:52,626 --> 00:22:55,042 "To hell with Chris de Burgh" wrote Hani 1, 482 00:22:55,125 --> 00:22:57,459 "I desire to be a martyr." 483 00:22:58,584 --> 00:23:02,792 ♪ Take me home ♪ 484 00:23:03,542 --> 00:23:06,167 (mortars firing) 485 00:23:10,292 --> 00:23:12,250 Soufan: Abu Zubaydah went to Afghanistan 486 00:23:12,334 --> 00:23:14,500 in the early '90s. 487 00:23:14,584 --> 00:23:18,626 And during a battle against the Najibullah regime, 488 00:23:18,709 --> 00:23:23,584 he was hit with a bullet, and he lost his memory. 489 00:23:29,125 --> 00:23:32,083 After he recovered, he went to Al-Qaeda, 490 00:23:32,167 --> 00:23:34,959 and he said he wanted to join Al-Qaeda. 491 00:23:35,042 --> 00:23:36,375 But they were very hesitant 492 00:23:36,459 --> 00:23:38,584 to allow somebody like him to join 493 00:23:38,667 --> 00:23:40,834 because of his state of mind. 494 00:23:40,918 --> 00:23:44,125 So the approval never came, and he took it personal. 495 00:23:44,209 --> 00:23:45,417 (laughs) 496 00:23:45,500 --> 00:23:48,959 And I don't think he ever forgave Al-Qaeda for that. 497 00:23:49,042 --> 00:23:52,000 So he started to do it himself. 498 00:23:52,083 --> 00:23:53,959 Gibney: He became an independent facilitator 499 00:23:54,042 --> 00:23:56,334 based in Pakistan, forging passports 500 00:23:56,417 --> 00:23:58,959 and arranging travel and connections. 501 00:23:59,042 --> 00:24:00,626 He established a secret network 502 00:24:00,709 --> 00:24:02,000 among many of the jihadis, 503 00:24:02,083 --> 00:24:04,500 who wanted access to the Khalden training camp 504 00:24:04,584 --> 00:24:05,959 in Afghanistan. 505 00:24:08,542 --> 00:24:10,250 While many came from different groups 506 00:24:10,334 --> 00:24:11,792 and for different reasons, 507 00:24:11,876 --> 00:24:13,292 Khalden became a recruiting pool 508 00:24:13,375 --> 00:24:15,083 of operatives for Bin Laden. 509 00:24:15,167 --> 00:24:17,292 Khalden was not part of Al-Qaeda, 510 00:24:17,375 --> 00:24:20,125 but many in Washington were convinced it was. 511 00:24:27,918 --> 00:24:30,083 Rizzo: Abu Zubaydah, in those early days, 512 00:24:30,167 --> 00:24:34,709 was deemed a very big fish in the Al-Qaeda organization. 513 00:24:34,792 --> 00:24:36,584 He was one of the few names 514 00:24:36,667 --> 00:24:40,500 that was certainly recognizable to me. 515 00:24:42,417 --> 00:24:44,792 Prior to 9/11, the intelligence we had 516 00:24:44,876 --> 00:24:50,167 on the Al-Qaeda hierarchy was woefully lacking. 517 00:24:50,250 --> 00:24:53,918 Beyond Bin Laden and his deputy al-Zawahiri, 518 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:56,167 we really had picked up the identities 519 00:24:56,250 --> 00:24:59,959 of very few of the more senior Al-Qaeda officials. 520 00:25:00,042 --> 00:25:02,125 Abu Zubaydah was one of the few 521 00:25:02,209 --> 00:25:06,209 that had actually come up on the radar screen. 522 00:25:06,292 --> 00:25:09,417 And he seemed to be popping up constantly 523 00:25:09,500 --> 00:25:11,626 as a facilitator, 524 00:25:11,709 --> 00:25:13,709 perhaps operational commander. 525 00:25:13,792 --> 00:25:16,834 Every time, seemingly, we would chase down a possible lead 526 00:25:16,918 --> 00:25:19,459 to an Al-Qaeda facility 527 00:25:19,542 --> 00:25:20,876 or individual, 528 00:25:20,959 --> 00:25:23,584 Abu Zubaydah's name would be attached to it. 529 00:25:28,459 --> 00:25:29,918 Gibney: In his pre-9/11 diaries, 530 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:32,751 Abu Zubaydah distanced himself from Bin Laden. 531 00:25:32,834 --> 00:25:36,209 While he railed against America for its support of Israel, 532 00:25:36,292 --> 00:25:38,125 he objected to the way that Bin Laden 533 00:25:38,209 --> 00:25:40,709 was willing to kill innocents. 534 00:25:40,792 --> 00:25:43,209 Still, he operated as a kind of travel agent 535 00:25:43,292 --> 00:25:44,792 for all kinds of jihadis, 536 00:25:44,876 --> 00:25:47,375 including Al-Qaeda foot soldiers. 537 00:25:47,459 --> 00:25:49,334 That confused the CIA. 538 00:25:49,417 --> 00:25:51,876 Field agents identified him as an independent. 539 00:25:51,959 --> 00:25:54,667 But analysts in Washington were determined to believe 540 00:25:54,751 --> 00:25:57,876 that he was the number three or four in Al-Qaeda. 541 00:25:57,959 --> 00:26:01,667 It appears that they thought he was a central character 542 00:26:01,751 --> 00:26:05,626 from whom they could extract all manner of intelligence 543 00:26:05,709 --> 00:26:07,417 on Al-Qaeda for the one hand 544 00:26:07,500 --> 00:26:10,375 and, more importantly, for intelligence 545 00:26:10,459 --> 00:26:11,918 on what was coming next. 546 00:26:13,542 --> 00:26:15,250 Soufan: Our main goal was to see 547 00:26:15,334 --> 00:26:16,626 if there is imminent threat, 548 00:26:16,709 --> 00:26:20,125 so we didn't really have time to play. 549 00:26:20,209 --> 00:26:22,626 So during that conversation, we said, 550 00:26:22,709 --> 00:26:24,667 "How do you think you get caught, Hani? 551 00:26:24,751 --> 00:26:27,292 "What were you doing that led us to you? 552 00:26:27,375 --> 00:26:29,500 What mistakes did you do?" 553 00:26:29,584 --> 00:26:30,834 And all of a sudden, 554 00:26:30,918 --> 00:26:33,417 he talked about an operation that he was planning to do. 555 00:26:33,500 --> 00:26:36,542 There was an attack in a country friendly to the United States. 556 00:26:37,834 --> 00:26:39,459 Gibney: We forced the US government 557 00:26:39,542 --> 00:26:42,083 to hand over a copy of Ali Soufan's notes 558 00:26:42,167 --> 00:26:44,834 from his interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. 559 00:26:44,918 --> 00:26:46,709 The plot revealed by Zubaydah 560 00:26:46,792 --> 00:26:49,292 involved $100,000 from Saudi Arabia 561 00:26:49,375 --> 00:26:53,626 for an operation to be conducted in Palestine. 562 00:26:53,709 --> 00:26:55,626 Soufan: It was a pretty advanced operation. 563 00:26:55,709 --> 00:26:57,417 So he thought because of all these calls 564 00:26:57,500 --> 00:27:00,959 and what he was trying to do, he got caught. 565 00:27:01,042 --> 00:27:03,250 We had no idea about that operation. 566 00:27:03,334 --> 00:27:05,959 So we, uh, wrote it. 567 00:27:06,042 --> 00:27:08,834 We sent it back to headquarters, 568 00:27:08,918 --> 00:27:10,042 and we waited. 569 00:27:11,542 --> 00:27:13,125 Gibney: Back at CIA headquarters, 570 00:27:13,209 --> 00:27:16,209 George Tenet was thrilled that Abu Zubaydah was talking 571 00:27:16,292 --> 00:27:18,626 and helping to prevent future plots. 572 00:27:18,709 --> 00:27:21,626 He wanted to congratulate the CIA agents involved. 573 00:27:21,709 --> 00:27:25,167 But when Tenet was told that FBI agents were responsible, 574 00:27:25,250 --> 00:27:26,792 he flew into a rage. 575 00:27:26,876 --> 00:27:29,626 He ordered his subordinates to find a CIA team 576 00:27:29,709 --> 00:27:31,959 to take over the interrogation. 577 00:27:32,042 --> 00:27:34,292 Rizzo: The FBI officials on the scene 578 00:27:34,375 --> 00:27:37,626 thought that Zubaydah was cooperating 579 00:27:37,709 --> 00:27:40,918 and that they were building a rapport with him. 580 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,667 That was not articulated to me at the time. 581 00:27:44,876 --> 00:27:47,167 CIA officials were convinced 582 00:27:47,250 --> 00:27:49,167 that he was withholding 583 00:27:49,250 --> 00:27:51,709 far more sensitive and important stuff, 584 00:27:51,792 --> 00:27:53,709 so I was not told that, 585 00:27:53,792 --> 00:27:55,542 look, the FBI guys think 586 00:27:55,626 --> 00:27:57,375 Zubaydah is telling everything he knows. 587 00:27:57,459 --> 00:27:59,751 It's just going to take some time. 588 00:27:59,834 --> 00:28:02,042 But if I had been told 589 00:28:02,125 --> 00:28:06,083 and I'd relayed that to my CIA management, 590 00:28:06,167 --> 00:28:08,459 I think the response would be, from CIA management, 591 00:28:08,542 --> 00:28:11,167 "Well, time is the one thing we don't have." 592 00:28:13,083 --> 00:28:16,209 Gibney: Time plays a strange role in this story. 593 00:28:16,292 --> 00:28:18,375 There was enormous pressure to get information 594 00:28:18,459 --> 00:28:21,709 out of Abu Zubaydah to prevent future attacks. 595 00:28:21,792 --> 00:28:24,500 That's usually the rationale for torture. 596 00:28:24,584 --> 00:28:26,876 It's called the ticking time bomb theory. 597 00:28:26,959 --> 00:28:28,876 While the bomb is ticking, there's no time 598 00:28:28,959 --> 00:28:31,334 to play nice with bad guys. 599 00:28:31,417 --> 00:28:34,417 But strangely, the CIA wasn't ready 600 00:28:34,500 --> 00:28:36,209 to take the gloves off. 601 00:28:36,292 --> 00:28:39,792 The agency needed to invent a new kind of interrogation 602 00:28:39,876 --> 00:28:42,125 that would not land its agents in jail, 603 00:28:42,209 --> 00:28:44,334 and that would take time. 604 00:28:45,459 --> 00:28:46,876 Meanwhile, in Thailand, 605 00:28:46,959 --> 00:28:48,584 FBI interrogators were getting 606 00:28:48,667 --> 00:28:50,959 vital information out of Abu Zubaydah 607 00:28:51,042 --> 00:28:53,250 Out of the blue, the CIA sent a cable 608 00:28:53,334 --> 00:28:56,626 telling the agents to stop the interrogation. 609 00:28:56,709 --> 00:28:58,626 That confused the FBI agents. 610 00:28:58,709 --> 00:29:00,918 What happened to all the urgency? 611 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:02,667 But orders are orders. 612 00:29:02,751 --> 00:29:04,375 They were told to wait for a team 613 00:29:04,459 --> 00:29:06,918 from CIA headquarters to arrive. 614 00:29:08,626 --> 00:29:09,751 Back in Washington, 615 00:29:09,834 --> 00:29:12,209 the CIA was desperately trying to figure out 616 00:29:12,292 --> 00:29:13,542 who should be on the team. 617 00:29:13,626 --> 00:29:17,083 And now, there was no more time left to lose. 618 00:29:19,542 --> 00:29:23,167 The video you're about to see is a deposition from a lawsuit 619 00:29:23,250 --> 00:29:24,792 brought against key players 620 00:29:24,876 --> 00:29:26,626 of the CIA interrogation program. 621 00:29:26,709 --> 00:29:28,334 Woman: Can you raise your right hand, please? 622 00:29:28,417 --> 00:29:30,083 Do you solemnly swear that... 623 00:29:30,167 --> 00:29:32,167 Other right hand, please. (laughs) 624 00:29:32,250 --> 00:29:34,125 Gibney: The man wearing the blue and white tie 625 00:29:34,209 --> 00:29:35,876 is Jose Rodriguez. 626 00:29:35,959 --> 00:29:37,500 In 2002, he was the head 627 00:29:37,584 --> 00:29:40,083 of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, 628 00:29:40,167 --> 00:29:41,125 or CTC. 629 00:29:41,209 --> 00:29:42,334 -Yes, I do. -Gibney: He was the man 630 00:29:42,417 --> 00:29:43,959 Tenet leaned on to replace 631 00:29:44,042 --> 00:29:45,459 the FBI interrogators 632 00:29:45,542 --> 00:29:47,792 and to find someone to invent overnight 633 00:29:47,876 --> 00:29:50,667 a new CIA interrogation program. 634 00:29:50,751 --> 00:29:52,792 Lawyer: I want to direct your attention 635 00:29:52,876 --> 00:29:54,375 to the time period 636 00:29:54,459 --> 00:29:56,500 in which, um, doctors Mitchell 637 00:29:56,584 --> 00:29:58,083 and Jessen were hired. 638 00:29:58,167 --> 00:30:00,375 -Mm-hmm. -Lawyer: Um... 639 00:30:02,209 --> 00:30:04,083 And, uh, for the record, 640 00:30:04,167 --> 00:30:07,083 doctors Mitchell and Jessen are here today. 641 00:30:07,167 --> 00:30:09,459 Um, did you select 642 00:30:09,542 --> 00:30:13,042 Dr. Mitchell to work with CTC? 643 00:30:13,125 --> 00:30:16,709 Once he was recommended and I met, uh, Dr. Mitchell, 644 00:30:16,792 --> 00:30:20,250 yes, I recommended him to continue working with us. 645 00:30:20,334 --> 00:30:21,375 Lawyer: Okay. 646 00:30:21,459 --> 00:30:24,000 Um, I want to read you 647 00:30:24,083 --> 00:30:26,417 a passage from your book "Hard Measures." 648 00:30:26,500 --> 00:30:28,042 -Do you see that there? -Rodriguez: Mm-hmm. 649 00:30:28,125 --> 00:30:29,709 -Lawyer: That looks like you. -Rodriguez: That looks like me? 650 00:30:29,792 --> 00:30:31,167 Lawyer: Yeah. Um... 651 00:30:31,250 --> 00:30:35,667 and, um, if you could take a look at page 55. 652 00:30:35,751 --> 00:30:37,375 -Rodriguez: Mm-hmm. -Lawyer: You see that? 653 00:30:37,459 --> 00:30:39,459 And in the second full paragraph 654 00:30:39,542 --> 00:30:43,334 is the sentence, "Within two days of AZ's capture, 655 00:30:43,417 --> 00:30:45,584 "we tracked down the contractor 656 00:30:45,667 --> 00:30:47,250 "and asked if he would accompany a team 657 00:30:47,334 --> 00:30:49,876 "of CTC officers to the black site 658 00:30:49,959 --> 00:30:52,417 where we hoped Abu Zubaydah would be interrogated." 659 00:30:52,500 --> 00:30:53,751 -Do you see that? -Rodriguez: Yes. 660 00:30:53,834 --> 00:30:56,834 Lawyer: First of all, the reference to AZ 661 00:30:56,918 --> 00:30:58,375 is Abu Zubaydah, correct? 662 00:30:58,459 --> 00:30:59,959 -Rodriguez: Correct. -Lawyer: And the reference 663 00:31:00,042 --> 00:31:03,417 to the contractor is Dr. Mitchell. Is that correct? 664 00:31:03,500 --> 00:31:04,542 -Rodriguez: Correct. -Lawyer: Okay. 665 00:31:04,626 --> 00:31:06,876 How did you reach him 666 00:31:06,959 --> 00:31:09,709 within two days of AZ's capture? 667 00:31:09,792 --> 00:31:11,500 Well, I assume that he was at headquarters. 668 00:31:11,584 --> 00:31:14,042 Somebody, you know, somebody reached him. 669 00:31:14,125 --> 00:31:15,375 I did not reach him myself. 670 00:31:15,459 --> 00:31:17,751 Somebody in the Counterterrorism Center 671 00:31:17,834 --> 00:31:19,167 reached him. 672 00:31:22,876 --> 00:31:24,459 Jones: Jim Mitchell was identified 673 00:31:24,542 --> 00:31:26,125 because one of the chief lawyers 674 00:31:26,209 --> 00:31:27,751 in the counterterrorism division 675 00:31:27,834 --> 00:31:30,751 happened to be married to another CIA employee 676 00:31:30,834 --> 00:31:31,876 who was in something called 677 00:31:31,959 --> 00:31:34,292 the Office of Technical Services. 678 00:31:34,375 --> 00:31:35,959 This involved psychologists. 679 00:31:36,042 --> 00:31:38,167 And there was a psychologist on contract, 680 00:31:38,250 --> 00:31:42,083 Jim Mitchell, who had written a report for the CIA. 681 00:31:42,167 --> 00:31:44,042 This report was based on what was believed 682 00:31:44,125 --> 00:31:45,417 to be an Al-Qaeda manual, 683 00:31:45,500 --> 00:31:48,083 and it included details on interrogations. 684 00:31:48,167 --> 00:31:51,083 Gibney: The manual was called "The Manchester Manual" 685 00:31:51,167 --> 00:31:54,417 in honor of where it was found in Manchester, England, 686 00:31:54,500 --> 00:31:55,792 by Ali Soufan. 687 00:31:55,876 --> 00:31:58,250 Soufan: I was in Manchester investigating 688 00:31:58,334 --> 00:32:00,000 a member of Al-Qaeda. 689 00:32:00,083 --> 00:32:02,876 And we did a search of his house 690 00:32:02,959 --> 00:32:04,709 where we found a handwritten book, 691 00:32:04,792 --> 00:32:07,500 "The Manchester Manual." 692 00:32:07,584 --> 00:32:10,375 It's mostly about urban warfare. 693 00:32:10,459 --> 00:32:13,751 And it has a section about what happens if you get caught. 694 00:32:13,834 --> 00:32:17,626 What should you expect to endure? 695 00:32:17,709 --> 00:32:20,375 It talks about very harsh techniques, 696 00:32:20,459 --> 00:32:23,626 beatings, rape, they're going to be sodomized, 697 00:32:23,709 --> 00:32:26,083 their family going to be tortured. 698 00:32:26,167 --> 00:32:28,584 These are the things that were ingrained 699 00:32:28,667 --> 00:32:31,375 in the head of Qaeda operatives. 700 00:32:32,709 --> 00:32:34,667 Gibney: Soufan recognized it as a kind of 701 00:32:34,751 --> 00:32:36,709 cut-and-paste terrorist pamphlet. 702 00:32:36,792 --> 00:32:39,083 But the CIA imagined it might be 703 00:32:39,167 --> 00:32:41,000 a window into the Islamist mind. 704 00:32:41,083 --> 00:32:44,125 So they hired a psychologist named James Mitchell 705 00:32:44,209 --> 00:32:45,459 to analyze it. 706 00:32:45,542 --> 00:32:47,292 He and his colleague, Bruce Jessen, 707 00:32:47,375 --> 00:32:50,584 concluded that the manual was a diabolical guide 708 00:32:50,667 --> 00:32:52,834 to play mind games on interrogators, 709 00:32:52,918 --> 00:32:55,542 which could only be overcome through harsh physical 710 00:32:55,626 --> 00:32:58,459 and psychological countermeasures. 711 00:32:58,542 --> 00:33:00,375 Even though those techniques were milder 712 00:33:00,459 --> 00:33:02,709 than the torture expected by the manual, 713 00:33:02,792 --> 00:33:05,125 the message found favor at the agency. 714 00:33:05,209 --> 00:33:07,209 Mitchell, who had no experience 715 00:33:07,292 --> 00:33:08,626 interrogating anyone, 716 00:33:08,709 --> 00:33:10,751 was the only candidate considered 717 00:33:10,834 --> 00:33:12,250 for the job of inventing 718 00:33:12,334 --> 00:33:16,000 the CIA's new system of interrogation. 719 00:33:16,083 --> 00:33:17,792 Jones: There was no blue ribbon commission. 720 00:33:17,876 --> 00:33:20,000 There was no outreach to the FBI 721 00:33:20,083 --> 00:33:22,000 or to the Department of Defense 722 00:33:22,083 --> 00:33:24,042 or any other US agency, 723 00:33:24,125 --> 00:33:26,292 or foreign entity, for that matter. 724 00:33:26,375 --> 00:33:28,125 Gibney: The CIA's hiring policy 725 00:33:28,209 --> 00:33:29,209 was much more casual. 726 00:33:29,292 --> 00:33:31,417 A CTC lawyer whose pictures 727 00:33:31,500 --> 00:33:33,167 have been scrubbed from the internet 728 00:33:33,250 --> 00:33:35,334 just asked his wife if she knew anyone 729 00:33:35,417 --> 00:33:36,834 who might be good for the job. 730 00:33:36,918 --> 00:33:39,584 Jones: This lawyer says, "Abu Zubaydah's been captured. 731 00:33:39,667 --> 00:33:41,167 I don't know what we're going to do with this guy." 732 00:33:41,250 --> 00:33:43,626 And she says, "Well, I got a guy in my office 733 00:33:43,709 --> 00:33:45,250 "who just wrote a report 734 00:33:45,334 --> 00:33:47,834 "on this believed-to-be an Al-Qaeda training manual. 735 00:33:47,918 --> 00:33:49,209 You should talk to him." 736 00:33:54,959 --> 00:33:57,751 Mitchell: I got a phone call from the CIA 737 00:33:57,834 --> 00:34:00,918 and they said, "You need to come in tomorrow." 738 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:02,918 I was curious because that was, 739 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,459 you know, that sounds like comic book, uh, material. 740 00:34:06,542 --> 00:34:07,751 So I went. 741 00:34:10,292 --> 00:34:12,375 I parked in the furthest space in the parking lot, 742 00:34:12,459 --> 00:34:14,125 the only place I could find. 743 00:34:14,209 --> 00:34:18,876 That building is a labyrinth of hallways and rooms. 744 00:34:18,959 --> 00:34:19,959 I got to the door, 745 00:34:20,042 --> 00:34:22,125 and they rushed me into the room, 746 00:34:22,209 --> 00:34:24,792 told me that they had captured Abu Zubaydah, 747 00:34:24,876 --> 00:34:27,209 and asked me if I would deploy 748 00:34:27,292 --> 00:34:29,667 with the interrogation team 749 00:34:29,751 --> 00:34:33,375 to help them... recognize 750 00:34:33,459 --> 00:34:36,042 if he was using sophisticated resistance 751 00:34:36,125 --> 00:34:37,334 to interrogation techniques 752 00:34:37,417 --> 00:34:39,250 to resist providing information. 753 00:34:39,334 --> 00:34:42,375 Lawyer: He said he provided psychological support. 754 00:34:42,459 --> 00:34:43,626 What does that mean? 755 00:34:43,709 --> 00:34:46,375 He provided, uh, research 756 00:34:46,459 --> 00:34:49,375 and applied psychological support, 757 00:34:49,459 --> 00:34:51,876 -uh, to the agency. -Lawyer: Mm-hmm. 758 00:34:51,959 --> 00:34:53,500 Um, so he did research? 759 00:34:53,584 --> 00:34:55,125 I assume so. 760 00:34:55,209 --> 00:34:56,751 Lawyer: You don't know? 761 00:34:57,500 --> 00:34:58,584 No. 762 00:34:58,667 --> 00:35:00,459 Jones: So Jim Mitchell walks in the door, 763 00:35:00,542 --> 00:35:03,667 says that I have experience in interrogations, 764 00:35:03,751 --> 00:35:05,709 describes what he would do, 765 00:35:05,792 --> 00:35:07,959 and Jose Rodriguez says, "You're hired, 766 00:35:08,042 --> 00:35:09,751 "and we're going to put you on a flight 767 00:35:09,834 --> 00:35:12,626 to the first detention site right now." 768 00:35:13,918 --> 00:35:14,959 No other vetting. 769 00:35:15,042 --> 00:35:19,834 (airplane whooshing) 770 00:35:24,626 --> 00:35:28,167 (insects chirping) 771 00:35:28,250 --> 00:35:31,209 Gaudin: Those first few days were very chaotic. 772 00:35:31,292 --> 00:35:32,918 He was very wounded 773 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,167 and sometimes while we were talking to him, 774 00:35:35,250 --> 00:35:37,042 the doctors had to come in and change bandages, 775 00:35:37,125 --> 00:35:38,417 or change dressings. 776 00:35:38,500 --> 00:35:40,584 And sometimes, the, the medical folks would say, 777 00:35:40,667 --> 00:35:43,667 "You can't talk to him for a little while. We need to let him rest." 778 00:35:44,834 --> 00:35:46,834 Soufan: They said he was dehydrated. 779 00:35:46,918 --> 00:35:49,500 So Stephen and I were caring for him. 780 00:35:49,584 --> 00:35:52,000 We put ice on his lips. 781 00:35:52,083 --> 00:35:54,792 Ali is holding his hand. Ali's rubbing his forehead. 782 00:35:54,876 --> 00:35:57,500 Ali's praying with him, saying, "Hang in there, brother. 783 00:35:57,584 --> 00:35:59,709 "Don't worry. We're going to take care of you. 784 00:35:59,792 --> 00:36:01,250 You're going to be okay." 785 00:36:01,334 --> 00:36:03,292 He defecates all over himself. 786 00:36:04,959 --> 00:36:06,500 Soufan: Later on, I don't know, 787 00:36:06,584 --> 00:36:09,292 two or three o'clock in the morning, the medic came in 788 00:36:09,375 --> 00:36:11,876 and he said, "Is this guy important?" 789 00:36:11,959 --> 00:36:13,918 And I said, "Yeah, I believe so." 790 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:15,667 He said, "Well, if, you know, 791 00:36:15,751 --> 00:36:18,542 "if you think he knows information, 792 00:36:18,626 --> 00:36:19,876 "you better get it from him now. 793 00:36:19,959 --> 00:36:21,417 You better go and talk to him now." 794 00:36:21,500 --> 00:36:23,751 I said, "Why?" He said, "Because he's septic. 795 00:36:23,834 --> 00:36:25,959 "I don't think he will live 796 00:36:26,042 --> 00:36:28,125 to see the morning." 797 00:36:28,209 --> 00:36:31,709 So the chief of base wrote a cable about the situation, 798 00:36:31,792 --> 00:36:34,834 and the answer came back, short and sweet: 799 00:36:34,918 --> 00:36:37,542 "Death is not an option." 800 00:36:37,626 --> 00:36:40,792 We had to come up with a cover story 801 00:36:40,876 --> 00:36:43,584 to take him to a hospital. 802 00:36:43,667 --> 00:36:46,125 We were wearing military uniforms, 803 00:36:46,209 --> 00:36:48,125 said he was one of our soldiers, 804 00:36:48,209 --> 00:36:50,459 that he went crazy and he got shot. 805 00:36:50,542 --> 00:36:53,792 And that's why we're taking him for medical care. 806 00:36:53,876 --> 00:36:55,042 Reporter: Abu Zubaydah, 807 00:36:55,125 --> 00:36:56,626 Al-Qaeda's top field commander, 808 00:36:56,709 --> 00:36:57,751 is talking. 809 00:36:57,834 --> 00:36:59,417 The trouble is, American interrogators 810 00:36:59,500 --> 00:37:01,626 are not sure whether to believe him. 811 00:37:01,709 --> 00:37:03,042 Donald Rumsfeld: I don't know that I want to give 812 00:37:03,125 --> 00:37:05,918 a day-to-day report on, on his, uh, 813 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:09,792 how enthusiastic he is about his situation. 814 00:37:09,876 --> 00:37:14,042 Um... he is not well. 815 00:37:14,125 --> 00:37:16,417 He's got several bullet holes in him, 816 00:37:16,500 --> 00:37:17,918 and, uh... 817 00:37:19,334 --> 00:37:20,751 well, how fast he'll recover 818 00:37:20,834 --> 00:37:24,584 and when he'll start cooperating, time will tell. 819 00:37:28,167 --> 00:37:30,334 Jones: While Abu Zubaydah is in the hospital, 820 00:37:30,417 --> 00:37:31,959 things begin to change. 821 00:37:33,209 --> 00:37:34,959 It's during this period of time 822 00:37:35,042 --> 00:37:37,918 that Jim Mitchell is sent to the detention site. 823 00:37:39,042 --> 00:37:40,834 He goes merely as an observer 824 00:37:40,918 --> 00:37:43,876 and to provide feedback to CIA headquarters. 825 00:37:43,959 --> 00:37:46,209 But his influence becomes very clear. 826 00:37:46,292 --> 00:37:48,000 They talk about returning Abu Zubaydah 827 00:37:48,083 --> 00:37:50,167 to the detention site in an all-white room, 828 00:37:50,250 --> 00:37:51,375 which is very bright, 829 00:37:51,459 --> 00:37:53,792 kept cold. 830 00:37:53,876 --> 00:37:56,792 He'll be kept naked and sleep deprived. 831 00:37:56,876 --> 00:37:58,834 These are the ideas that are coming about. 832 00:37:58,918 --> 00:38:00,792 Even though he's not particularly doing the interrogation, 833 00:38:00,876 --> 00:38:02,751 these are his ideas that he's pushing forward. 834 00:38:02,834 --> 00:38:04,626 Gibney: They weren't asking you at that time 835 00:38:04,709 --> 00:38:06,626 to help with interrogations, or were they? 836 00:38:06,709 --> 00:38:08,459 Not to do interrogations. 837 00:38:08,542 --> 00:38:11,125 They were help-- asking me to help brainstorm 838 00:38:11,209 --> 00:38:14,500 with the interrogation team, the whole interrogation team, 839 00:38:14,584 --> 00:38:17,626 uh, any countermeasures that they might use, 840 00:38:17,709 --> 00:38:21,667 if he was employing resistance techniques. 841 00:38:23,459 --> 00:38:26,209 Soufan: He stayed in the hospital, recovering. 842 00:38:26,292 --> 00:38:29,000 We get a clearance from the doctors that we can talk to him, 843 00:38:29,083 --> 00:38:32,125 and we went back to talking about 844 00:38:32,209 --> 00:38:33,751 what he knows about a plot. 845 00:38:35,375 --> 00:38:37,000 So I asked him, 846 00:38:37,083 --> 00:38:40,709 "Do you know if Bin Laden is planning to do anything?" 847 00:38:40,792 --> 00:38:42,542 He said, "Yes, Al-Qaeda is planning 848 00:38:42,626 --> 00:38:43,918 "to do something. 849 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,417 He has his own people." 850 00:38:45,500 --> 00:38:48,292 I said, "Are you aware of an operation that's ongoing?" 851 00:38:48,375 --> 00:38:50,709 He said, "Yes, there's an operation 852 00:38:50,792 --> 00:38:54,500 against an American facility in a foreign country." 853 00:38:54,584 --> 00:38:56,542 So I said, "Who's doing this operation? 854 00:38:56,626 --> 00:38:57,918 He said, "al-Zayyat." 855 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,042 We know al-Zayyat is an alias 856 00:39:00,125 --> 00:39:02,250 for Abu Mohamed al-Masri, 857 00:39:02,334 --> 00:39:03,542 who was the mastermind 858 00:39:03,626 --> 00:39:06,751 of the East Africa embassy bombings. 859 00:39:06,834 --> 00:39:09,083 Gaudin: So Ali and I came up with a plan 860 00:39:09,167 --> 00:39:11,250 to show him a photo of this guy, 861 00:39:11,334 --> 00:39:14,417 and if he identifies him, he's working with us. 862 00:39:14,500 --> 00:39:17,918 I'm not saying he's giving us the keys to the kingdom, 863 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:19,834 but we can walk out of the room and go, 864 00:39:19,918 --> 00:39:21,250 "Hey, I think we're at the point now we can 865 00:39:21,334 --> 00:39:24,751 start asking him questions to answers we don't know." 866 00:39:24,834 --> 00:39:28,584 So I had this electronic organizer, 867 00:39:28,667 --> 00:39:30,709 the HP Jordana. 868 00:39:30,792 --> 00:39:32,375 Soufan: Steve had downloaded 869 00:39:32,459 --> 00:39:35,250 the poster of the 22 most-wanted terrorists 870 00:39:35,334 --> 00:39:37,918 that the FBI released after 9/11. 871 00:39:38,042 --> 00:39:39,751 It had the people who were involved 872 00:39:39,834 --> 00:39:41,459 in the East Africa embassy bombings, 873 00:39:41,542 --> 00:39:44,000 the "USS Cole," and the Khobar bombing. 874 00:39:44,083 --> 00:39:45,626 All these individuals, 875 00:39:45,709 --> 00:39:47,959 from Mugniyah to Bin Laden. 876 00:39:48,042 --> 00:39:51,667 So, Steve clicks a photo, gives me the Palm Pilot. 877 00:39:51,751 --> 00:39:54,792 I didn't look at it to check if it's the right person, 878 00:39:54,876 --> 00:39:56,209 but I showed Abu Zubaydah. 879 00:39:56,292 --> 00:39:57,918 I said, "Is this the guy?" 880 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:00,125 And Abu Zubaydah said, 881 00:40:00,209 --> 00:40:02,250 "No, it's not." 882 00:40:02,334 --> 00:40:05,250 I was convinced that al-Zayyat is Abu Mohamed al-Masri, 883 00:40:05,334 --> 00:40:08,417 and I thought that he's playing games. 884 00:40:08,500 --> 00:40:09,834 So I was really frustrated. 885 00:40:09,918 --> 00:40:12,250 I'm like, "Dude, we saved your life. 886 00:40:12,334 --> 00:40:14,667 "We're sitting here like your next of kin, 887 00:40:14,751 --> 00:40:16,250 and you're still playing games with us." 888 00:40:16,334 --> 00:40:17,626 And Abu Zubaydah had enough of me. 889 00:40:17,709 --> 00:40:19,876 He said, "Come on, brother, I'm not playing games. 890 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:21,167 You know who the guy is." 891 00:40:21,250 --> 00:40:23,500 I said, "Who the fuck is he then?" 892 00:40:23,584 --> 00:40:27,209 And he said, "Well, this is Mokhtar." 893 00:40:27,292 --> 00:40:31,584 And when he said "Mokhtar," my heart stopped. 894 00:40:31,667 --> 00:40:35,334 Mokhtar, as Abu Zubaydah identified from the picture, 895 00:40:35,417 --> 00:40:37,751 was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. 896 00:40:37,834 --> 00:40:39,876 (indistinct chatter) 897 00:40:42,375 --> 00:40:45,584 After 9/11, we had an operation in Afghanistan 898 00:40:45,667 --> 00:40:47,709 where they found videotapes 899 00:40:47,792 --> 00:40:49,417 and documents 900 00:40:49,500 --> 00:40:52,542 in Al-Qaeda's military community. 901 00:40:52,626 --> 00:40:54,834 One of the videos is Bin Laden talking 902 00:40:54,918 --> 00:40:57,375 to a paraplegic mullah. 903 00:40:57,459 --> 00:40:59,083 He's talking about 9/11, 904 00:40:59,167 --> 00:41:02,250 praising the operatives and the operation. 905 00:41:02,334 --> 00:41:04,626 And every time he talks, he points towards 906 00:41:04,709 --> 00:41:07,209 an individual next to the camera 907 00:41:07,292 --> 00:41:08,584 and he says, "Mokhtar." 908 00:41:08,667 --> 00:41:10,083 Mokhtar. 909 00:41:10,167 --> 00:41:11,751 Soufan: And then he starts talking about people 910 00:41:11,834 --> 00:41:13,542 having dreams that there is Al-Qaeda 911 00:41:13,626 --> 00:41:15,209 playing karate with America 912 00:41:15,292 --> 00:41:16,792 and Mokhtar is the trainer, 913 00:41:16,876 --> 00:41:18,834 and he's pointing at Mokhtar. 914 00:41:18,918 --> 00:41:21,042 So we knew that Mokhtar is important, 915 00:41:21,125 --> 00:41:23,500 but we had no idea who Mokhtar was. 916 00:41:23,584 --> 00:41:25,000 (monitor beeping) 917 00:41:25,083 --> 00:41:28,876 But we cannot show Abu Zubaydah that we did not know that. 918 00:41:28,959 --> 00:41:30,792 So I said, "Oh, Mokhtar." 919 00:41:30,876 --> 00:41:34,083 He said, "Yeah, you know, the guy who did the plane operation." 920 00:41:35,083 --> 00:41:36,417 Basically 9/11. 921 00:41:37,667 --> 00:41:39,709 So he told me that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed 922 00:41:39,792 --> 00:41:40,959 came to visit him. 923 00:41:41,042 --> 00:41:44,000 He had a plan to take Cessna planes 924 00:41:44,083 --> 00:41:46,459 and fly them into the World Trade Center, 925 00:41:46,542 --> 00:41:51,000 and he needed resources for this operation. 926 00:41:51,083 --> 00:41:53,334 Zubaydah told him, "This is way above me. 927 00:41:53,417 --> 00:41:56,792 I don't have this capability, nor such resources." 928 00:41:56,876 --> 00:41:58,667 But according to Abu Zubaydah, 929 00:41:58,751 --> 00:42:01,542 when KSM briefed the idea later on 930 00:42:01,626 --> 00:42:03,167 to Osama Bin Laden 931 00:42:03,250 --> 00:42:05,834 and some of his senior lieutenants, 932 00:42:05,918 --> 00:42:08,584 Bin Laden was not excited about it. 933 00:42:08,667 --> 00:42:11,918 He commented, "Why do you want to go to war 934 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:13,459 "with an axe 935 00:42:13,542 --> 00:42:15,375 when you can go with a bulldozer?" 936 00:42:15,459 --> 00:42:18,167 (sirens wailing) 937 00:42:18,250 --> 00:42:19,792 Man: You better get out of the way! 938 00:42:21,709 --> 00:42:23,667 (monitor beeping) 939 00:42:26,834 --> 00:42:29,459 But again, we cannot make him feel 940 00:42:29,542 --> 00:42:32,125 that he gave us something we didn't know. 941 00:42:32,209 --> 00:42:34,626 So I looked at the picture, I'm like, 942 00:42:34,709 --> 00:42:36,500 "Oh, Steve, 943 00:42:36,584 --> 00:42:39,250 you gave me KSM's photo, come on, man." 944 00:42:39,334 --> 00:42:42,375 And Steve looked at it, and then Steve realized 945 00:42:42,459 --> 00:42:43,792 exactly what was going on. 946 00:42:43,876 --> 00:42:46,792 We leave the room and Ali and I are just shaking. 947 00:42:46,876 --> 00:42:48,751 Did that really just happen? 948 00:42:48,834 --> 00:42:51,751 We just identified who did 9/11. 949 00:42:51,834 --> 00:42:53,918 That was a huge moment. 950 00:42:54,834 --> 00:42:57,584 So we send it to the CIA. 951 00:42:57,667 --> 00:42:59,751 We were kind of, like, high. 952 00:42:59,834 --> 00:43:02,375 We just identified KSM as the mastermind of 9/11, 953 00:43:02,459 --> 00:43:03,667 and we get another plot. 954 00:43:03,751 --> 00:43:06,626 You know, we were doing our job and you just feel that, 955 00:43:06,709 --> 00:43:09,250 you know, wow, it's working well. 956 00:43:09,334 --> 00:43:11,167 Right. So you're pleased about that. 957 00:43:14,292 --> 00:43:17,042 Rizzo: I was still hearing progress reports nightly 958 00:43:17,125 --> 00:43:19,500 from our CIA people. 959 00:43:19,584 --> 00:43:22,167 And they were increasingly convinced 960 00:43:22,250 --> 00:43:24,375 that while he was providing 961 00:43:25,292 --> 00:43:27,000 some good information, 962 00:43:27,083 --> 00:43:29,375 he was definitely holding back 963 00:43:29,459 --> 00:43:31,209 on the more important stuff, 964 00:43:31,292 --> 00:43:34,375 namely the location and timing 965 00:43:34,459 --> 00:43:37,834 of another major terrorist attack. 966 00:43:37,918 --> 00:43:41,125 So that led to people from our Counterterrorism Center 967 00:43:41,209 --> 00:43:44,709 deciding that the normal interrogation techniques 968 00:43:44,792 --> 00:43:46,542 that had been applied up to that point 969 00:43:46,626 --> 00:43:48,584 weren't going to work. 970 00:43:48,667 --> 00:43:51,209 Something more aggressive had to be done. 971 00:43:53,375 --> 00:43:55,125 Soufan: Abu Zubaydah was moved 972 00:43:55,209 --> 00:43:56,542 from the hospital, 973 00:43:56,626 --> 00:43:58,375 and they took him back to the site 974 00:43:58,459 --> 00:44:01,834 that we originally were in. 975 00:44:01,918 --> 00:44:03,209 And, at the black site, 976 00:44:03,292 --> 00:44:06,584 a new team from CTC had shown up. 977 00:44:09,167 --> 00:44:11,959 The team was comprised of individuals 978 00:44:12,042 --> 00:44:13,751 that I will give aliases to, 979 00:44:13,834 --> 00:44:16,334 and these aliases I used in my book. 980 00:44:17,417 --> 00:44:18,751 So there is Wilson, 981 00:44:18,834 --> 00:44:21,292 one of the top CIA behavioral analysts. 982 00:44:21,375 --> 00:44:23,959 He had a lot of experience in different regions, 983 00:44:24,042 --> 00:44:25,584 especially the Middle East. 984 00:44:25,667 --> 00:44:27,792 I worked with him before. 985 00:44:27,876 --> 00:44:31,125 Then there was Ed. He's a CIA interrogator. 986 00:44:31,209 --> 00:44:33,751 We did a few interrogations together. 987 00:44:33,834 --> 00:44:36,250 There was Frank. He was a polygrapher. 988 00:44:36,334 --> 00:44:38,918 And then they had a contractor. 989 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:40,459 I call him Boris. 990 00:44:40,542 --> 00:44:45,876 But since then, he has been actively vocal, uh, about this, 991 00:44:45,959 --> 00:44:47,959 so I don't think anybody will mind me 992 00:44:48,042 --> 00:44:50,459 calling him with his real name, James Mitchell. 993 00:44:50,542 --> 00:44:53,709 The people who had conducted a lot of interrogations before 994 00:44:53,792 --> 00:44:57,417 failed to do the job that the CIA wanted. 995 00:44:57,500 --> 00:45:00,667 So they were looking to use what I knew about psychology 996 00:45:00,751 --> 00:45:02,459 as a weapon against our enemies 997 00:45:02,542 --> 00:45:05,292 so that we could get them to talk. 998 00:45:05,375 --> 00:45:07,000 Soufan: Wilson introduced Mitchell, 999 00:45:07,083 --> 00:45:10,042 saying that he knows about interrogation. 1000 00:45:10,125 --> 00:45:14,459 He has a strategy. The strategy can work. 1001 00:45:14,542 --> 00:45:16,083 Steve and I were just looking at each other. 1002 00:45:16,167 --> 00:45:19,167 I'm like, "Well, it's working." 1003 00:45:19,250 --> 00:45:21,626 You know, "If, uh, if it's working, why break it?" 1004 00:45:21,709 --> 00:45:24,792 Now, it was like, "Stop what you're doing. 1005 00:45:24,876 --> 00:45:27,584 "'The A-Team' is coming in and they're taking over. 1006 00:45:27,667 --> 00:45:28,918 You guys are done." 1007 00:45:41,834 --> 00:45:43,042 Soufan: Mitchell said, look, 1008 00:45:43,125 --> 00:45:45,667 you take everything away from him 1009 00:45:45,751 --> 00:45:49,167 to the point that his life, his death, 1010 00:45:49,250 --> 00:45:52,459 his comfort all depends on the interrogator. 1011 00:45:52,542 --> 00:45:55,125 Mitchell said, and I'll never forget 1012 00:45:55,209 --> 00:45:56,792 the way his fingers moved, 1013 00:45:56,876 --> 00:46:00,375 "We need to diminish his capacity to resist." 1014 00:46:00,459 --> 00:46:03,334 Soufan: This way, he will immediately start cooperating 1015 00:46:03,417 --> 00:46:05,626 and give you everything you want. 1016 00:46:05,709 --> 00:46:09,209 And he will see only one interrogator. 1017 00:46:09,292 --> 00:46:11,751 Only one interrogator. Nobody else. 1018 00:46:11,834 --> 00:46:13,209 The next time you meet with him, 1019 00:46:13,292 --> 00:46:15,959 you say, "Our boss is upset with you." 1020 00:46:16,042 --> 00:46:19,626 You introduce the boss, which is going to be Ed. 1021 00:46:19,709 --> 00:46:22,918 And then you walk and you'll never see him again. 1022 00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:25,584 That's it. So Ed is going to be his god. 1023 00:46:27,167 --> 00:46:30,417 Gibney: With a new god came a new white Heaven. 1024 00:46:36,584 --> 00:46:38,459 Years later, while in Guantanamo, 1025 00:46:38,542 --> 00:46:41,292 Abu Zubaydah penned descriptions and drawings 1026 00:46:41,375 --> 00:46:43,334 of what happened to him in Thailand. 1027 00:46:55,459 --> 00:46:57,417 (keys jingling, gate clanks) 1028 00:47:09,876 --> 00:47:11,834 Soufan: So they put him in the cell. 1029 00:47:11,918 --> 00:47:14,000 They put cameras, hidden CCTV. 1030 00:47:14,083 --> 00:47:16,083 They were recording everything. 1031 00:47:16,167 --> 00:47:18,834 He's totally naked. He has nothing. 1032 00:47:18,918 --> 00:47:22,918 So then Ed walks in, and Ed tells him, 1033 00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:24,876 "Tell me what I want to know." 1034 00:47:24,959 --> 00:47:28,250 And Abu Zubaydah looks at him and he said, "What do you want to know?" 1035 00:47:28,334 --> 00:47:30,584 An Ed cannot tell him anything. 1036 00:47:30,667 --> 00:47:33,083 The only thing, the only thing that Ed can do, 1037 00:47:33,167 --> 00:47:36,250 the instructions from "the expert" 1038 00:47:36,334 --> 00:47:38,375 is to turn and get out. 1039 00:47:38,459 --> 00:47:40,209 (keys jingling, gate clanks) 1040 00:47:42,709 --> 00:47:45,709 So they add something to make Abu Zubaydah's life more uncomfortable: 1041 00:47:45,792 --> 00:47:46,626 loud music. 1042 00:47:46,709 --> 00:47:48,751 (rock music blaring) 1043 00:47:55,417 --> 00:47:58,459 Then, you wait for 12 hours or so 1044 00:47:58,542 --> 00:47:59,792 and then he does it again. 1045 00:47:59,876 --> 00:48:01,042 "Tell me what I want to know." 1046 00:48:01,125 --> 00:48:02,584 "Well, what do you want to know?" 1047 00:48:02,667 --> 00:48:03,876 You walk out. 1048 00:48:05,042 --> 00:48:07,292 The music that they played initially 1049 00:48:07,375 --> 00:48:10,500 was music that the guards had. 1050 00:48:10,584 --> 00:48:11,959 (rock music playing) 1051 00:48:12,042 --> 00:48:14,000 And it was as bad for us as it was for him 1052 00:48:14,083 --> 00:48:16,584 because we're in that same building, 1053 00:48:16,667 --> 00:48:18,626 not far from where he's at, and it's blaring. 1054 00:48:18,709 --> 00:48:20,792 (rock music blaring) 1055 00:48:31,209 --> 00:48:35,500 Eventually, we went to white noise generators 1056 00:48:35,584 --> 00:48:38,334 because nobody wanted to listen to that music. 1057 00:48:38,417 --> 00:48:41,542 (static hissing) 1058 00:48:46,584 --> 00:48:49,334 So it goes from this to sleep deprivation, 1059 00:48:49,417 --> 00:48:51,959 "24 hours didn't work. Maybe we need 48 hours. 1060 00:48:52,042 --> 00:48:54,667 Oh, 48 hours didn't work. Maybe we need 72 hours." 1061 00:48:54,751 --> 00:48:56,167 And nothing's coming out. 1062 00:48:56,250 --> 00:49:00,542 (static hissing) 1063 00:49:00,626 --> 00:49:03,500 So they decided to go back to the loud music, 1064 00:49:03,584 --> 00:49:07,584 the same song again and again and again, very loud. 1065 00:49:07,667 --> 00:49:09,417 Gibney: Do you remember what the song was? 1066 00:49:09,500 --> 00:49:12,626 I think it was, uh, Red Hot Chili Peppers. 1067 00:49:12,709 --> 00:49:14,250 It was the only CD that somebody had. 1068 00:49:14,334 --> 00:49:16,876 Something like, you know, it was just going, going around. 1069 00:49:16,959 --> 00:49:19,417 ♪ What I got you got to give it to your mama ♪ 1070 00:49:19,500 --> 00:49:22,959 ♪ What I got you've got to give it to your papa ♪ 1071 00:49:23,042 --> 00:49:26,292 I used to like them until now. I never listened to them again. 1072 00:49:26,375 --> 00:49:29,125 ♪ Give it away, give it away, give it away now ♪ 1073 00:49:29,209 --> 00:49:31,709 ♪ Give it away, give it away, give it away now ♪ 1074 00:49:31,792 --> 00:49:34,000 ♪ Give it away, give it away, give it away now ♪ 1075 00:49:34,083 --> 00:49:37,167 ♪ I can't tell if I'm a kingpin or a pauper ♪ 1076 00:49:37,250 --> 00:49:39,959 ♪ ♪ 1077 00:49:41,459 --> 00:49:43,000 (water splashes) 1078 00:49:46,125 --> 00:49:48,500 Soufan: I spoke with Wilson, 1079 00:49:48,584 --> 00:49:50,250 the other psychologist, 1080 00:49:50,334 --> 00:49:51,834 and I said, "This is crazy." 1081 00:49:51,918 --> 00:49:53,959 And he said, "Look, this guy is supposedly an expert. 1082 00:49:54,042 --> 00:49:55,250 "He knows what he's doing. 1083 00:49:55,334 --> 00:49:57,626 "What if he's successful? That will be really good. 1084 00:49:57,709 --> 00:50:00,834 "You know, we don't have the time and the experts 1085 00:50:00,918 --> 00:50:02,918 "to talk to all these people. 1086 00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:04,584 Give him a chance." 1087 00:50:04,667 --> 00:50:05,918 But I looked at Wilson, 1088 00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,584 and I think he was just being 1089 00:50:08,667 --> 00:50:09,626 a good soldier 1090 00:50:09,709 --> 00:50:12,083 and saying the company line. 1091 00:50:12,167 --> 00:50:14,209 But a decision has been made 1092 00:50:14,292 --> 00:50:16,500 in a place way higher than all of us. 1093 00:50:17,500 --> 00:50:18,417 At one point, they had 1094 00:50:18,500 --> 00:50:20,083 everything approved by Gonzales. 1095 00:50:20,167 --> 00:50:21,250 And my thing is like, 1096 00:50:21,334 --> 00:50:23,000 "Who the hell is Gonzales? Is he from DOJ?" 1097 00:50:23,083 --> 00:50:25,709 I had no idea who Gonzales was at the time. 1098 00:50:25,792 --> 00:50:29,626 And he said, "No, I, I think he's Bush's lawyer." 1099 00:50:29,709 --> 00:50:32,042 I was like, "But is he part of DOJ? 1100 00:50:32,125 --> 00:50:34,500 He said, "I... don't think so. 1101 00:50:34,584 --> 00:50:36,375 I think he's part of the White House." 1102 00:50:36,459 --> 00:50:38,125 So I said, "No, we need DOJ." 1103 00:50:38,209 --> 00:50:41,209 They came back and said, "DOJ gave verbal approval." 1104 00:50:41,292 --> 00:50:43,417 "Verbal approval don't mean anything. 1105 00:50:43,500 --> 00:50:45,042 "You're in the CIA. I'm in the FBI. 1106 00:50:45,125 --> 00:50:46,417 "You know what the saying is, 1107 00:50:46,500 --> 00:50:49,125 if it's not on paper, it doesn't exist." 1108 00:50:49,209 --> 00:50:51,125 Gibney: The man who gave verbal approval 1109 00:50:51,209 --> 00:50:53,542 was John Yoo from the Department of Justice. 1110 00:50:53,626 --> 00:50:56,000 He provided unofficial reassurance 1111 00:50:56,083 --> 00:50:57,626 to the CIA, the White House, 1112 00:50:57,709 --> 00:50:59,375 and the US Attorney General 1113 00:50:59,459 --> 00:51:02,626 that Mitchell's experiments need not be considered torture 1114 00:51:02,709 --> 00:51:05,125 as long as the interrogators didn't intend 1115 00:51:05,209 --> 00:51:07,459 to cause severe pain or suffering. 1116 00:51:16,334 --> 00:51:17,751 Soufan: These things were going on 1117 00:51:17,834 --> 00:51:20,292 in April, in May. 1118 00:51:20,375 --> 00:51:21,667 Suddenly... 1119 00:51:23,834 --> 00:51:25,626 all intelligence 1120 00:51:25,709 --> 00:51:28,125 that was flowing before stopped. 1121 00:51:29,334 --> 00:51:31,542 And people in D.C. were asking... 1122 00:51:32,334 --> 00:51:33,709 "What's going on?" 1123 00:51:36,542 --> 00:51:39,834 A few days and nothing is coming out from that base. 1124 00:51:39,918 --> 00:51:43,626 Even though everything that they requested has been approved. 1125 00:51:45,918 --> 00:51:47,751 And nothing's coming out. 1126 00:51:47,834 --> 00:51:50,292 So Wilson mounted a campaign 1127 00:51:50,375 --> 00:51:53,292 to bring Steve and I back to the interrogation room. 1128 00:51:53,375 --> 00:51:55,626 And this was the first violation 1129 00:51:55,709 --> 00:51:57,709 of the cardinal rule of Mitchell, 1130 00:51:57,792 --> 00:52:00,125 that he will only see one person. 1131 00:52:00,209 --> 00:52:03,083 It is going to be Ed, and he's his god. 1132 00:52:03,167 --> 00:52:06,459 Now, all of a sudden... we're back. 1133 00:52:08,209 --> 00:52:11,209 I made a cup of tea, and I brought it to Abu Zubaydah, 1134 00:52:11,292 --> 00:52:13,542 I said, "Take it. That will make you feel better." 1135 00:52:13,626 --> 00:52:16,000 We covered him to help him warm up. 1136 00:52:20,626 --> 00:52:23,292 That's something I told Wilson 1137 00:52:23,375 --> 00:52:25,751 when he brought us back in. 1138 00:52:25,834 --> 00:52:28,459 I said, "I will never talk to him naked. Period. 1139 00:52:28,542 --> 00:52:32,500 "I will never do that. I know that's your rule. 1140 00:52:32,584 --> 00:52:36,500 It's approved by Langley, but I won't go in." 1141 00:52:36,584 --> 00:52:38,834 Abu Zubaydah took the tea, he drank some, 1142 00:52:38,918 --> 00:52:40,792 and he looked at me and he smiled. 1143 00:52:47,334 --> 00:52:49,584 It was tough to reengage Abu Zubaydah. 1144 00:52:49,667 --> 00:52:51,751 He really had no clue what's happening, 1145 00:52:51,834 --> 00:52:54,334 But we tried to reengage him, 1146 00:52:54,417 --> 00:52:55,751 and we were able to bring him back. 1147 00:52:55,834 --> 00:52:58,500 We started the rapport again. 1148 00:52:58,584 --> 00:53:00,959 And sometimes he's that guy 1149 00:53:01,042 --> 00:53:03,417 that you can sit down and talk to about everything, 1150 00:53:03,500 --> 00:53:05,918 from social justice to economic justice. 1151 00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:08,709 That guy wasn't a typical Qaeda operative. 1152 00:53:08,792 --> 00:53:11,083 Rarely he talked about religion. 1153 00:53:11,167 --> 00:53:13,459 He was more into American corporations 1154 00:53:13,542 --> 00:53:14,751 controlling the world, 1155 00:53:14,834 --> 00:53:16,918 the United States destroying grain 1156 00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:19,834 and agricultural products to maintain prices, 1157 00:53:19,918 --> 00:53:22,334 and the fact that Americans spend more money 1158 00:53:22,417 --> 00:53:26,125 on their pets when people are hungry around the world. 1159 00:53:26,209 --> 00:53:27,375 And I don't argue with him. 1160 00:53:27,459 --> 00:53:29,167 I take these opportunities 1161 00:53:29,250 --> 00:53:30,792 for us to build rapport. 1162 00:53:30,876 --> 00:53:33,167 So I can be lectured about all these kind of things, 1163 00:53:33,250 --> 00:53:34,292 you know, I give him something. 1164 00:53:34,375 --> 00:53:36,125 This is one of the things that I give him, 1165 00:53:36,209 --> 00:53:38,876 to lecture me about his views 1166 00:53:38,959 --> 00:53:41,334 of the United States and the world. 1167 00:53:41,417 --> 00:53:43,250 So I said, "Look, I'm going to go and get a soda. 1168 00:53:43,334 --> 00:53:45,918 You want anything?" He said, "Pepsi." 1169 00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:47,459 I said, "Are you kidding me? 1170 00:53:47,542 --> 00:53:49,125 "After lecturing me for an hour 1171 00:53:49,209 --> 00:53:51,000 "about American corporations, 1172 00:53:51,083 --> 00:53:52,292 you want Pepsi?" 1173 00:53:52,375 --> 00:53:54,584 He said, "Yeah, I'm embarrassed, but I like Pepsi." 1174 00:53:54,667 --> 00:53:55,792 (laughs) 1175 00:53:58,250 --> 00:54:00,667 But Mitchell continued to interfere. 1176 00:54:03,500 --> 00:54:05,167 Like, one point, for example, 1177 00:54:05,250 --> 00:54:07,542 we came to talk to him, Steve and I. 1178 00:54:07,626 --> 00:54:09,209 We walked in the room, in the cell, 1179 00:54:09,292 --> 00:54:10,792 and it was freezing cold. 1180 00:54:10,876 --> 00:54:12,209 Freezing cold. 1181 00:54:12,292 --> 00:54:14,751 And remember, Abu Zubaydah was totally nude 1182 00:54:14,834 --> 00:54:17,292 and on the floor, on a cement floor. 1183 00:54:18,375 --> 00:54:19,709 He looked bluish. 1184 00:54:19,792 --> 00:54:21,000 I went back and said, 1185 00:54:21,083 --> 00:54:22,500 "Are you playing with the temperature?" 1186 00:54:22,584 --> 00:54:23,751 And he said, "No, no, no." 1187 00:54:23,834 --> 00:54:25,042 I said, "Well, go and check him out." 1188 00:54:25,125 --> 00:54:27,250 So he puts a mask, he goes in, 1189 00:54:27,334 --> 00:54:29,250 he checks his vitals, and he comes back. 1190 00:54:29,334 --> 00:54:31,000 And he was basically like, 1191 00:54:31,083 --> 00:54:33,375 "Pfah! There's nothing going on. 1192 00:54:33,459 --> 00:54:34,417 He's fine." 1193 00:54:34,500 --> 00:54:36,542 As if we're making that thing up. 1194 00:54:39,918 --> 00:54:42,000 Gibney: And it was temperature manipulation-- 1195 00:54:42,083 --> 00:54:44,125 Well, I saw that temperature. 1196 00:54:44,209 --> 00:54:46,083 I saw the temperature manipulation thing, 1197 00:54:46,167 --> 00:54:48,542 but I don't recall-- I don't actually re-- 1198 00:54:48,626 --> 00:54:51,125 And I have no reason to hide it. I-- 1199 00:54:51,209 --> 00:54:53,083 because I don't, you know what I mean? 1200 00:54:53,167 --> 00:54:55,500 But I don't remember temperature manipulation. 1201 00:54:55,584 --> 00:54:56,876 I don't remember anybody 1202 00:54:56,959 --> 00:54:58,626 specifically manipulating the temperature. 1203 00:54:58,709 --> 00:55:01,042 I don't remember that. I've seen it in reports. 1204 00:55:01,125 --> 00:55:03,417 If it happened, it wasn't while I was there. 1205 00:55:05,918 --> 00:55:07,834 He was nude a lot. 1206 00:55:07,918 --> 00:55:10,292 That was something that was discussed with the physicians 1207 00:55:10,375 --> 00:55:12,334 because he had a pretty severe leg wound, 1208 00:55:12,417 --> 00:55:14,375 and they were concerned about infection. 1209 00:55:14,459 --> 00:55:16,584 (air conditioner rumbling) 1210 00:55:16,667 --> 00:55:18,667 I'm not saying that that's the only reason he was nude. 1211 00:55:18,751 --> 00:55:22,542 He was nude to make him feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. 1212 00:55:23,959 --> 00:55:25,375 Gaudin: Mitchell seemed to be the one 1213 00:55:25,459 --> 00:55:27,334 that everybody had to defer to, 1214 00:55:27,417 --> 00:55:29,667 and we would actually be given questions saying, 1215 00:55:29,751 --> 00:55:31,375 "Okay, let's theorize. 1216 00:55:31,459 --> 00:55:33,542 "If you were going to do an attack on the United States, 1217 00:55:33,626 --> 00:55:35,000 where would you do an attack?" 1218 00:55:35,083 --> 00:55:36,751 And Zubaydah would say something like, 1219 00:55:36,834 --> 00:55:39,083 "Well, you know, I would look at your biggest landmarks, 1220 00:55:39,167 --> 00:55:40,709 "something that would hurt you. 1221 00:55:40,792 --> 00:55:41,918 "Maybe the Brooklyn Bridge 1222 00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:43,626 or maybe the Statue of Liberty." 1223 00:55:43,709 --> 00:55:47,500 And then we would see on CNN later that day or the next day, 1224 00:55:47,584 --> 00:55:48,918 the Statue of Liberty is closed. 1225 00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:51,334 Brooklyn Bridge just closed. 1226 00:55:51,417 --> 00:55:53,125 My God. (chuckles) 1227 00:55:53,209 --> 00:55:54,751 It was, it was nuts. 1228 00:55:56,334 --> 00:55:58,792 Soufan: Shows you what kind of an operative he was, right? 1229 00:55:58,876 --> 00:56:00,626 He kinda figured out what's going on. 1230 00:56:00,709 --> 00:56:03,500 But the cornerstone of an interrogation is 1231 00:56:03,584 --> 00:56:06,667 what that suspect understands 1232 00:56:06,751 --> 00:56:08,709 the evidence against them to be. 1233 00:56:09,584 --> 00:56:11,042 So, for example, we had 1234 00:56:11,125 --> 00:56:14,000 three taped calls from Abu Zubaydah. 1235 00:56:14,083 --> 00:56:16,083 But having Abu Zubaydah think 1236 00:56:16,167 --> 00:56:18,459 we only have three conversation 1237 00:56:18,542 --> 00:56:19,709 does not work. 1238 00:56:19,792 --> 00:56:22,500 He's going to have a different impression 1239 00:56:22,584 --> 00:56:25,667 of the information that we have against him. 1240 00:56:25,751 --> 00:56:29,083 So we bought a few dozen empty audiotapes, 1241 00:56:29,167 --> 00:56:31,459 painstakingly marked all these tapes 1242 00:56:31,542 --> 00:56:34,334 and planned the interrogation 1243 00:56:34,417 --> 00:56:36,918 so that every time he is trying to lie about something, 1244 00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:39,500 we turned the conversation into a tape 1245 00:56:39,584 --> 00:56:41,584 that we already have. 1246 00:56:41,667 --> 00:56:43,334 And by luck, on one tape, 1247 00:56:43,417 --> 00:56:46,417 Abu Zubaydah forgot to hang up. 1248 00:56:46,500 --> 00:56:48,834 So you can hear what's going on in the background. 1249 00:56:50,500 --> 00:56:53,751 So Abu Zubaydah thought that all these tapes 1250 00:56:53,834 --> 00:56:56,000 are not only phone calls. 1251 00:56:56,083 --> 00:56:58,626 He thought we had a wire in his house. 1252 00:56:58,709 --> 00:57:02,792 So we changed his impression of what we have on him. 1253 00:57:02,876 --> 00:57:03,834 And he starts talking. 1254 00:57:03,918 --> 00:57:07,500 (men singing in foreign language) 1255 00:57:12,667 --> 00:57:16,125 Soufan: After the "USS Cole," the Taliban shut down 1256 00:57:16,209 --> 00:57:19,000 all the Arab training camps in Afghanistan. 1257 00:57:19,083 --> 00:57:21,083 So when Khalden was shut down, 1258 00:57:21,167 --> 00:57:22,792 Abu Zubaydah doesn't have a job anymore 1259 00:57:22,876 --> 00:57:24,375 to bring people to Khalden. 1260 00:57:24,459 --> 00:57:26,459 So he came to Afghanistan. 1261 00:57:26,542 --> 00:57:28,626 And this is actually the first time 1262 00:57:28,709 --> 00:57:30,584 that he met Osama Bin Laden. 1263 00:57:34,042 --> 00:57:35,626 And when he arrived, they said, 1264 00:57:35,709 --> 00:57:39,083 "Oh, so this is Abu Zubaydah that we hear about." 1265 00:57:39,167 --> 00:57:42,167 He became very well known in the jihadi networks. 1266 00:57:42,250 --> 00:57:44,584 He gets the money, he gets the operatives. 1267 00:57:44,667 --> 00:57:46,542 He can smuggle people left and right. 1268 00:57:46,626 --> 00:57:49,500 Anything you need, Abu Zubaydah can get it. 1269 00:57:49,584 --> 00:57:51,876 So they gave him protection in Kandahar, 1270 00:57:51,959 --> 00:57:54,834 and he was working with them and he was trusted. 1271 00:57:56,125 --> 00:57:57,876 And then 9/11 happened, 1272 00:57:57,959 --> 00:58:01,792 and Abu Zubaydah decided to also capitalize. 1273 00:58:01,876 --> 00:58:05,334 (speaking in foreign language) 1274 00:58:19,500 --> 00:58:22,042 Soufan: He wanted to put a video out, 1275 00:58:22,125 --> 00:58:24,918 sell it to Western media... 1276 00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:28,250 (speaking in foreign language) 1277 00:58:28,334 --> 00:58:30,417 Soufan: ...saying that all the Arab Mujahideen 1278 00:58:30,500 --> 00:58:31,751 now are under Bin Laden. 1279 00:58:31,834 --> 00:58:33,417 He is their emir in the fight 1280 00:58:33,500 --> 00:58:36,000 against the United States and so forth, 1281 00:58:36,083 --> 00:58:38,584 and he wanted to do different operations. 1282 00:58:40,334 --> 00:58:43,500 Mitchell: They got intelligence that Abu Zubaydah had sent 1283 00:58:43,584 --> 00:58:47,542 an American citizen named Jose Padilla 1284 00:58:47,626 --> 00:58:48,709 to KSM 1285 00:58:48,792 --> 00:58:51,375 so that he could send him to the United States 1286 00:58:51,459 --> 00:58:54,542 to join "the others already on the ground" 1287 00:58:54,626 --> 00:58:57,542 and do possibly a dirty bomb 1288 00:58:57,626 --> 00:59:00,500 or if not that, some other kind of an attack. 1289 00:59:00,584 --> 00:59:03,709 And actually, it was not, uh... 1290 00:59:05,125 --> 00:59:08,834 it was not the Muslim FBI agent 1291 00:59:08,918 --> 00:59:10,959 that got the information about Jose-- 1292 00:59:11,042 --> 00:59:12,459 Gibney: You mean Ali Soufan? 1293 00:59:12,542 --> 00:59:13,959 It was not Soufan, it was the other one 1294 00:59:14,042 --> 00:59:15,125 whose name I can't give you, 1295 00:59:15,209 --> 00:59:17,792 uh, because it's still protected 1296 00:59:17,876 --> 00:59:20,459 by the government, regardless of what's known 1297 00:59:20,542 --> 00:59:21,959 in the press, right? 1298 00:59:22,042 --> 00:59:25,584 So, uh, what happened that night was 1299 00:59:25,667 --> 00:59:27,167 they had been, uh... 1300 00:59:27,250 --> 00:59:28,667 Gibney: This was a strange moment 1301 00:59:28,751 --> 00:59:29,959 in the interview. 1302 00:59:30,042 --> 00:59:32,500 Mitchell felt he needed to throw shade on Soufan, 1303 00:59:32,584 --> 00:59:34,834 whom he called "the Muslim agent." 1304 00:59:34,918 --> 00:59:38,542 But he also acknowledged that the FBI, not the CIA, 1305 00:59:38,626 --> 00:59:41,626 obtained critical information about Jose Padilla. 1306 00:59:43,167 --> 00:59:46,125 Later on, the CIA would try to rewrite the story 1307 00:59:46,209 --> 00:59:48,876 and claim EITs caused Abu Zubaydah 1308 00:59:48,959 --> 00:59:51,375 to spill the beans about Padilla. 1309 00:59:51,459 --> 00:59:53,500 That claim was false. 1310 00:59:53,584 --> 00:59:56,209 Soufan: Padilla was arrested 1311 00:59:56,292 --> 00:59:58,959 because of smart police work. 1312 00:59:59,042 --> 01:00:00,834 We got some information from Abu Zubaydah 1313 01:00:00,918 --> 01:00:02,500 about two individuals. 1314 01:00:02,584 --> 01:00:04,709 Put it in a cable 1315 01:00:04,792 --> 01:00:06,542 and some smart intelligence officer 1316 01:00:06,626 --> 01:00:08,000 in Pakistan looked at it and was like, 1317 01:00:08,083 --> 01:00:10,125 "Wait a second, I just saw the passports 1318 01:00:10,209 --> 01:00:11,292 "of these two guys. 1319 01:00:11,375 --> 01:00:14,584 It seems they fit the description." 1320 01:00:14,667 --> 01:00:15,792 Someone was able to say, 1321 01:00:15,876 --> 01:00:17,292 "You know what? There were these two guys, 1322 01:00:17,375 --> 01:00:18,667 "there was an American and British guy, 1323 01:00:18,751 --> 01:00:21,125 and the American was here to get a new passport." 1324 01:00:21,209 --> 01:00:24,125 They just pulled on the thread until they figured, 1325 01:00:24,209 --> 01:00:27,125 okay, is this the guy? 1326 01:00:27,209 --> 01:00:29,167 Gibney: My understanding is that Abu Zubaydah 1327 01:00:29,250 --> 01:00:31,542 had actually identified the photo of Padilla. 1328 01:00:31,626 --> 01:00:35,042 And I think Padilla was arrested in May 2002. 1329 01:00:35,125 --> 01:00:37,918 Well, he didn't identify a picture of Padilla. 1330 01:00:38,000 --> 01:00:39,542 Your understanding is incorrect. 1331 01:00:39,626 --> 01:00:41,000 -He mentions-- -Gibney: You're absolutely sure? 1332 01:00:41,083 --> 01:00:43,876 -I was there. -Gibney: Uh-huh. 1333 01:00:43,959 --> 01:00:46,250 I was there... 1334 01:00:46,334 --> 01:00:48,918 for all of those interrogations and watched all of them. 1335 01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:51,375 So, yeah, I'm absolutely sure. 1336 01:00:51,459 --> 01:00:54,000 Gibney: Actually, according to declassified cables, 1337 01:00:54,083 --> 01:00:56,667 Abu Zubaydah did identify Padilla's photo. 1338 01:00:56,751 --> 01:00:58,792 Zubaydah also revealed 1339 01:00:58,876 --> 01:01:01,500 that Padilla was not the terrorist mastermind 1340 01:01:01,584 --> 01:01:03,417 the CIA imagined him to be. 1341 01:01:03,500 --> 01:01:06,250 Soufan: They wanted to go to the United States, 1342 01:01:06,334 --> 01:01:08,000 hijack a uranium truck, 1343 01:01:08,083 --> 01:01:11,125 steal the uranium, and build a dirty bomb. 1344 01:01:11,209 --> 01:01:13,918 And Abu Zubaydah said, "So how do you enrich the uranium?" 1345 01:01:14,000 --> 01:01:16,375 And literally, they told him, "We put it in a bucket 1346 01:01:16,459 --> 01:01:18,542 "and we turn the bucket very fast, 1347 01:01:18,626 --> 01:01:20,500 and then that's how it will be enriched." 1348 01:01:20,584 --> 01:01:23,375 And he was just like, "Yeah, that does not work." 1349 01:01:23,459 --> 01:01:25,292 Zubaydah was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, 1350 01:01:25,375 --> 01:01:26,918 that's exactly what we should do." 1351 01:01:27,000 --> 01:01:28,000 But he was placating them. 1352 01:01:28,083 --> 01:01:30,125 I don't need this guy to make a bomb. 1353 01:01:30,209 --> 01:01:33,000 I need this guy because he has an American passport. 1354 01:01:33,083 --> 01:01:35,209 He knew the value that it could have 1355 01:01:35,292 --> 01:01:38,417 to people that were actually planning real operations. 1356 01:01:39,542 --> 01:01:42,209 Soufan: He called KSM and he told him, 1357 01:01:42,292 --> 01:01:45,584 "I'm sending you these two operatives, see what they have. 1358 01:01:45,667 --> 01:01:48,542 If you can use them in an operation, they are yours." 1359 01:01:48,626 --> 01:01:51,834 Gibney: KSM did send Jose Padilla to the United States 1360 01:01:51,918 --> 01:01:55,667 allegedly to blow up a series of apartment buildings. 1361 01:01:55,751 --> 01:01:58,125 He was arrested in Chicago on May 8th, 1362 01:01:58,209 --> 01:02:01,209 just 15 days after Abu Zubaydah identified him. 1363 01:02:05,000 --> 01:02:07,250 Despite Abu Zubaydah's cooperation, 1364 01:02:07,334 --> 01:02:08,834 the CIA and Mitchell 1365 01:02:08,918 --> 01:02:12,042 kept pushing to turn up the heat. 1366 01:02:12,125 --> 01:02:15,209 Soufan: Even when we were allowed back in under our condition, 1367 01:02:15,292 --> 01:02:16,709 they still were playing games. 1368 01:02:16,792 --> 01:02:20,959 One day I walked in and I saw a big coffin in the room. 1369 01:02:21,042 --> 01:02:22,417 I actually went in it. 1370 01:02:22,500 --> 01:02:24,500 I'm telling you, it's not a good feeling. 1371 01:02:26,292 --> 01:02:27,542 You try to be professional. 1372 01:02:27,626 --> 01:02:30,334 You try to focus on the mission. 1373 01:02:30,417 --> 01:02:33,417 But unfortunately, you know, every day you bring him back, 1374 01:02:33,500 --> 01:02:36,000 and then they try to play that game again. 1375 01:02:37,584 --> 01:02:40,125 And at this point, everything that I was seeing 1376 01:02:40,209 --> 01:02:43,042 was kind of like borderline torture. 1377 01:02:43,125 --> 01:02:45,459 But now we're even crossing that line. 1378 01:02:48,042 --> 01:02:50,751 So I called FBI headquarters. 1379 01:02:50,834 --> 01:02:53,125 I asked to speak with my boss in New York. 1380 01:02:53,209 --> 01:02:55,000 I said, "Please, I-I need to leave. 1381 01:02:55,083 --> 01:02:56,250 "I-I cannot stay here. 1382 01:02:56,334 --> 01:02:58,459 "If I stay here, I... 1383 01:02:58,542 --> 01:03:00,584 "I will probably arrest that guy. 1384 01:03:00,667 --> 01:03:02,876 I mean, this is crazy." 1385 01:03:02,959 --> 01:03:06,751 So he said, "Okay, I need you to leave the location immediately." 1386 01:03:08,375 --> 01:03:12,167 And that was the end of my involvement in the black site. 1387 01:03:14,042 --> 01:03:16,542 Gibney: Soufan and the CIA polygrapher returned 1388 01:03:16,626 --> 01:03:18,292 to the United States. 1389 01:03:18,375 --> 01:03:21,125 Mysteriously, the entire interrogation team 1390 01:03:21,209 --> 01:03:22,500 soon followed. 1391 01:03:22,584 --> 01:03:24,959 All the questions and answers stopped. 1392 01:03:25,042 --> 01:03:27,209 Abu Zubaydah was left alone in his cell 1393 01:03:27,292 --> 01:03:31,083 where the only sound was the hiss of a white noise machine. 1394 01:03:34,500 --> 01:03:37,292 These are more than 100 pages of interrogation notes 1395 01:03:37,375 --> 01:03:38,667 from Ali Soufan. 1396 01:03:38,751 --> 01:03:41,584 Though heavily redacted, we can see they contain details 1397 01:03:41,667 --> 01:03:44,209 about future plots and portraits of the people 1398 01:03:44,292 --> 01:03:47,000 in and around Al-Qaeda, how they worked, 1399 01:03:47,083 --> 01:03:48,542 and what they were planning. 1400 01:03:48,626 --> 01:03:50,375 To the FBI, it was a treasure trove 1401 01:03:50,459 --> 01:03:51,542 of evidence and proof 1402 01:03:51,626 --> 01:03:53,500 that Abu Zubaydah was cooperating. 1403 01:03:53,584 --> 01:03:55,375 The CIA saw it differently. 1404 01:03:55,459 --> 01:03:56,959 Analysts in Washington were certain 1405 01:03:57,042 --> 01:03:59,876 he was holding back because he wasn't telling them 1406 01:03:59,959 --> 01:04:01,375 what they wanted to hear. 1407 01:04:01,459 --> 01:04:03,626 It was time to take the gloves off. 1408 01:04:05,042 --> 01:04:07,167 Wilkerson: We've tortured before. 1409 01:04:07,250 --> 01:04:09,834 We tortured in the Philippines. 1410 01:04:09,918 --> 01:04:11,584 We tortured in Vietnam. 1411 01:04:13,709 --> 01:04:16,334 We are one of the most violent people 1412 01:04:16,417 --> 01:04:18,083 on the face of the Earth. 1413 01:04:19,667 --> 01:04:24,250 To deny that is to deny reality. 1414 01:04:24,334 --> 01:04:27,834 But we were the leaders of the effort 1415 01:04:27,918 --> 01:04:30,042 to push through the United Nations 1416 01:04:30,125 --> 01:04:31,876 the Convention against Torture 1417 01:04:31,959 --> 01:04:34,042 and Cruel and Unusual Punishment. 1418 01:04:34,125 --> 01:04:36,209 We were the leaders 1419 01:04:36,292 --> 01:04:38,584 in getting that phrase in there 1420 01:04:38,667 --> 01:04:40,250 that essentially says, 1421 01:04:40,334 --> 01:04:43,959 "No in extremis national security conditions 1422 01:04:44,042 --> 01:04:46,834 warrant going beyond this." 1423 01:04:46,918 --> 01:04:49,834 After 9/11, we obviated the whole thing. 1424 01:04:49,918 --> 01:04:52,834 We said, because of national security concerns, 1425 01:04:52,918 --> 01:04:54,375 that's out the window. 1426 01:04:54,459 --> 01:04:58,292 This was the first time that torture as a policy 1427 01:04:58,375 --> 01:04:59,500 was authorized 1428 01:04:59,584 --> 01:05:02,000 by the highest power in the land. 1429 01:05:02,083 --> 01:05:04,250 Gibney: President Bush paved the way for torture 1430 01:05:04,334 --> 01:05:07,083 when he signed an order saying that the Geneva Conventions 1431 01:05:07,167 --> 01:05:08,918 did not apply to Al-Qaeda. 1432 01:05:09,000 --> 01:05:11,834 That allowed George Tenet to try something different 1433 01:05:11,918 --> 01:05:14,334 so long as Abu Zubaydah was believed 1434 01:05:14,417 --> 01:05:16,292 to be a member of Al-Qaeda. 1435 01:05:16,375 --> 01:05:18,792 President Bush today has decided that Al-Qaeda 1436 01:05:18,876 --> 01:05:20,584 is an international terrorist group 1437 01:05:20,667 --> 01:05:22,000 under the treaty. 1438 01:05:22,083 --> 01:05:24,125 Gibney: If members of Al-Qaeda were different 1439 01:05:24,209 --> 01:05:25,667 from other prisoners of war, 1440 01:05:25,751 --> 01:05:28,083 then perhaps different interrogation techniques 1441 01:05:28,167 --> 01:05:29,375 could be used, 1442 01:05:29,459 --> 01:05:32,209 but not so different as to cause permanent damage, 1443 01:05:32,292 --> 01:05:34,834 which could be evidence of torture. 1444 01:05:34,918 --> 01:05:37,334 That led the CIA to retrofit a program 1445 01:05:37,417 --> 01:05:39,083 developed after the Korean War, 1446 01:05:39,167 --> 01:05:41,292 in which we brutalized our own soldiers 1447 01:05:41,375 --> 01:05:44,834 to prepare them to resist the brutality of others. 1448 01:05:44,918 --> 01:05:48,918 If we did it to ourselves, how bad could it be? 1449 01:05:49,000 --> 01:05:52,125 Col. Steven Kleinman: When I started, I was a human intelligence officer, 1450 01:05:52,209 --> 01:05:53,584 but then I had an opportunity 1451 01:05:53,667 --> 01:05:55,209 to go on the other side of the table 1452 01:05:55,292 --> 01:05:57,083 and work in resistance training. 1453 01:05:57,167 --> 01:05:59,709 The CIA Enhanced Interrogation Program 1454 01:05:59,792 --> 01:06:01,959 is the product of the government's fear 1455 01:06:02,042 --> 01:06:04,209 of what they saw happen during the Korean War. 1456 01:06:04,292 --> 01:06:05,667 Especially the Chinese interrogators 1457 01:06:05,751 --> 01:06:07,834 were masterful in their ability to manipulate. 1458 01:06:07,918 --> 01:06:10,167 They knew how to get people to say things 1459 01:06:10,250 --> 01:06:12,417 that they didn't want to say, and the CIA would say, 1460 01:06:12,500 --> 01:06:16,042 "Wow, if they can do that, what else can they do?" 1461 01:06:16,125 --> 01:06:19,959 Allow me to introduce our American visitors. 1462 01:06:20,042 --> 01:06:21,209 I must ask you to forgive 1463 01:06:21,292 --> 01:06:23,459 their somewhat lackadaisical manners, 1464 01:06:23,542 --> 01:06:26,459 but I have conditioned them or "brainwashed" them, 1465 01:06:26,542 --> 01:06:29,250 which I understand is the new American word. 1466 01:06:29,334 --> 01:06:30,959 Take this scarf. 1467 01:06:34,042 --> 01:06:36,000 And strangle Ed Mavole. 1468 01:06:40,417 --> 01:06:42,250 -Hey, Sarge. Cut it out. What-- -Tut-tut-tut-tut. 1469 01:06:42,334 --> 01:06:44,083 Quiet, Ed, please. 1470 01:06:44,167 --> 01:06:46,000 Now you just sit there quietly 1471 01:06:46,083 --> 01:06:47,751 and cooperate. 1472 01:06:48,500 --> 01:06:49,751 Yes, ma'am. 1473 01:06:52,167 --> 01:06:54,459 (choking) 1474 01:06:56,250 --> 01:06:58,542 Gibney: The popular fear of brainwashing, 1475 01:06:58,626 --> 01:07:01,209 making prisoners do or say anything, 1476 01:07:01,292 --> 01:07:02,876 led every branch of the military 1477 01:07:02,959 --> 01:07:04,918 to create schools for soldiers 1478 01:07:05,000 --> 01:07:06,250 to learn how to survive, 1479 01:07:06,334 --> 01:07:08,709 evade capture, resist interrogation 1480 01:07:08,792 --> 01:07:11,334 and, if possible, escape. 1481 01:07:11,417 --> 01:07:13,834 The so-called SERE School for the Air Force 1482 01:07:13,918 --> 01:07:15,209 near Spokane, Washington, 1483 01:07:15,292 --> 01:07:18,417 is where James Mitchell taught resistance. 1484 01:07:18,500 --> 01:07:21,209 Mitchell: The basic course is several weeks long, 1485 01:07:21,292 --> 01:07:22,918 and there's two parts. 1486 01:07:23,000 --> 01:07:25,167 There's the bugs and berries part of it 1487 01:07:25,250 --> 01:07:28,500 where, you know, they teach you how to survive and evade. 1488 01:07:28,584 --> 01:07:30,918 And then there's the second part of it, 1489 01:07:31,000 --> 01:07:33,876 which is the resistance to interrogation lab. 1490 01:07:33,959 --> 01:07:36,167 And in that, they essentially have 1491 01:07:36,250 --> 01:07:38,667 what I would call an undergraduate course 1492 01:07:38,751 --> 01:07:41,292 for protecting secrets. 1493 01:07:41,375 --> 01:07:43,083 Our emotions can marshal resources 1494 01:07:43,167 --> 01:07:44,959 that we never knew that we had available. 1495 01:07:45,042 --> 01:07:46,584 But those very same emotions, 1496 01:07:46,667 --> 01:07:48,918 either fear or anger or anxiety, 1497 01:07:49,000 --> 01:07:51,292 can also cripple us in survival situations. 1498 01:07:51,375 --> 01:07:53,792 Eyes on the ground! 1499 01:07:53,876 --> 01:07:56,417 Mitchell: They expose you to a variety 1500 01:07:56,500 --> 01:07:58,584 of interrogation strategies 1501 01:07:58,667 --> 01:08:01,667 and teach you how to resist. 1502 01:08:01,751 --> 01:08:04,417 It's a phenomenally well-designed, 1503 01:08:04,500 --> 01:08:06,667 systematic, professional program 1504 01:08:06,751 --> 01:08:08,959 from, from beginning to end. 1505 01:08:09,042 --> 01:08:12,292 And it was Jim Mitchell who helped develop that program. 1506 01:08:12,375 --> 01:08:15,834 He was actually known for being a stickler for safety, 1507 01:08:15,918 --> 01:08:17,667 because when they're performing as interrogators, 1508 01:08:17,751 --> 01:08:20,250 they were simulating torture. 1509 01:08:20,334 --> 01:08:23,209 What we tried to teach people is how to be resilient 1510 01:08:23,292 --> 01:08:26,000 in the face of stress, of coercion, even torture, 1511 01:08:26,083 --> 01:08:30,042 so that you will not create propaganda. 1512 01:08:30,125 --> 01:08:31,626 Gaudin: I went to SERE School. 1513 01:08:31,709 --> 01:08:34,209 SERE School is teaching people, 1514 01:08:34,292 --> 01:08:36,542 if you get captured, how to stay alive. 1515 01:08:36,626 --> 01:08:39,083 It's teaching people how to resist. 1516 01:08:39,167 --> 01:08:42,250 It's not eliciting information from people. 1517 01:08:42,334 --> 01:08:45,542 Jones: These techniques were used in a coercive way 1518 01:08:45,626 --> 01:08:47,959 to get someone to admit to something they didn't do, 1519 01:08:48,042 --> 01:08:49,417 to get them to say anything. 1520 01:08:49,500 --> 01:08:51,125 It was never devised 1521 01:08:51,209 --> 01:08:52,834 even by the worst regimes, 1522 01:08:52,918 --> 01:08:55,250 as a means to obtain accurate intelligence. 1523 01:08:55,334 --> 01:08:57,292 And that was Jim's experience. 1524 01:08:57,375 --> 01:08:59,876 He was observing our US service members 1525 01:08:59,959 --> 01:09:02,083 being exposed to some of these techniques 1526 01:09:02,167 --> 01:09:03,667 during training. 1527 01:09:03,751 --> 01:09:05,500 Gibney: So the purpose of the school is not 1528 01:09:05,584 --> 01:09:07,125 to teach interrogation. 1529 01:09:07,209 --> 01:09:08,918 It was to teach people how to resist interrogation. 1530 01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:11,042 -Is that right? -Yeah, that's the purpose of the... 1531 01:09:11,125 --> 01:09:12,959 That's the purpose of the survival school, 1532 01:09:13,042 --> 01:09:14,834 is to teach people how to resist interrogation. 1533 01:09:14,918 --> 01:09:17,417 But you know what, if you don't understand interrogation, 1534 01:09:17,500 --> 01:09:19,500 you're not going to do a very good job resisting it. 1535 01:09:19,584 --> 01:09:22,000 It isn't gonna happen. 1536 01:09:22,083 --> 01:09:24,667 Gibney: The kind of interrogation Mitchell was interested in 1537 01:09:24,751 --> 01:09:27,500 was rooted in another psychological experiment 1538 01:09:27,584 --> 01:09:30,667 in which dogs were jolted with electric shocks. 1539 01:09:30,751 --> 01:09:31,959 (dog whimpering) 1540 01:09:32,042 --> 01:09:33,918 The idea was to create, in animals, 1541 01:09:34,000 --> 01:09:37,209 a feeling called "learned helplessness." 1542 01:09:37,292 --> 01:09:39,500 To get humans into that state, 1543 01:09:39,584 --> 01:09:41,417 interrogators would subject prisoners 1544 01:09:41,500 --> 01:09:44,250 to SERE techniques until they were helpless 1545 01:09:44,334 --> 01:09:46,417 and would do or say anything. 1546 01:09:48,125 --> 01:09:51,667 Lawyer: Why did you think Dr. Mitchell was qualified? 1547 01:09:51,751 --> 01:09:53,918 Because of his experience with SERE 1548 01:09:54,000 --> 01:09:56,292 and because we needed to do something different 1549 01:09:56,375 --> 01:09:57,709 than what had been done before, 1550 01:09:57,792 --> 01:09:59,959 and he looked like the right person to do it. 1551 01:10:00,042 --> 01:10:01,792 Lawyer: Why did he look like the right person to do it? 1552 01:10:01,876 --> 01:10:04,334 Because he had a tremendous expertise 1553 01:10:04,417 --> 01:10:06,542 and, uh... 1554 01:10:06,626 --> 01:10:09,876 he, uh, had a good vision 1555 01:10:09,959 --> 01:10:11,709 for what needed to be done. 1556 01:10:11,792 --> 01:10:13,125 Lawyer: Okay. 1557 01:10:14,876 --> 01:10:17,626 What did he have tremendous expertise in? 1558 01:10:18,209 --> 01:10:20,209 In SERE. 1559 01:10:20,292 --> 01:10:22,542 Lawyer: What was his, uh, SERE experience, 1560 01:10:22,626 --> 01:10:23,792 to your knowledge in, at that time? 1561 01:10:23,876 --> 01:10:25,918 He had spent many years, uh, 1562 01:10:26,000 --> 01:10:28,626 with the Air Force, uh, working on SERE. 1563 01:10:28,709 --> 01:10:30,083 Lawyer: Okay. Did he have... 1564 01:10:30,167 --> 01:10:33,709 was there any other source of his tremendous expertise? 1565 01:10:33,792 --> 01:10:37,167 Uh, the expertise I was interested in was SERE. 1566 01:10:42,042 --> 01:10:43,667 Mitchell: Once the CIA concluded 1567 01:10:43,751 --> 01:10:46,083 that he was withholding information, 1568 01:10:46,167 --> 01:10:49,209 they pulled everybody back in the early summer, 1569 01:10:49,292 --> 01:10:51,083 and it was clear to me 1570 01:10:51,167 --> 01:10:53,292 in the conversations that were going around the table 1571 01:10:53,375 --> 01:10:55,292 that they had decided they were going to use 1572 01:10:55,375 --> 01:10:58,000 physical coercion against Abu Zubaydah. 1573 01:10:58,083 --> 01:10:59,250 And I thought... 1574 01:11:00,375 --> 01:11:01,834 well, if you're gonna use it, 1575 01:11:01,918 --> 01:11:03,167 then you ought to use something-- 1576 01:11:03,250 --> 01:11:04,542 not that you should use it 1577 01:11:04,626 --> 01:11:06,167 or even that it was desirable 1578 01:11:06,250 --> 01:11:07,542 or even that it was legal. 1579 01:11:07,626 --> 01:11:09,000 But if you're going to do that, 1580 01:11:09,083 --> 01:11:10,626 then you ought to consider using the things 1581 01:11:10,709 --> 01:11:12,334 that they've been using at the SERE schools 1582 01:11:12,417 --> 01:11:14,626 because they don't produce a lot of lasting injuries. 1583 01:11:14,709 --> 01:11:17,375 They don't produce injuries. 1584 01:11:17,459 --> 01:11:20,918 So I gave them a list of techniques that they could consider. 1585 01:11:26,292 --> 01:11:29,083 Once they decided they were going to go forward with it, 1586 01:11:29,167 --> 01:11:30,751 they began to, I guess... 1587 01:11:30,834 --> 01:11:32,250 I mean, we've got all of the documents 1588 01:11:32,334 --> 01:11:35,042 released from the CIA, so it's perfectly... 1589 01:11:35,125 --> 01:11:36,167 We can trace it, 1590 01:11:36,250 --> 01:11:38,042 you don't have to depend on my memory. 1591 01:11:38,125 --> 01:11:40,167 Interviewer: I'm just trying to reconcile too, 1592 01:11:40,250 --> 01:11:42,375 because we interviewed James Mitchell, 1593 01:11:42,459 --> 01:11:45,375 and he puts the timeline more towards June, July 1594 01:11:45,459 --> 01:11:47,500 that he proposes the EIT program. 1595 01:11:47,584 --> 01:11:49,083 So, I'm just trying to figure out, I'm just trying-- 1596 01:11:49,167 --> 01:11:51,584 Well, that's not-- Yeah, that's not correct. 1597 01:11:51,667 --> 01:11:54,626 I mean, uh, by June and July, 1598 01:11:54,709 --> 01:11:56,918 I was heavy into discussions with the, 1599 01:11:57,000 --> 01:11:59,334 with the, uh, Justice Department. 1600 01:11:59,417 --> 01:12:01,834 All I can tell you was 1601 01:12:01,918 --> 01:12:04,626 I was first told about this idea 1602 01:12:04,709 --> 01:12:06,542 of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques 1603 01:12:06,626 --> 01:12:10,459 in... sometime in early to mid April. 1604 01:12:12,083 --> 01:12:14,334 Gibney: When exactly were the techniques invented? 1605 01:12:14,417 --> 01:12:17,042 The answer is the difference between a wink and a nod 1606 01:12:17,125 --> 01:12:18,584 and a written plan. 1607 01:12:18,667 --> 01:12:20,751 In April and May, Mitchell was experimenting 1608 01:12:20,834 --> 01:12:23,000 with SERE techniques for which he had 1609 01:12:23,083 --> 01:12:25,250 no official legal approval. 1610 01:12:25,334 --> 01:12:26,959 To go further, the techniques would have 1611 01:12:27,042 --> 01:12:29,500 to be codified and approved in writing. 1612 01:12:29,584 --> 01:12:32,042 Rizzo: There was a team that came up to my office 1613 01:12:32,125 --> 01:12:34,042 one afternoon, you know, unannounced. 1614 01:12:34,125 --> 01:12:35,709 I mean, I had no preview. 1615 01:12:35,792 --> 01:12:39,042 I was just told it was a matter of some urgency 1616 01:12:39,125 --> 01:12:42,209 about an operational proposal. That's all I knew. 1617 01:12:42,292 --> 01:12:44,000 And I was gobsmacked. 1618 01:12:45,459 --> 01:12:48,292 My very first reaction was, you guys are crazy. 1619 01:12:48,375 --> 01:12:49,918 This is, we shouldn't be doing this. 1620 01:12:50,000 --> 01:12:52,709 We've never done this kind of thing before. 1621 01:12:52,792 --> 01:12:55,751 But I remember walking around the CIA compound, 1622 01:12:55,834 --> 01:12:58,042 smoking a cigar, trying to absorb 1623 01:12:58,125 --> 01:12:59,375 what I'd just been told. 1624 01:12:59,459 --> 01:13:01,959 And I started to play out the scenarios in my head, 1625 01:13:02,042 --> 01:13:03,209 that, okay, 1626 01:13:03,292 --> 01:13:04,667 I go in to the CIA director. 1627 01:13:04,751 --> 01:13:06,417 I say, "We shouldn't do this. 1628 01:13:06,500 --> 01:13:07,918 "This is barbaric. 1629 01:13:08,000 --> 01:13:10,167 It may or may not be legal." 1630 01:13:10,250 --> 01:13:14,042 And on the other hand, I thought, well, here are all the experts. 1631 01:13:14,125 --> 01:13:18,000 Saying that, that these kinds of aggressive measures 1632 01:13:18,083 --> 01:13:19,667 are the only ones 1633 01:13:19,751 --> 01:13:21,584 that we believe 1634 01:13:21,667 --> 01:13:23,876 will cause Abu Zubaydah 1635 01:13:23,959 --> 01:13:25,250 to tell us completely 1636 01:13:25,334 --> 01:13:27,584 what he knows about another terrorist attack. 1637 01:13:29,500 --> 01:13:31,417 And the idea of the consequences 1638 01:13:31,500 --> 01:13:34,751 was something I couldn't countenance on myself. 1639 01:13:34,834 --> 01:13:36,542 So that led to a couple meetings 1640 01:13:36,626 --> 01:13:37,834 in George Tenet's office 1641 01:13:37,918 --> 01:13:40,292 with the senior CIA leadership. 1642 01:13:42,125 --> 01:13:45,667 Lawyer: So did you propose any other list 1643 01:13:45,751 --> 01:13:47,083 other than this list 1644 01:13:47,167 --> 01:13:49,667 -to Mr. Rizzo or to the department? -No. 1645 01:13:49,751 --> 01:13:51,834 Lawyer: So you never proposed any other list 1646 01:13:51,918 --> 01:13:53,584 -other than this list to Mr. Rizzo? -No. 1647 01:13:53,667 --> 01:13:55,500 Lawyer: Did you propose any other list 1648 01:13:55,584 --> 01:13:57,709 other than this list to the Department of Justice? 1649 01:13:57,792 --> 01:13:58,918 No. 1650 01:14:02,250 --> 01:14:04,042 Mitchell: They began to work back and forth 1651 01:14:04,125 --> 01:14:06,459 with the Justice Department, but they needed approval 1652 01:14:06,542 --> 01:14:08,083 from Tenet to go forward. 1653 01:14:08,167 --> 01:14:10,918 And so I met with Tenet, Rizzo. 1654 01:14:11,000 --> 01:14:13,292 Jose Rodriguez took me up there, 1655 01:14:13,375 --> 01:14:15,542 and there were several other people in the room. 1656 01:14:15,626 --> 01:14:19,375 He asked me to describe the techniques, and I described them. 1657 01:14:19,459 --> 01:14:22,042 Rizzo: They went through each of these techniques. 1658 01:14:22,125 --> 01:14:24,125 Mitchell: Attention grasps, 1659 01:14:24,209 --> 01:14:25,125 walling. 1660 01:14:25,209 --> 01:14:28,042 Sort of a shock and awe technique. 1661 01:14:28,125 --> 01:14:32,334 Mitchell: Facial slaps, a couple of stress positions... 1662 01:14:32,417 --> 01:14:34,709 Rizzo: Extended sleep deprivation 1663 01:14:34,792 --> 01:14:36,000 for days. 1664 01:14:36,083 --> 01:14:37,584 And the most controversial one was, 1665 01:14:37,667 --> 01:14:39,626 of course, waterboarding. 1666 01:14:39,709 --> 01:14:41,626 Rizzo: I'd never heard of waterboarding. 1667 01:14:41,709 --> 01:14:43,334 I didn't even know what the term meant. 1668 01:14:43,417 --> 01:14:46,209 Simulated drowning is the way it was described to me. 1669 01:14:49,626 --> 01:14:53,000 And there was another one that called for a mock burial. 1670 01:14:53,083 --> 01:14:55,751 It sounded something out of Edgar Allan Poe. 1671 01:14:55,834 --> 01:14:57,000 I think it was. 1672 01:14:58,584 --> 01:15:00,792 Mitchell: So Tenet gets up to get a cigar. 1673 01:15:00,876 --> 01:15:02,083 He didn't smoke in the building, 1674 01:15:02,167 --> 01:15:04,375 but he had a cigar quite frequently. 1675 01:15:05,292 --> 01:15:06,584 He motions with his head 1676 01:15:06,667 --> 01:15:08,876 for Rizzo to walk over there with him, 1677 01:15:08,959 --> 01:15:11,417 and he leans forward and he says in a way 1678 01:15:11,500 --> 01:15:13,500 that I don't think I'm supposed to hear. 1679 01:15:13,584 --> 01:15:16,709 "Make sure this is legal before we go forward with this." 1680 01:15:18,250 --> 01:15:19,876 Rizzo: So that's when I decided 1681 01:15:19,959 --> 01:15:22,334 to seek definitive legal guidance 1682 01:15:22,417 --> 01:15:23,834 from the Department of Justice 1683 01:15:23,918 --> 01:15:25,584 as to whether any or all 1684 01:15:25,667 --> 01:15:27,751 of these techniques were legal 1685 01:15:27,834 --> 01:15:30,459 and if any crossed the line into torture. 1686 01:15:31,834 --> 01:15:33,542 Gibney: While the lawyers in Washington worked 1687 01:15:33,626 --> 01:15:36,042 to make sure that no one would be prosecuted 1688 01:15:36,125 --> 01:15:38,584 for using Mitchell's techniques on Abu Zubaydah, 1689 01:15:38,667 --> 01:15:42,834 the prisoner himself remained in Thailand, alone. 1690 01:15:57,125 --> 01:16:00,125 (birds chirping) 1691 01:16:20,417 --> 01:16:23,626 Soufan: When all intelligence stopped coming from Abu Zubaydah, 1692 01:16:23,709 --> 01:16:26,083 Mueller asked Tenet 1693 01:16:26,167 --> 01:16:28,918 why the intelligence stopped from Abu Zubaydah, 1694 01:16:29,000 --> 01:16:30,584 what happened with Abu Zubaydah. 1695 01:16:32,000 --> 01:16:34,167 And Tenet's response to him was, 1696 01:16:34,250 --> 01:16:36,667 "Your guys really messed him up. 1697 01:16:36,751 --> 01:16:39,667 So we're, we're trying to fix him." 1698 01:16:41,042 --> 01:16:45,000 This was shocking to me, because if you are trying 1699 01:16:45,083 --> 01:16:48,459 to get EITs approved, 1700 01:16:48,542 --> 01:16:50,792 even though you were doing it before, 1701 01:16:50,876 --> 01:16:53,918 if you're trying to get EITs approved... 1702 01:16:55,459 --> 01:16:58,751 because of the ticking bomb scenario, right, 1703 01:16:58,834 --> 01:17:03,292 you don't leave a guy with nobody interrogating him. 1704 01:17:03,375 --> 01:17:05,876 Mitchell: There's a difference between a ticking time bomb 1705 01:17:05,959 --> 01:17:08,292 and a looming time bomb. 1706 01:17:08,375 --> 01:17:10,792 At some point, we realized 1707 01:17:10,876 --> 01:17:13,042 that it was a looming time bomb, 1708 01:17:13,125 --> 01:17:14,542 not a ticking time bomb. 1709 01:17:14,626 --> 01:17:17,167 Uh, and, um... 1710 01:17:20,167 --> 01:17:22,375 So that's-- Of course, we didn't know it at that time. 1711 01:17:22,459 --> 01:17:25,042 You'd have to ask the CIA why they had that long. 1712 01:17:25,125 --> 01:17:26,792 I didn't, you know, I wasn't in charge. 1713 01:17:26,876 --> 01:17:29,709 I didn't do it. I'm not making light of it. It was a long time. 1714 01:17:29,792 --> 01:17:31,250 Lawyer 2: Do you know whether Abu Zubaydah 1715 01:17:31,334 --> 01:17:34,167 was asked any questions during the isolation phase? 1716 01:17:35,083 --> 01:17:36,334 Did I know? 1717 01:17:36,417 --> 01:17:38,167 -Lawyer 2: Do you know now? -Do I know now? 1718 01:17:38,250 --> 01:17:39,751 Uh, I've come-- 1719 01:17:39,834 --> 01:17:41,959 yeah, I've come to learn that there was a period of time 1720 01:17:42,042 --> 01:17:43,792 where he was not asked questions. 1721 01:17:43,876 --> 01:17:46,459 Lawyer 2: And at the time, did you know that? 1722 01:17:46,542 --> 01:17:48,667 At, at the very beginning, 1723 01:17:48,751 --> 01:17:51,042 as the techniques were being described to me? 1724 01:17:51,125 --> 01:17:54,417 -At that point in time? -Lawyer 2: At the time when you were seeking 1725 01:17:54,500 --> 01:17:57,292 the Department of Justice's opinion 1726 01:17:57,375 --> 01:17:58,626 on the techniques? 1727 01:17:58,709 --> 01:18:00,375 No, I don't believe so. 1728 01:18:11,417 --> 01:18:15,334 Jones: The CIA is tasked with stopping the next attack. 1729 01:18:15,417 --> 01:18:18,042 Abu Zubaydah has been providing intelligence 1730 01:18:18,125 --> 01:18:19,584 up until this point. 1731 01:18:19,667 --> 01:18:21,083 And yet they leave him, 1732 01:18:21,167 --> 01:18:23,709 the only high-value detainee, 1733 01:18:23,792 --> 01:18:25,792 alone without any contact. 1734 01:18:27,542 --> 01:18:31,542 During that period, there are analysts still sending in requirements. 1735 01:18:31,626 --> 01:18:32,876 One analyst says, 1736 01:18:32,959 --> 01:18:34,959 "I want to learn more about an individual 1737 01:18:35,042 --> 01:18:36,918 "who is in Abu Zubaydah's address book. 1738 01:18:37,000 --> 01:18:39,792 Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti." 1739 01:18:39,876 --> 01:18:41,459 Of course, nobody is around 1740 01:18:41,542 --> 01:18:43,292 to ask about Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. 1741 01:18:43,375 --> 01:18:44,292 (helicopter blades whirring) 1742 01:18:44,375 --> 01:18:46,125 (indistinct radio conversation) 1743 01:18:46,209 --> 01:18:47,751 Nearly a decade later, 1744 01:18:47,834 --> 01:18:50,459 we finally obtained Bin Laden's location, 1745 01:18:50,542 --> 01:18:54,125 and it's through a man named Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. 1746 01:18:54,209 --> 01:18:55,959 So this lost opportunity 1747 01:18:56,042 --> 01:18:59,751 to ask Abu Zubaydah in July of 2002, 1748 01:18:59,834 --> 01:19:02,667 when he's providing information about a man in his address book 1749 01:19:02,751 --> 01:19:05,667 who is Osama Bin Laden's personal assistant 1750 01:19:05,751 --> 01:19:08,125 is a remarkable failure. 1751 01:19:08,209 --> 01:19:11,626 Abu Zubaydah's isolation was not about Abu Zubaydah. 1752 01:19:11,709 --> 01:19:15,000 It was about the politics and legal opinions, right? 1753 01:19:15,083 --> 01:19:17,375 This was the idea that we need to go hard. 1754 01:19:17,459 --> 01:19:20,000 We want it on paper that you will not prosecute us 1755 01:19:20,083 --> 01:19:21,500 for engaging in torture. 1756 01:19:26,334 --> 01:19:28,751 From the very beginning in late 2001, 1757 01:19:28,834 --> 01:19:30,417 there were people in the Agency, 1758 01:19:30,500 --> 01:19:32,125 in the Counterterrorism Division, 1759 01:19:32,209 --> 01:19:35,584 in their legal department discussing torture. 1760 01:19:35,667 --> 01:19:37,042 And they're using the word "torture." 1761 01:19:37,125 --> 01:19:39,083 One email says in the subject line, 1762 01:19:39,167 --> 01:19:40,292 "Torture update" 1763 01:19:40,375 --> 01:19:42,417 And the lawyers, not the operators, 1764 01:19:42,500 --> 01:19:44,125 not people who are out in the field, 1765 01:19:44,209 --> 01:19:45,542 lawyers are discussing 1766 01:19:45,626 --> 01:19:48,167 how the CIA can engage in torture 1767 01:19:48,250 --> 01:19:50,125 without being prosecuted later on. 1768 01:19:50,209 --> 01:19:52,292 And in fact, they reach out to the Department of Justice 1769 01:19:52,375 --> 01:19:55,083 to try to obtain a declination of prosecution, 1770 01:19:55,167 --> 01:19:56,792 which says, "If we engage in torture, 1771 01:19:56,876 --> 01:19:58,959 will you agree not to prosecute us?" 1772 01:20:00,334 --> 01:20:03,292 Rizzo: After that initial briefing by our people, 1773 01:20:03,375 --> 01:20:06,751 I convened a meeting at the White House. 1774 01:20:06,834 --> 01:20:10,459 The initial reaction, not just of the Justice Department lawyers, 1775 01:20:10,542 --> 01:20:11,876 but the White House counsel, 1776 01:20:11,959 --> 01:20:13,918 and the National Security Council legal advisors 1777 01:20:14,000 --> 01:20:17,292 was what my initial reaction was. 1778 01:20:17,375 --> 01:20:19,375 What, what is this stuff, I mean, you know, 1779 01:20:19,459 --> 01:20:21,042 it was just so beyond anything 1780 01:20:21,125 --> 01:20:23,667 any of us could have even contemplated. 1781 01:20:25,083 --> 01:20:27,500 None of the lawyers assembled there said, 1782 01:20:27,584 --> 01:20:28,834 "You guys are crazy. 1783 01:20:28,918 --> 01:20:31,000 "This administration is never going 1784 01:20:31,083 --> 01:20:32,667 "to do something like that. 1785 01:20:32,751 --> 01:20:34,834 "This is immoral, it is illegal. 1786 01:20:34,918 --> 01:20:36,000 End of story." 1787 01:20:36,083 --> 01:20:37,334 None of them did that. 1788 01:20:37,417 --> 01:20:38,459 There's two kinds of lawyers. 1789 01:20:38,542 --> 01:20:40,125 There's one that comes in and says, 1790 01:20:40,209 --> 01:20:42,500 "What do you want to do, boss? I'll tell you if it's legal." 1791 01:20:42,584 --> 01:20:44,417 And then there's the other one that comes in and says, 1792 01:20:44,500 --> 01:20:46,292 "What do you want to do, boss? I'll make it legal." 1793 01:20:46,375 --> 01:20:49,042 Well, I found out there were six of those, 1794 01:20:49,125 --> 01:20:50,584 at least six of those 1795 01:20:50,667 --> 01:20:53,209 second type in the administration. 1796 01:20:53,292 --> 01:20:57,334 Starts with White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales. 1797 01:20:57,417 --> 01:20:59,959 But the real Machiavelli in the whole thing, 1798 01:21:00,042 --> 01:21:01,876 and that's an insult to Machiavelli, 1799 01:21:01,959 --> 01:21:04,292 was David Addington, 1800 01:21:04,375 --> 01:21:06,292 Dick Cheney's go-to man 1801 01:21:06,375 --> 01:21:09,375 for everything of a legal nature. 1802 01:21:09,459 --> 01:21:12,417 We used to call him when he was in the Pentagon, "Weird David." 1803 01:21:12,500 --> 01:21:14,125 We thought no one would listen to David. 1804 01:21:14,209 --> 01:21:15,876 He's so crazy. 1805 01:21:15,959 --> 01:21:17,792 David was crafting 1806 01:21:17,876 --> 01:21:22,292 the, the whole business of cover for torture 1807 01:21:22,375 --> 01:21:24,250 from the Vice President's office, 1808 01:21:24,334 --> 01:21:26,959 using John Yoo using Jay Bybee. 1809 01:21:27,042 --> 01:21:29,417 And the lawyers are omnipresent. 1810 01:21:29,500 --> 01:21:33,000 If you get a bunch of them whose whole philosophy is, 1811 01:21:33,083 --> 01:21:34,959 "Tell me what you want to do, Mr. President, 1812 01:21:35,042 --> 01:21:37,751 and I'll make it legal," they mean it. 1813 01:21:37,834 --> 01:21:39,667 Jones: At the very end, end of July, 1814 01:21:39,751 --> 01:21:41,250 Condoleezza Rice is pushing back. 1815 01:21:41,334 --> 01:21:43,626 "How can you tell me waterboarding, 1816 01:21:43,709 --> 01:21:44,918 "sleep deprivation, 1817 01:21:45,000 --> 01:21:46,250 "putting someone in a coffin-shaped box, 1818 01:21:46,334 --> 01:21:47,918 "how can you tell me this won't result 1819 01:21:48,000 --> 01:21:49,209 "in lasting harm? 1820 01:21:49,292 --> 01:21:51,542 How could you possibly say that?" 1821 01:21:51,626 --> 01:21:55,209 So Mitchell and company go back to the SERE Program 1822 01:21:55,292 --> 01:21:56,667 and they say, "Has there ever been 1823 01:21:56,751 --> 01:21:59,083 any lasting harm with these techniques?" 1824 01:21:59,167 --> 01:22:01,292 And the SERE Program says, "Hold on. 1825 01:22:01,375 --> 01:22:03,751 "First of all, this is a training scenario. 1826 01:22:03,834 --> 01:22:06,292 "We expose these members very briefly 1827 01:22:06,375 --> 01:22:08,083 "to techniques used by our enemies 1828 01:22:08,167 --> 01:22:09,375 "that don't believe in Geneva. 1829 01:22:09,459 --> 01:22:11,042 "And second of all, are you thinking 1830 01:22:11,125 --> 01:22:13,000 "about using this for intelligence collection? 1831 01:22:13,083 --> 01:22:15,834 Because this doesn't-- this isn't for that." 1832 01:22:15,918 --> 01:22:17,167 Woman: Raise your right hand. 1833 01:22:17,250 --> 01:22:19,667 Gibney: For some reason, the CIA never consulted 1834 01:22:19,751 --> 01:22:20,918 its own experts. 1835 01:22:21,000 --> 01:22:22,417 One of them was Charles Morgan, 1836 01:22:22,500 --> 01:22:23,876 a psychiatrist who had studied 1837 01:22:23,959 --> 01:22:25,542 the effects of the SERE Program 1838 01:22:25,626 --> 01:22:27,959 and knew that some soldiers had died 1839 01:22:28,042 --> 01:22:30,667 and many others suffered from PTSD. 1840 01:22:30,751 --> 01:22:33,000 With respect to stress, it was well known 1841 01:22:33,083 --> 01:22:35,083 with the data we had presented 1842 01:22:35,167 --> 01:22:37,125 and were publishing in the science community 1843 01:22:37,209 --> 01:22:40,042 that the level of stress in the training program 1844 01:22:40,125 --> 01:22:43,042 was creating hormone changes and psychological changes 1845 01:22:43,125 --> 01:22:45,209 greater than we'd ever measured in humans, 1846 01:22:45,292 --> 01:22:46,918 in human experiments 1847 01:22:47,000 --> 01:22:49,375 and that that stress was capable 1848 01:22:49,459 --> 01:22:51,500 of being traumatic 1849 01:22:51,584 --> 01:22:54,584 in the training program, that it had that capacity. 1850 01:22:54,667 --> 01:22:56,042 So, I would have said that. 1851 01:22:56,125 --> 01:22:57,709 The second point would have been 1852 01:22:57,792 --> 01:22:59,209 that, um... 1853 01:22:59,292 --> 01:23:02,042 as a way of using techniques to get information, 1854 01:23:02,125 --> 01:23:04,542 it was probably a very dumb idea. 1855 01:23:04,626 --> 01:23:06,792 And I would say that because 1856 01:23:06,876 --> 01:23:08,667 the impact of stress on human cognition 1857 01:23:08,751 --> 01:23:10,334 degrades cognitive functioning 1858 01:23:10,417 --> 01:23:12,500 and human memory. 1859 01:23:12,584 --> 01:23:14,667 Rapport-building techniques is, is the way to go 1860 01:23:14,751 --> 01:23:17,125 if you want to get accurate data. 1861 01:23:17,209 --> 01:23:19,709 That never gets reported back to Rice. 1862 01:23:21,584 --> 01:23:23,167 Rizzo: A month or two later, 1863 01:23:23,250 --> 01:23:25,792 we received the final written opinion, 1864 01:23:25,876 --> 01:23:28,542 the first of many over the years, 1865 01:23:28,626 --> 01:23:31,083 now euphemistically referred to 1866 01:23:31,167 --> 01:23:33,459 as the torture memos. 1867 01:23:33,542 --> 01:23:35,042 Gibney: The first memo was predicated 1868 01:23:35,125 --> 01:23:37,542 on facts presented by the CIA. 1869 01:23:37,626 --> 01:23:40,918 But it also stated that if those facts were to change, 1870 01:23:41,000 --> 01:23:43,584 the legal basis for torture might disappear. 1871 01:23:43,667 --> 01:23:47,292 And what if the facts weren't facts at all? 1872 01:23:47,375 --> 01:23:50,042 As support for EITs, the CIA presented 1873 01:23:50,125 --> 01:23:52,959 a psychological assessment of Abu Zubaydah 1874 01:23:53,042 --> 01:23:55,209 as a rationale for why the agency 1875 01:23:55,292 --> 01:23:58,459 would have to subject him to something different. 1876 01:23:58,542 --> 01:24:01,209 Here, take a look at this, or-or scan through it quickly. 1877 01:24:01,292 --> 01:24:04,042 -Right. -And talk about the psychological assessment 1878 01:24:04,125 --> 01:24:05,542 of how important this was 1879 01:24:05,626 --> 01:24:07,751 in terms of setting up this whole 1880 01:24:07,834 --> 01:24:10,000 enhanced interrogation program. 1881 01:24:11,083 --> 01:24:12,417 Yeah. 1882 01:24:12,500 --> 01:24:13,792 Yeah, this is it. 1883 01:24:13,876 --> 01:24:15,459 This is the document. 1884 01:24:16,709 --> 01:24:18,751 It's really overly generous 1885 01:24:18,834 --> 01:24:21,167 to call this a psychological assessment. 1886 01:24:21,250 --> 01:24:23,584 That's the label they give to it. 1887 01:24:23,667 --> 01:24:26,250 Um, but, um, 1888 01:24:26,334 --> 01:24:28,918 what it is, an-an-and to this day, 1889 01:24:29,000 --> 01:24:32,292 so far as I know, we don't know who wrote it. 1890 01:24:32,375 --> 01:24:35,918 What we know is that it was faxed to John Yoo, 1891 01:24:36,000 --> 01:24:38,292 who is a lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel 1892 01:24:38,375 --> 01:24:41,375 on the 24th of July of 2002, 1893 01:24:41,459 --> 01:24:45,209 when Yoo was drafting the torture memo. 1894 01:24:45,292 --> 01:24:47,542 In the memo that approves 1895 01:24:47,626 --> 01:24:50,959 the enhanced interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, 1896 01:24:51,042 --> 01:24:54,334 John Yoo recognizes that these techniques 1897 01:24:54,417 --> 01:24:57,459 could have lasting destructive effect 1898 01:24:57,542 --> 01:24:58,834 on Abu Zubaydah. 1899 01:24:58,918 --> 01:25:01,209 And for that reason, it is important, he says, 1900 01:25:01,292 --> 01:25:04,125 to know something about his background 1901 01:25:04,209 --> 01:25:06,042 and psychological profile. 1902 01:25:06,125 --> 01:25:08,542 So lo and behold, this document appears, 1903 01:25:08,626 --> 01:25:12,250 which says, here's-- here's who he is. 1904 01:25:15,000 --> 01:25:16,626 Soufan: They made their legal position 1905 01:25:16,709 --> 01:25:19,751 based on facts presented to them by the CIA. 1906 01:25:20,834 --> 01:25:22,667 And their facts are what? 1907 01:25:22,751 --> 01:25:25,626 That Abu Zubaydah was not cooperating. 1908 01:25:25,709 --> 01:25:27,334 Which is a lie. He was. 1909 01:25:27,417 --> 01:25:30,083 There was a discussion about the CIA representation 1910 01:25:30,167 --> 01:25:32,500 that Abu Zubaydah is resisting interrogation 1911 01:25:32,584 --> 01:25:34,375 and that he's a trained resister. 1912 01:25:34,459 --> 01:25:36,542 But there's no evidence of that whatsoever. 1913 01:25:36,626 --> 01:25:38,375 In fact, all of the documentary evidence 1914 01:25:38,459 --> 01:25:41,209 suggests that Abu Zubaydah always cooperated. 1915 01:25:41,292 --> 01:25:43,250 Joe Margulies: It claims, "Abu Zubaydah is currently 1916 01:25:43,334 --> 01:25:45,918 the third or fourth man in Al-Qaeda." That's wrong. 1917 01:25:46,000 --> 01:25:47,667 He wasn't even a member of Al-Qaeda, 1918 01:25:47,751 --> 01:25:48,709 and we knew that. 1919 01:25:48,792 --> 01:25:50,542 There was only one person 1920 01:25:50,626 --> 01:25:52,125 who ever identified Abu Zubaydah 1921 01:25:52,209 --> 01:25:53,792 as number three or four in Al-Qaeda. 1922 01:25:53,876 --> 01:25:56,125 And we know this because CTC legal, 1923 01:25:56,209 --> 01:25:57,375 the top of CTC legal, 1924 01:25:57,459 --> 01:25:59,000 the people who's providing this information 1925 01:25:59,083 --> 01:26:00,292 to the Department of Justice, 1926 01:26:00,375 --> 01:26:01,417 discussed the fact 1927 01:26:01,500 --> 01:26:03,083 that there was one person who said this 1928 01:26:03,167 --> 01:26:04,667 and the person retracted that 1929 01:26:04,751 --> 01:26:07,042 in June or July of 2002, 1930 01:26:07,125 --> 01:26:09,500 prior to the DOJ legal opinion. 1931 01:26:09,584 --> 01:26:11,125 Yet they keep it in there. 1932 01:26:11,209 --> 01:26:13,417 "A planner of the September 11 hijackings." 1933 01:26:13,500 --> 01:26:14,459 That's wrong. 1934 01:26:14,542 --> 01:26:16,083 "Alleged to have written Al-Qaeda's manual 1935 01:26:16,167 --> 01:26:17,834 on resistance techniques." That's wrong. 1936 01:26:17,918 --> 01:26:19,751 "Involved in every major Al-Qaeda 1937 01:26:19,834 --> 01:26:21,584 terrorist operation." That's wrong. 1938 01:26:21,667 --> 01:26:23,042 "Served as the operational planner 1939 01:26:23,125 --> 01:26:25,042 for the Millennium plot." That's wrong. 1940 01:26:25,125 --> 01:26:26,584 "Directed the startup 1941 01:26:26,667 --> 01:26:29,125 of a Bin Laden cell in Jordan." 1942 01:26:29,209 --> 01:26:31,083 No. "Managed a network 1943 01:26:31,167 --> 01:26:32,751 of training camps for Al-Qaeda." 1944 01:26:32,834 --> 01:26:34,667 No. It's-- there's nothing. 1945 01:26:36,626 --> 01:26:39,000 Gibney: The CIA claims presented as facts 1946 01:26:39,083 --> 01:26:40,626 resulted in official legal approval 1947 01:26:40,709 --> 01:26:44,292 for the new Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. 1948 01:26:44,375 --> 01:26:47,626 The only question was who would decide in the field 1949 01:26:47,709 --> 01:26:49,876 when to throw the prisoner against the wall 1950 01:26:49,959 --> 01:26:52,042 and when to waterboard him. 1951 01:26:55,375 --> 01:26:56,584 Mitchell: At some point, 1952 01:26:56,667 --> 01:26:59,584 Jose Rodriguez came up to me and said, 1953 01:26:59,667 --> 01:27:02,042 "Will you do these interrogations?" 1954 01:27:02,125 --> 01:27:04,792 And I said... "No." 1955 01:27:04,876 --> 01:27:07,918 And then one of his senior guys 1956 01:27:08,000 --> 01:27:09,500 leaned into me and said, 1957 01:27:09,584 --> 01:27:11,292 "You've watched him now for months. 1958 01:27:11,375 --> 01:27:12,918 "You've seen all the intelligence. 1959 01:27:13,000 --> 01:27:14,417 "You know what we're up against. 1960 01:27:14,500 --> 01:27:15,876 "And if you're not willing to help, 1961 01:27:15,959 --> 01:27:17,792 how can we ask somebody else to?" 1962 01:27:20,000 --> 01:27:22,250 I wasn't willing to stand by. 1963 01:27:22,334 --> 01:27:25,751 I knew that I would feel much worse about myself 1964 01:27:25,834 --> 01:27:29,375 if there had been a big smoking hole in Los Angeles 1965 01:27:29,459 --> 01:27:31,042 that had killed a bunch of people 1966 01:27:31,125 --> 01:27:33,375 and I had walked away from something 1967 01:27:33,459 --> 01:27:36,000 that the Justice Department said was legal, 1968 01:27:36,083 --> 01:27:39,042 that I was unwilling to help them with. 1969 01:27:39,125 --> 01:27:41,792 I said, "I will do it, but I need help 1970 01:27:41,876 --> 01:27:44,876 because I don't know everything I need to know." 1971 01:27:44,959 --> 01:27:46,584 And they had worked with Doc Jessen, 1972 01:27:46,667 --> 01:27:48,209 so they agreed to bring him in. 1973 01:27:48,292 --> 01:27:50,167 He had been through several interrogation courses. 1974 01:27:50,250 --> 01:27:52,167 He's brilliant and much more familiar 1975 01:27:52,250 --> 01:27:53,751 with these things than I was. 1976 01:27:55,209 --> 01:27:56,834 I don't know exactly how it happened, 1977 01:27:56,918 --> 01:27:59,959 but Jose Rodriguez... What? 1978 01:28:00,042 --> 01:28:01,292 Is that okay? 1979 01:28:01,375 --> 01:28:04,125 Alright. Jose Rodriguez, uh... 1980 01:28:05,542 --> 01:28:07,918 who already had a relationship with Jim, 1981 01:28:08,459 --> 01:28:09,417 uh... 1982 01:28:10,876 --> 01:28:14,125 they had a discussion about the tactics, 1983 01:28:14,209 --> 01:28:17,125 uh, that are used at the SERE School to train 1984 01:28:18,042 --> 01:28:19,292 not just the standard folks 1985 01:28:19,375 --> 01:28:23,042 but the special operators in particular. 1986 01:28:23,125 --> 01:28:26,417 Jose told me that he asked Jim what he needed, 1987 01:28:26,500 --> 01:28:29,918 and Jim said that he would like me to help him. 1988 01:28:30,000 --> 01:28:31,876 Lawyer: So what led you to conclude that they were 1989 01:28:31,959 --> 01:28:33,709 quote, "eminently qualified"? 1990 01:28:33,792 --> 01:28:35,292 I just took it for granted that they knew 1991 01:28:35,375 --> 01:28:36,667 what they were doing. 1992 01:28:39,167 --> 01:28:42,083 Kleinman: Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen helped develop the best 1993 01:28:42,167 --> 01:28:43,751 Resistance to Interrogation program 1994 01:28:43,834 --> 01:28:45,167 in the world, bar none. 1995 01:28:45,250 --> 01:28:46,792 But here's what should have happened. 1996 01:28:46,876 --> 01:28:49,500 After their presentation, George Tenet should have said, 1997 01:28:49,584 --> 01:28:50,626 "Gentlemen, 1998 01:28:50,709 --> 01:28:52,000 "I really appreciate you coming by, 1999 01:28:52,083 --> 01:28:53,667 "but just a few questions before you leave. 2000 01:28:53,751 --> 01:28:56,125 "I didn't see here-- Tell me about the, 2001 01:28:56,209 --> 01:28:57,626 "the real-world interrogations 2002 01:28:57,709 --> 01:28:59,792 "that you've actually conducted? 2003 01:28:59,876 --> 01:29:01,417 "Oh. None. Okay. 2004 01:29:01,500 --> 01:29:04,417 "Well, how about the real-world interrogations 2005 01:29:04,500 --> 01:29:06,500 "that you've observed? 2006 01:29:06,584 --> 01:29:08,751 "Oh, well, maybe a couple? Okay. 2007 01:29:08,834 --> 01:29:10,375 "Um, alright. Well, 2008 01:29:10,459 --> 01:29:13,167 "but you've worked in the intelligence world before? No. 2009 01:29:13,250 --> 01:29:15,042 "But you do have a deep understanding of-- 2010 01:29:15,125 --> 01:29:16,459 "No, not that either. 2011 01:29:17,709 --> 01:29:19,000 "All right, well, so you've actually, 2012 01:29:19,083 --> 01:29:20,876 "your experience is all about teaching resistance, 2013 01:29:20,959 --> 01:29:23,334 "which was actually-- we were mimicking the 2014 01:29:23,417 --> 01:29:24,792 "what we call torture 2015 01:29:24,876 --> 01:29:27,542 "by countries that weren't signatory to Geneva Convention. 2016 01:29:27,626 --> 01:29:29,751 "And the doctrine was, if I recall, 2017 01:29:29,834 --> 01:29:31,000 "that that... 2018 01:29:31,083 --> 01:29:34,042 "is not useful for anything but propaganda 2019 01:29:34,125 --> 01:29:36,834 "and false confessions, which, 2020 01:29:36,918 --> 01:29:38,751 "I'm the, I'm the director of Central Intelligence, 2021 01:29:38,834 --> 01:29:40,334 "I deal with information. That'd be on the other end 2022 01:29:40,417 --> 01:29:42,292 "of the spectrum from intelligence. 2023 01:29:42,375 --> 01:29:44,417 "So why is it that we could switch... 2024 01:29:44,500 --> 01:29:46,459 "We really can't. Well, gentlemen, 2025 01:29:46,542 --> 01:29:49,167 "you are the best at teaching resistance to interrogation. 2026 01:29:49,250 --> 01:29:51,209 "We need to hire you to train everybody 2027 01:29:51,292 --> 01:29:52,792 "in this room that ever goes overseas. 2028 01:29:52,876 --> 01:29:56,334 "But when it comes to interrogation, thank you for your time." 2029 01:29:56,417 --> 01:29:59,375 Gibney: There's that word again: time. 2030 01:29:59,459 --> 01:30:01,667 As it turned out, the CIA was so grateful 2031 01:30:01,751 --> 01:30:03,500 for Mitchell and Jessen's time 2032 01:30:03,584 --> 01:30:05,792 that the agency paid the psychologists 2033 01:30:05,876 --> 01:30:07,292 $1,800 a day 2034 01:30:07,375 --> 01:30:10,292 to go back to Thailand to interrogate Abu Zubaydah. 2035 01:30:10,375 --> 01:30:12,667 While they weren't interrogators, 2036 01:30:12,751 --> 01:30:15,083 they were armed with one important weapon, 2037 01:30:15,167 --> 01:30:16,918 a decision from the Department of Justice 2038 01:30:17,000 --> 01:30:19,459 that would allow them to torture Abu Zubaydah 2039 01:30:19,542 --> 01:30:23,459 within seconds of death without fear of prosecution. 2040 01:30:23,542 --> 01:30:25,500 Rizzo: A fateful decision was made 2041 01:30:25,584 --> 01:30:27,334 at the beginning of his interrogation 2042 01:30:27,417 --> 01:30:29,125 to videotape the sessions. 2043 01:30:29,209 --> 01:30:32,626 We were just trying to ponder every worst-case scenario. 2044 01:30:32,709 --> 01:30:35,626 That he dies while in CIA custody. 2045 01:30:35,709 --> 01:30:37,000 The possibility would exist 2046 01:30:37,083 --> 01:30:39,000 that somewhere somehow someone 2047 01:30:39,083 --> 01:30:42,167 would accuse CIA of purposely killing him. 2048 01:30:48,751 --> 01:30:52,209 Jones: They begin at 11:50 a.m. on August 4th. 2049 01:30:52,292 --> 01:30:54,334 Abu Zubaydah is hooded. 2050 01:30:54,417 --> 01:30:57,125 A coffin-shaped box is brought into the room. 2051 01:30:57,209 --> 01:31:00,250 Abu Zubaydah is unhooded and shown the box... 2052 01:31:00,334 --> 01:31:02,334 the insinuation being, of course, 2053 01:31:02,417 --> 01:31:05,834 that he could be killed and buried there. 2054 01:31:05,918 --> 01:31:09,334 Within seven hours, around six p.m. that night, 2055 01:31:09,417 --> 01:31:11,667 Abu Zubaydah is waterboarded for the first time. 2056 01:31:13,334 --> 01:31:15,209 He's in isolation for 47 days. 2057 01:31:15,292 --> 01:31:17,167 Within six hours, he's waterboarded, 2058 01:31:17,250 --> 01:31:20,375 and he has these convulsions and he vomits. 2059 01:31:22,542 --> 01:31:24,083 And for 17 days, 2060 01:31:24,167 --> 01:31:26,417 Abu Zubaydah is tortured nonstop. 2061 01:31:32,125 --> 01:31:34,667 Lawyer: I was reading through the cables 2062 01:31:34,751 --> 01:31:38,250 from Abu Zubaydah's interrogation. 2063 01:31:38,334 --> 01:31:39,876 Do remember those cables? 2064 01:31:41,167 --> 01:31:42,667 Uh, it's been 15 years. 2065 01:31:42,751 --> 01:31:44,542 Lawyer: Okay, let's, let's show them to you. 2066 01:31:45,834 --> 01:31:47,584 This is a cable regarding 2067 01:31:47,667 --> 01:31:50,125 the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, correct? 2068 01:31:50,209 --> 01:31:51,167 Yes. 2069 01:31:52,292 --> 01:31:54,209 Lawyer: And it goes through a number 2070 01:31:54,292 --> 01:31:56,542 of Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, right? 2071 01:31:56,626 --> 01:31:58,167 -Rodriguez: Yes. -Lawyer: It describes walling 2072 01:31:58,250 --> 01:32:02,250 and, um, and it describes the confinement box. 2073 01:32:02,334 --> 01:32:06,417 And in paragraph nine, it says, 2074 01:32:06,500 --> 01:32:09,125 the "subject has not provided any new threat 2075 01:32:09,209 --> 01:32:11,292 or elaborated on any old threat information." 2076 01:32:11,375 --> 01:32:13,000 -Do you see that? -Yes. 2077 01:32:13,083 --> 01:32:15,709 Lawyer: Um, when you read that kind of thing, 2078 01:32:15,792 --> 01:32:17,709 was there any sense 2079 01:32:17,792 --> 01:32:20,792 that the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques 2080 01:32:20,876 --> 01:32:22,292 were not being effective? 2081 01:32:22,375 --> 01:32:24,334 -At that point. -Lawyer: At that point what? 2082 01:32:24,417 --> 01:32:26,000 At that point, they were not being effective. 2083 01:32:26,083 --> 01:32:27,626 -Eventually, they were. -Lawyer: Okay. 2084 01:32:27,709 --> 01:32:30,542 In what regard did you then dial it back? 2085 01:32:30,626 --> 01:32:32,459 Because I'm reading these cables 2086 01:32:32,542 --> 01:32:33,918 and it looks like for 17 days, 2087 01:32:34,000 --> 01:32:37,334 he's being waterboarded and he's put in confined, 2088 01:32:37,417 --> 01:32:39,209 in-in a confinement box 2089 01:32:39,292 --> 01:32:41,792 and put in stress positions and walled. 2090 01:32:41,876 --> 01:32:44,334 -Am I wrong about that? -Man: Objection. 2091 01:32:46,209 --> 01:32:49,125 Jones: He spent 11 days in the coffin-shaped box 2092 01:32:49,209 --> 01:32:51,167 several days in a much smaller box. 2093 01:32:51,250 --> 01:32:54,626 If he wasn't in the smaller box or in the coffin-shaped box, 2094 01:32:54,709 --> 01:32:58,083 he was on the waterboard with a towel over his face 2095 01:32:58,167 --> 01:33:00,083 or in a sleep deprivation position, 2096 01:33:00,167 --> 01:33:02,250 essentially hanging from the cell. 2097 01:33:04,834 --> 01:33:06,417 Margulies: He was put in these boxes, 2098 01:33:06,500 --> 01:33:08,083 not much wider than his shoulders 2099 01:33:08,167 --> 01:33:09,417 and not much higher than him. 2100 01:33:09,500 --> 01:33:12,667 And he was just left there, 260-some hours 2101 01:33:12,751 --> 01:33:15,334 to urinate and defecate on himself. 2102 01:33:15,417 --> 01:33:18,167 That's not in the cables, 2103 01:33:18,250 --> 01:33:20,000 but his drawings capture that. 2104 01:33:40,584 --> 01:33:42,792 Mitchell: Most people misunderstand 2105 01:33:42,876 --> 01:33:43,918 or they don't understand 2106 01:33:44,000 --> 01:33:46,375 or they haven't bothered to understand 2107 01:33:46,459 --> 01:33:48,667 the way that EITs were used. 2108 01:33:48,751 --> 01:33:51,500 EITs were used to shape cooperation. 2109 01:33:51,584 --> 01:33:54,709 So what you did is you put them in a situation 2110 01:33:54,792 --> 01:33:56,542 where they were uncomfortable, 2111 01:33:56,626 --> 01:33:59,042 and then as soon as they started working with you, 2112 01:33:59,125 --> 01:34:02,042 even a little bit, you-you cut back on that 2113 01:34:02,125 --> 01:34:04,626 and shift to social influence techniques. 2114 01:34:04,709 --> 01:34:06,375 Jones: Mitchell and Jessen themselves 2115 01:34:06,459 --> 01:34:08,000 engaged in the waterboarding. 2116 01:34:08,083 --> 01:34:11,334 They engaged in all of the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. 2117 01:34:11,417 --> 01:34:13,334 And yet they had never applied these techniques 2118 01:34:13,417 --> 01:34:15,792 to any members of the US military. 2119 01:34:15,876 --> 01:34:18,292 They were only observers. 2120 01:34:18,375 --> 01:34:19,876 The initial legal opinion 2121 01:34:19,959 --> 01:34:22,000 approved everything but waterboarding. 2122 01:34:22,083 --> 01:34:24,626 But Jim Mitchell said he would not do this 2123 01:34:24,709 --> 01:34:26,459 unless waterboarding was approved 2124 01:34:26,542 --> 01:34:29,667 because it's an absolutely convincing technique. 2125 01:34:31,500 --> 01:34:33,083 Mitchell: The Justice Department said 2126 01:34:33,167 --> 01:34:36,834 you could waterboard from 20 to 40 seconds, 2127 01:34:36,918 --> 01:34:39,167 give them three full breaths 2128 01:34:39,250 --> 01:34:42,834 and then waterboard again for 20 minutes. 2129 01:34:42,918 --> 01:34:45,417 The first time we waterboarded Abu Zubaydah, 2130 01:34:45,500 --> 01:34:49,626 it was clear to me that that was too much water 2131 01:34:49,709 --> 01:34:51,125 and it was too long. 2132 01:34:51,209 --> 01:34:53,792 So what we did was we cut back 2133 01:34:53,876 --> 01:34:57,292 to pours that were eight seconds. 2134 01:35:03,918 --> 01:35:07,209 You can easily hold your breath for eight seconds. 2135 01:35:07,292 --> 01:35:09,042 And then there were two pours 2136 01:35:09,125 --> 01:35:10,500 that were 20 seconds 2137 01:35:10,584 --> 01:35:12,876 and one pour that was 40 seconds. 2138 01:35:14,834 --> 01:35:16,626 Gibney: Eighty-three times, was that the number? 2139 01:35:16,709 --> 01:35:19,042 That's the number of times it was poured. 2140 01:35:19,125 --> 01:35:21,375 We know now that he was waterboarded 2141 01:35:21,459 --> 01:35:24,709 83 times in the month of August alone 2142 01:35:24,792 --> 01:35:26,542 and what the waterboarding is, right, 2143 01:35:26,626 --> 01:35:29,459 sometimes you'll see it described as "simulated drowning." 2144 01:35:29,542 --> 01:35:32,000 There's nothing "simulated" about it at all. 2145 01:35:32,083 --> 01:35:33,542 It's drowning, right? 2146 01:35:33,626 --> 01:35:34,792 You are strapped to a board, 2147 01:35:34,876 --> 01:35:38,626 your legs, your chest, your arms, 2148 01:35:38,709 --> 01:35:40,542 and your head is strapped down 2149 01:35:40,626 --> 01:35:41,751 so you cannot move. 2150 01:35:41,834 --> 01:35:43,000 You're utterly immobilized. 2151 01:35:43,083 --> 01:35:46,125 And your neck is lower than your feet. 2152 01:35:46,209 --> 01:35:47,375 Then they wrap your face 2153 01:35:47,459 --> 01:35:48,876 in something to obstruct breathing, 2154 01:35:48,959 --> 01:35:51,375 but that allows water to pass through. 2155 01:35:51,459 --> 01:35:54,751 And then they pour water up your nose 2156 01:35:54,834 --> 01:35:58,459 and down your throat so that you breathe the water. 2157 01:35:58,542 --> 01:36:01,500 And if you breathe water, you will drown. 2158 01:36:01,584 --> 01:36:03,584 And so, straining against the straps, 2159 01:36:03,667 --> 01:36:06,542 unable to move, you begin to drown. 2160 01:36:06,626 --> 01:36:09,667 And the art of this particular torture 2161 01:36:09,751 --> 01:36:12,500 is to know just the moment 2162 01:36:12,584 --> 01:36:15,125 when the brain convinces the person 2163 01:36:15,209 --> 01:36:16,792 they are about to drown. 2164 01:36:16,876 --> 01:36:19,000 You are about to die. 2165 01:36:19,083 --> 01:36:21,334 And at just that instant, 2166 01:36:21,417 --> 01:36:24,792 when you have just given up into hysteria 2167 01:36:24,876 --> 01:36:26,459 because you are about to drown, 2168 01:36:26,542 --> 01:36:28,459 that's when they raise the board 2169 01:36:28,542 --> 01:36:30,292 and you vomit. 2170 01:36:30,375 --> 01:36:32,292 And just as you take the first breath, 2171 01:36:32,375 --> 01:36:35,250 they put it down again and then do it again. 2172 01:36:36,667 --> 01:36:39,000 Mitchell: He wasn't waterboarded on a board. 2173 01:36:39,083 --> 01:36:42,209 He was waterboarded on a hospital surgical gurney. 2174 01:36:42,292 --> 01:36:46,083 Because that's what the CIA wanted him waterboarded on. 2175 01:36:46,167 --> 01:36:48,584 I can't tell you the number, but it took more than a handful 2176 01:36:48,667 --> 01:36:50,042 of security guards to raise it up 2177 01:36:50,125 --> 01:36:52,459 so he could clear his nasal passages. 2178 01:36:55,000 --> 01:36:57,876 Jones: The cables show that he's having involuntary spasms. 2179 01:36:57,959 --> 01:37:01,042 He's weeping, he's crying out for Allah. 2180 01:37:01,125 --> 01:37:03,125 Mitchell: We weren't interested in drowning him. 2181 01:37:03,209 --> 01:37:05,500 We were interested in getting him 2182 01:37:05,584 --> 01:37:07,334 to want to work with us. 2183 01:37:07,417 --> 01:37:09,334 We weren't interested in making him suffer. 2184 01:37:09,417 --> 01:37:10,834 Nobody was interested in that. 2185 01:37:10,918 --> 01:37:12,834 Now, you know, because it is an art, 2186 01:37:12,918 --> 01:37:15,250 one time they waited too long 2187 01:37:15,334 --> 01:37:17,709 and they didn't raise him up fast enough. 2188 01:37:20,459 --> 01:37:24,667 And he actually did come very, very close to dying. 2189 01:37:24,751 --> 01:37:26,500 Jones: During one waterboarding session, 2190 01:37:26,584 --> 01:37:29,083 Abu Zubaydah became completely unresponsive, 2191 01:37:29,167 --> 01:37:31,125 with bubbles rising out of his mouth 2192 01:37:31,209 --> 01:37:33,334 and needed to have medical intervention. 2193 01:37:36,834 --> 01:37:39,042 Gibney: Following his near-death experience, 2194 01:37:39,125 --> 01:37:41,167 Abu Zubaydah became compliant, 2195 01:37:41,250 --> 01:37:43,292 just like the dogs who'd been shocked. 2196 01:37:43,375 --> 01:37:45,250 As Mitchell predicted, 2197 01:37:45,334 --> 01:37:47,792 Abu Zubaydah learned helplessness. 2198 01:37:57,083 --> 01:38:00,250 Rizzo: This is a perilous course for the CIA to undertake. 2199 01:38:00,334 --> 01:38:02,292 So we made a collective decision 2200 01:38:02,375 --> 01:38:03,834 that no one in CIA 2201 01:38:03,918 --> 01:38:06,584 would be required to take part in it 2202 01:38:06,667 --> 01:38:08,709 if their moral, ethical, 2203 01:38:08,792 --> 01:38:11,000 or just personal dictates 2204 01:38:11,083 --> 01:38:12,876 could not do it. 2205 01:38:12,959 --> 01:38:15,292 They were hardcore about continuing this, 2206 01:38:15,375 --> 01:38:17,792 but after 72 hours, I became convinced 2207 01:38:17,876 --> 01:38:19,709 and Doc Jessen became convinced 2208 01:38:19,792 --> 01:38:21,876 that while he had a lot of information 2209 01:38:21,959 --> 01:38:24,834 that could help us stop threats in other countries 2210 01:38:24,918 --> 01:38:28,542 and help us identify the structure of Al-Qaeda, 2211 01:38:28,626 --> 01:38:30,542 he didn't know anything about attacks 2212 01:38:30,626 --> 01:38:32,334 that were on the ground in place 2213 01:38:32,417 --> 01:38:33,584 in the United States. 2214 01:38:33,667 --> 01:38:35,667 And so Doc Jessen and I said, 2215 01:38:35,751 --> 01:38:39,083 "Hey, we don't need to do this." 2216 01:38:39,167 --> 01:38:40,709 Jones: Within six days of using 2217 01:38:40,792 --> 01:38:42,375 the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, 2218 01:38:42,459 --> 01:38:45,500 there were calls by the detention site team 2219 01:38:45,584 --> 01:38:48,876 requesting CIA headquarters' permission to stop. 2220 01:38:48,959 --> 01:38:51,792 People at the detention site are upset, choking up, 2221 01:38:51,876 --> 01:38:53,751 wanting to leave the detention site, 2222 01:38:53,834 --> 01:38:56,751 wanting to quit the program, wanting to go back home. 2223 01:38:56,834 --> 01:38:58,834 They wrote that they were reaching 2224 01:38:58,918 --> 01:39:01,167 the legal limits on what they could do. 2225 01:39:01,250 --> 01:39:03,918 Nonetheless, Jose Rodriguez responds, 2226 01:39:04,000 --> 01:39:06,542 "Do not put your legal concerns in writing. 2227 01:39:06,626 --> 01:39:08,167 Not helpful." 2228 01:39:10,209 --> 01:39:12,042 Lawyer: Were you involved in ordering 2229 01:39:12,125 --> 01:39:13,292 Doctors Mitchell and Jessen 2230 01:39:13,375 --> 01:39:15,292 to continue to waterboard Abu Zubaydah? 2231 01:39:15,375 --> 01:39:16,876 -Yes. -Lawyer: Why? 2232 01:39:16,959 --> 01:39:20,042 Well, I was the head of it, and my analysts were concerned 2233 01:39:20,125 --> 01:39:21,959 that perhaps he was not compliant. 2234 01:39:22,042 --> 01:39:23,042 Lawyer: Mm-hmm. 2235 01:39:23,125 --> 01:39:24,626 It says, "For several days," 2236 01:39:24,709 --> 01:39:26,042 Dr. Mitchell writes, "We questioned 2237 01:39:26,125 --> 01:39:28,459 "the necessity of continuing the EITs, 2238 01:39:28,542 --> 01:39:30,500 "but every day we received cables, 2239 01:39:30,584 --> 01:39:32,083 "phone calls, or emails instructing us 2240 01:39:32,167 --> 01:39:34,709 "to continue waterboarding Abu Zubaydah. 2241 01:39:34,792 --> 01:39:36,667 "At one point, Bruce and I pushed back hard 2242 01:39:36,751 --> 01:39:38,042 "and threatened to quit. 2243 01:39:38,125 --> 01:39:39,959 "We were told, quote, he's turning you. 2244 01:39:40,042 --> 01:39:41,542 "You are not turning him. 2245 01:39:41,626 --> 01:39:43,751 "The officers we were dealing with, 2246 01:39:43,834 --> 01:39:45,709 "mid-level CTC officials 2247 01:39:45,792 --> 01:39:47,792 "really pissed us off by saying, 'You've lost your spine.'" 2248 01:39:47,876 --> 01:39:49,250 "You've lost your spine. He's turned you." 2249 01:39:49,334 --> 01:39:50,918 They called us pussies. They said-- 2250 01:39:51,000 --> 01:39:53,000 Lawyer: "If we didn't keep waterboarding Abu Zubaydah 2251 01:39:53,083 --> 01:39:54,876 "and another attack happened in United States, 2252 01:39:54,959 --> 01:39:57,042 it would be, quote, unquote, 'Your fault.'" 2253 01:39:57,125 --> 01:39:58,876 Is that, to your knowledge, true? 2254 01:39:58,959 --> 01:40:01,125 Uh, I don't know what mid-level officials 2255 01:40:01,209 --> 01:40:04,375 will tell, were telling, uh... Mitchell. 2256 01:40:04,459 --> 01:40:07,167 Lawyer: Mm-hmm. Did you direct any mid-level officials 2257 01:40:07,250 --> 01:40:09,542 -to say that kind of thing to Mitchell? -No. 2258 01:40:11,500 --> 01:40:14,292 There came a point when Dr. Jessen and I said, 2259 01:40:14,375 --> 01:40:16,626 "We're not going to continue doing this, you know. 2260 01:40:16,709 --> 01:40:18,709 "We don't think it's necessary to continue 2261 01:40:18,792 --> 01:40:20,626 to waterboard Abu Zubaydah." 2262 01:40:20,709 --> 01:40:23,751 At one point, they requested that CIA personnel travel 2263 01:40:23,834 --> 01:40:25,042 to the detention site 2264 01:40:25,125 --> 01:40:27,000 and observe what they were doing. 2265 01:40:27,083 --> 01:40:29,167 CIA headquarters declined. 2266 01:40:29,250 --> 01:40:31,667 So the detention site personnel decided 2267 01:40:31,751 --> 01:40:33,876 to put together a "Best Of" tape. 2268 01:40:35,042 --> 01:40:37,125 And the purpose of that tape was 2269 01:40:37,209 --> 01:40:39,584 to depict the absolute worst moments 2270 01:40:39,667 --> 01:40:42,792 of torture of Abu Zubaydah, to make it very visceral. 2271 01:40:42,876 --> 01:40:45,375 So CIA headquarters would view this tape 2272 01:40:45,459 --> 01:40:46,709 and say, "Okay, we need to stop. 2273 01:40:46,792 --> 01:40:48,959 We agree. Stop torturing Abu Zubaydah." 2274 01:40:49,042 --> 01:40:51,959 Instead, headquarters told them to keep going. 2275 01:40:52,042 --> 01:40:54,542 -Gibney: After they viewed the tape? -After they viewed the tape. 2276 01:40:55,834 --> 01:40:58,375 The detention site personnel were surprised. 2277 01:40:58,459 --> 01:41:00,959 They blamed it on a poor video link. 2278 01:41:01,042 --> 01:41:02,417 They can't quite see the quality 2279 01:41:02,500 --> 01:41:05,292 of how bad it is with this tape. 2280 01:41:05,375 --> 01:41:07,792 They couldn't believe that anyone could view 2281 01:41:07,876 --> 01:41:10,125 what was happening and tell them to keep going. 2282 01:41:11,542 --> 01:41:13,751 Gibney: In Washington, psychologist Terry DeMay, 2283 01:41:13,834 --> 01:41:16,751 the head of CIA's Office of Medical Services, 2284 01:41:16,834 --> 01:41:18,209 raised a ruckus. 2285 01:41:18,292 --> 01:41:20,667 After receiving a series of secret messages 2286 01:41:20,751 --> 01:41:22,250 from nurses at the black site, 2287 01:41:22,334 --> 01:41:24,751 DeMay would later denounce the interrogation 2288 01:41:24,834 --> 01:41:26,667 as an amateurish experiment, 2289 01:41:26,751 --> 01:41:29,250 not safe or effective. 2290 01:41:29,334 --> 01:41:31,209 To get a firsthand assessment, 2291 01:41:31,292 --> 01:41:34,626 Jose Rodriguez sent a team from headquarters to Thailand. 2292 01:41:34,709 --> 01:41:38,083 Among them were the lawyer who had recommended Mitchell for the job 2293 01:41:38,167 --> 01:41:40,626 and an analyst named Alfreda Bikowsky, 2294 01:41:40,709 --> 01:41:43,209 whose enthusiasm for harsh interrogations 2295 01:41:43,292 --> 01:41:47,125 would earn her the nickname "The Queen of Torture." 2296 01:41:47,209 --> 01:41:49,083 Mitchell: I suggested that they be 2297 01:41:49,167 --> 01:41:51,125 in the room with us unmasked 2298 01:41:51,209 --> 01:41:52,584 while we did the waterboarding 2299 01:41:52,667 --> 01:41:54,792 so they could see what it was really like. 2300 01:41:54,876 --> 01:41:57,375 And we waterboarded him one last time, 2301 01:41:57,459 --> 01:42:00,042 and the most senior person there said, 2302 01:42:00,125 --> 01:42:02,459 "We don't need to do this anymore. 2303 01:42:02,542 --> 01:42:05,083 "We concur that he probably doesn't know anything 2304 01:42:05,167 --> 01:42:07,542 "about current threats inside the United States 2305 01:42:07,626 --> 01:42:09,334 "or he's, you know, he's, 2306 01:42:09,417 --> 01:42:11,459 he's not going to share them." 2307 01:42:11,542 --> 01:42:14,626 And, um... literally, 2308 01:42:14,709 --> 01:42:17,542 we bathed him and told him we weren't going to, 2309 01:42:17,626 --> 01:42:19,709 you know, nothing bad was going to happen to him, 2310 01:42:19,792 --> 01:42:21,918 uh, and, uh... 2311 01:42:22,000 --> 01:42:23,792 it was a pretty touching moment. 2312 01:42:24,959 --> 01:42:27,083 Gibney: The CIA cables from Thailand 2313 01:42:27,167 --> 01:42:29,125 struck a very different tone. 2314 01:42:40,167 --> 01:42:41,584 Jones: The detention site never said 2315 01:42:41,667 --> 01:42:43,876 that Abu Zubaydah had information. 2316 01:42:43,959 --> 01:42:45,834 In fact, Mitchell and others say 2317 01:42:45,918 --> 01:42:48,959 the program was a success, not because it produced 2318 01:42:49,042 --> 01:42:50,667 vital unavailable information, 2319 01:42:50,751 --> 01:42:52,500 but because it proved from the very beginning 2320 01:42:52,584 --> 01:42:54,083 he never had that information. 2321 01:42:55,167 --> 01:42:57,042 Gibney: There was one other success. 2322 01:42:57,125 --> 01:42:58,667 Toward the end of the torture, 2323 01:42:58,751 --> 01:43:00,626 when the new team from Washington was watching, 2324 01:43:00,709 --> 01:43:03,500 Abu Zubaydah said he made up a number of plots 2325 01:43:03,584 --> 01:43:05,042 and admitted that, yes, 2326 01:43:05,125 --> 01:43:07,876 he really was the number three in Al-Qaeda. 2327 01:43:07,959 --> 01:43:11,083 He knew it was false. The CIA knew it was false. 2328 01:43:11,167 --> 01:43:14,792 But his confession confirmed that the CIA's techniques 2329 01:43:14,876 --> 01:43:18,209 could get him to say anything to make the torture stop. 2330 01:43:20,250 --> 01:43:21,834 Jones: They finally get permission 2331 01:43:21,918 --> 01:43:23,709 to stop torturing Abu Zubaydah, 2332 01:43:23,792 --> 01:43:26,083 and they call the program a success. 2333 01:43:26,167 --> 01:43:29,459 And the cable recommends using the same techniques 2334 01:43:29,542 --> 01:43:31,417 for other high-value detainees. 2335 01:43:31,500 --> 01:43:34,459 And who wrote that cable? Jim Mitchell. 2336 01:43:34,542 --> 01:43:36,500 Gibney: Mitchell denies writing the cable 2337 01:43:36,584 --> 01:43:38,083 but the techniques he devised 2338 01:43:38,167 --> 01:43:40,125 would become standard operating procedure 2339 01:43:40,209 --> 01:43:42,125 for the CIA. 2340 01:43:42,209 --> 01:43:45,083 For a price of over $180 million, 2341 01:43:45,167 --> 01:43:47,417 the CIA would contract Mitchell and Jessen 2342 01:43:47,500 --> 01:43:49,626 to train and supervise interrogators 2343 01:43:49,709 --> 01:43:52,417 at black sites in eight foreign countries. 2344 01:43:52,500 --> 01:43:55,417 Despite Mitchell's attempts to impose guidelines, 2345 01:43:55,500 --> 01:43:57,792 things would spin out of control. 2346 01:43:57,876 --> 01:43:59,584 Following the torture of Abu Zubaydah, 2347 01:43:59,667 --> 01:44:01,918 EITs mutated like a virus 2348 01:44:02,000 --> 01:44:04,876 and spread throughout the CIA to Guantanamo 2349 01:44:04,959 --> 01:44:07,751 and military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. 2350 01:44:07,834 --> 01:44:10,667 What evolved from Mitchell's techniques 2351 01:44:10,751 --> 01:44:12,584 was revealed in the photographs 2352 01:44:12,667 --> 01:44:14,667 from the prison at Abu Ghraib. 2353 01:44:16,167 --> 01:44:18,500 The public uproar over those images 2354 01:44:18,584 --> 01:44:20,083 caused the CIA to reckon 2355 01:44:20,167 --> 01:44:21,959 with its own photographic record. 2356 01:44:22,042 --> 01:44:25,834 ("The Blue Danube Waltz" playing) 2357 01:44:25,918 --> 01:44:29,834 ♪ ♪ 2358 01:44:34,751 --> 01:44:36,626 Rizzo: The first time I knew that 2359 01:44:36,709 --> 01:44:37,918 Zubaydah was being videotaped 2360 01:44:38,000 --> 01:44:40,542 is when Jose Rodriguez came to me and said, 2361 01:44:40,626 --> 01:44:43,876 "We have these videotapes. We want to destroy them." 2362 01:44:43,959 --> 01:44:47,959 So that was the first I learned that they existed. 2363 01:44:48,042 --> 01:44:51,500 -Interviewer: What was your reaction? -(laughs) 2364 01:44:51,584 --> 01:44:53,751 "Whatever you do, do not destroy them." 2365 01:44:53,834 --> 01:44:57,125 (waltz continues) 2366 01:45:02,417 --> 01:45:03,542 But, of course, 2367 01:45:03,626 --> 01:45:06,876 destroying evidence, destroying videotapes, 2368 01:45:06,959 --> 01:45:09,334 would inevitably lead 2369 01:45:09,417 --> 01:45:12,626 sooner or later to accusations of a cover-up. 2370 01:45:13,292 --> 01:45:17,709 ♪ ♪ 2371 01:45:17,792 --> 01:45:20,000 Rodriguez: I felt it was important to have the tapes destroyed 2372 01:45:20,083 --> 01:45:22,792 because I needed to protect the people 2373 01:45:22,876 --> 01:45:25,876 who were there in the black sites. 2374 01:45:25,959 --> 01:45:28,209 -That was the primary reason. -Lawyer: Mm-hmm. 2375 01:45:28,292 --> 01:45:29,834 Was there a secondary reason? 2376 01:45:29,918 --> 01:45:32,334 Well, the secondary reason, as I have said publicly, 2377 01:45:32,417 --> 01:45:34,959 was that the, uh... 2378 01:45:36,417 --> 01:45:39,000 public, the media would not make a distinction 2379 01:45:39,083 --> 01:45:41,250 once the tapes were released 2380 01:45:41,334 --> 01:45:45,209 between a legally approved program like this was 2381 01:45:45,292 --> 01:45:47,250 and the Abu Ghraib scandal 2382 01:45:47,334 --> 01:45:50,459 that involved illegal activity. 2383 01:45:50,542 --> 01:45:52,292 It would make the CIA look bad, 2384 01:45:52,375 --> 01:45:54,751 and it would, actually, in my view, 2385 01:45:54,834 --> 01:45:56,751 you know, almost destroy 2386 01:45:56,834 --> 01:45:58,375 the clandestine service because of it. 2387 01:45:58,459 --> 01:45:59,709 Lawyer: Mm-hmm. 2388 01:46:02,751 --> 01:46:04,751 Did you have anything to do with the destruction 2389 01:46:04,834 --> 01:46:06,042 of those videotapes? 2390 01:46:06,125 --> 01:46:07,042 No. 2391 01:46:07,125 --> 01:46:08,792 Lawyer: Did you have any conversations 2392 01:46:08,876 --> 01:46:10,125 with anybody at any time 2393 01:46:10,209 --> 01:46:11,751 about the destruction of those videotapes 2394 01:46:11,834 --> 01:46:12,792 other than your lawyers? 2395 01:46:12,876 --> 01:46:13,709 Yes. 2396 01:46:13,792 --> 01:46:16,042 Mitchell: I told the... 2397 01:46:16,125 --> 01:46:17,459 I forget what he's called, 2398 01:46:17,542 --> 01:46:19,375 I think the chief of clandestine service, 2399 01:46:19,459 --> 01:46:22,709 that I thought those videotapes should be destroyed 2400 01:46:22,792 --> 01:46:25,334 because I, I thought they were ugly 2401 01:46:25,417 --> 01:46:27,834 and they would, you know, 2402 01:46:27,918 --> 01:46:30,000 potentially endanger our lives 2403 01:46:30,083 --> 01:46:31,876 by putting our pictures out, 2404 01:46:31,959 --> 01:46:34,918 uh, so that the bad guys could see us. 2405 01:46:35,000 --> 01:46:36,959 Rizzo: When I learned that they had been destroyed, 2406 01:46:37,042 --> 01:46:39,500 I was beside myself. 2407 01:46:39,584 --> 01:46:42,459 But I was told, "Oh, your lawyers signed off on this." 2408 01:46:42,542 --> 01:46:44,751 That piqued my interest, needless to say. 2409 01:46:46,500 --> 01:46:48,250 But the final approval authority 2410 01:46:48,334 --> 01:46:51,083 on the actual directive to the field station 2411 01:46:51,167 --> 01:46:52,709 that was holding these tapes 2412 01:46:52,792 --> 01:46:54,125 was Mr. Rodriguez. 2413 01:46:54,209 --> 01:46:59,167 And it was drafted by Mr. Rodriguez's chief of staff. 2414 01:46:59,250 --> 01:47:02,334 Gibney: Mr. Rodriguez's chief of staff was Gina Haspel, 2415 01:47:02,417 --> 01:47:06,667 who would rise to become the CIA director in 2017. 2416 01:47:06,751 --> 01:47:10,000 Neither she nor Mr. Rodriguez was punished 2417 01:47:10,083 --> 01:47:12,959 or charged with a crime for destroying evidence. 2418 01:47:13,042 --> 01:47:15,334 The tapes were destroyed for one reason, 2419 01:47:15,417 --> 01:47:18,167 and that was because they were so damned incriminating 2420 01:47:18,250 --> 01:47:19,792 with regard to going beyond, 2421 01:47:19,876 --> 01:47:21,626 going well beyond anything that, 2422 01:47:21,709 --> 01:47:24,042 you know, you would have had to have said, "That's torture." 2423 01:47:24,125 --> 01:47:26,375 That's torture, clear and plain. 2424 01:47:26,459 --> 01:47:29,250 It is not covered by the Bybee memo, the Yoo memo, 2425 01:47:29,334 --> 01:47:31,542 it's not covered by anything, that's torture. 2426 01:47:33,000 --> 01:47:36,125 ("The Blue Danube Waltz" continues) 2427 01:47:43,792 --> 01:47:48,125 Margulies: The best evidence of what happened is the video. 2428 01:47:48,209 --> 01:47:51,334 So the destruction of the tapes was 2429 01:47:51,417 --> 01:47:53,292 an-an-an egregious abuse. 2430 01:47:54,584 --> 01:47:56,834 You could never capture 2431 01:47:56,918 --> 01:47:58,876 what took place at Abu Ghraib 2432 01:47:58,959 --> 01:48:00,667 without the pictures. 2433 01:48:00,751 --> 01:48:03,834 We have a dialog about Abu Ghraib 2434 01:48:03,918 --> 01:48:06,834 because the pictures exist. 2435 01:48:06,918 --> 01:48:09,167 Well, we don't have that with Abu Zubaydah. 2436 01:48:09,250 --> 01:48:12,250 So we asked him to draw what was done to him 2437 01:48:12,334 --> 01:48:13,834 as best he could reconstruct it. 2438 01:48:13,918 --> 01:48:15,334 To understand it. 2439 01:48:20,792 --> 01:48:23,334 Jones: I came to the Senate in January of 2007. 2440 01:48:23,417 --> 01:48:25,167 By the end of that year, 2441 01:48:25,250 --> 01:48:26,709 there was a "New York Times" article 2442 01:48:26,792 --> 01:48:29,542 that came out that said the CIA had destroyed 2443 01:48:29,626 --> 01:48:33,709 interrogation videotapes from early 2002. 2444 01:48:33,792 --> 01:48:35,417 The Senate Intelligence Committee had been looking 2445 01:48:35,500 --> 01:48:37,000 to learn more about this program 2446 01:48:37,083 --> 01:48:38,667 for a very long time. 2447 01:48:38,751 --> 01:48:41,125 They had no idea that tapes existed, 2448 01:48:41,209 --> 01:48:43,209 so they call the CIA and demand 2449 01:48:43,292 --> 01:48:45,584 that the then CIA director, Michael Hayden, 2450 01:48:45,667 --> 01:48:47,709 come to the Committee to explain 2451 01:48:47,792 --> 01:48:49,542 the destruction of tapes. 2452 01:48:49,626 --> 01:48:51,292 I'm very delighted to come on down 2453 01:48:51,375 --> 01:48:53,334 and lay out the facts as we know them, 2454 01:48:53,417 --> 01:48:54,584 and we'll be very happy 2455 01:48:54,667 --> 01:48:56,834 to let the facts take us where they will. 2456 01:48:56,918 --> 01:48:58,125 Michael Hayden testifies 2457 01:48:58,209 --> 01:49:00,209 that this was not destruction of evidence. 2458 01:49:00,292 --> 01:49:02,042 In fact, the CIA has 2459 01:49:02,125 --> 01:49:03,918 very detailed written records 2460 01:49:04,000 --> 01:49:06,334 of everything that happened at the detention site, 2461 01:49:06,417 --> 01:49:08,209 so it didn't need those videotapes. 2462 01:49:08,292 --> 01:49:09,918 There are written records. 2463 01:49:10,000 --> 01:49:11,959 And he says if the committee wants to see those records, 2464 01:49:12,042 --> 01:49:13,626 of course it can see those records. 2465 01:49:13,709 --> 01:49:15,792 So what does the committee say immediately? 2466 01:49:15,876 --> 01:49:17,834 "We want to see these records tomorrow." 2467 01:49:18,876 --> 01:49:20,542 The committee finally acquires 2468 01:49:20,626 --> 01:49:22,709 those heavily redacted cables 2469 01:49:22,792 --> 01:49:24,959 in May of 2008, 2470 01:49:25,042 --> 01:49:27,417 and myself and two other Senate staffers 2471 01:49:27,500 --> 01:49:28,626 are sent to the CIA 2472 01:49:28,709 --> 01:49:31,334 to review these cables and write a report. 2473 01:49:32,459 --> 01:49:33,751 The CIA eventually gave us 2474 01:49:33,834 --> 01:49:37,167 6.3 million pages of documents. 2475 01:49:37,250 --> 01:49:40,959 We identified at least 119 CIA detainees. 2476 01:49:41,042 --> 01:49:43,375 Reporter: But at the heart of this release today 2477 01:49:43,459 --> 01:49:45,834 is the conclusion that the interrogations 2478 01:49:45,918 --> 01:49:48,334 did not make the country safer 2479 01:49:48,417 --> 01:49:50,459 and that the CIA misled 2480 01:49:50,542 --> 01:49:52,584 the Bush administration about the program. 2481 01:49:52,667 --> 01:49:54,500 Jones: We saw constant manipulation 2482 01:49:54,584 --> 01:49:56,417 of the White House, the Department of Justice, 2483 01:49:56,500 --> 01:49:57,667 and Congress by the CIA. 2484 01:49:57,751 --> 01:49:59,250 I mean, this is what I thought would be 2485 01:49:59,334 --> 01:50:00,584 the most important finding 2486 01:50:00,667 --> 01:50:03,167 coming out of the Senate Intelligence Committee report. 2487 01:50:03,250 --> 01:50:05,876 You know, misleading Bush, misleading Obama, 2488 01:50:05,959 --> 01:50:08,876 misleading the Congress, repeatedly we see this. 2489 01:50:08,959 --> 01:50:11,500 John Brennan, CIA director under Obama, 2490 01:50:11,584 --> 01:50:13,417 made a speech after the report came out 2491 01:50:13,500 --> 01:50:15,000 and said we'll never know 2492 01:50:15,083 --> 01:50:17,584 if we could've gotten this intelligence in any other way. 2493 01:50:17,667 --> 01:50:20,250 ...and the ultimate provision of the information 2494 01:50:20,334 --> 01:50:22,626 is unknown and unknowable. 2495 01:50:22,709 --> 01:50:25,292 Jones: But we do know, we have an entire report, 2496 01:50:25,375 --> 01:50:28,125 500 pages here with almost 3,000 footnotes 2497 01:50:28,209 --> 01:50:30,292 and a 7,000-page classified report 2498 01:50:30,375 --> 01:50:31,709 with 38,000 footnotes 2499 01:50:31,792 --> 01:50:33,667 that says we do know that, in fact, 2500 01:50:33,751 --> 01:50:35,042 the capture of Jose Padilla 2501 01:50:35,125 --> 01:50:36,667 did not come from the waterboarding 2502 01:50:36,751 --> 01:50:37,959 of Abu Zubaydah. 2503 01:50:38,042 --> 01:50:40,209 We do know that, because the records are there. 2504 01:50:40,292 --> 01:50:42,167 We tortured some folks. 2505 01:50:42,250 --> 01:50:44,959 We did some things that were contrary to our values. 2506 01:50:45,042 --> 01:50:47,042 It's important for us 2507 01:50:47,125 --> 01:50:48,959 not to, 2508 01:50:49,042 --> 01:50:52,292 uh, feel too sanctimonious 2509 01:50:52,375 --> 01:50:53,876 in retrospect 2510 01:50:53,959 --> 01:50:56,083 about the tough job that those folks have. 2511 01:50:56,167 --> 01:50:58,000 And a lot of those folks 2512 01:50:58,083 --> 01:51:00,626 were working hard, 2513 01:51:00,709 --> 01:51:04,834 under enormous pressure, and are real patriots. 2514 01:51:04,918 --> 01:51:07,209 But having said all that... 2515 01:51:07,292 --> 01:51:10,417 we did some things that were wrong. 2516 01:51:10,500 --> 01:51:12,667 Jones: I remember hearing that line about patriots 2517 01:51:12,751 --> 01:51:14,375 and thinking about the people 2518 01:51:14,459 --> 01:51:16,167 who said they were resigning from the CIA, 2519 01:51:16,250 --> 01:51:18,292 people who said they didn't want to be involved in this program 2520 01:51:18,375 --> 01:51:21,042 and the people who engaged in the torture, 2521 01:51:21,125 --> 01:51:22,292 who defended the torture. 2522 01:51:22,375 --> 01:51:26,542 And this is who Obama identifies as real patriots. 2523 01:51:26,626 --> 01:51:29,042 Gibney: The word "patriot" struck a chord with me. 2524 01:51:29,125 --> 01:51:31,500 So long as you believe you're a patriot, 2525 01:51:31,584 --> 01:51:33,834 do the ends always justify the means? 2526 01:51:33,918 --> 01:51:35,876 And if we all believe that, 2527 01:51:35,959 --> 01:51:38,417 are we prepared to abandon our principles 2528 01:51:38,500 --> 01:51:39,959 in order to defend them? 2529 01:51:42,709 --> 01:51:44,542 Jose Rodriguez and James Mitchell 2530 01:51:44,626 --> 01:51:45,876 both live in Florida. 2531 01:51:45,959 --> 01:51:48,334 Mitchell's company grossed $81 million 2532 01:51:48,417 --> 01:51:50,125 for his interrogation services. 2533 01:51:50,209 --> 01:51:52,959 Rodriguez became an intelligence consultant 2534 01:51:53,042 --> 01:51:54,626 working for IBM. 2535 01:51:54,709 --> 01:51:56,751 He has a fondness for Corvettes and Harleys 2536 01:51:56,834 --> 01:51:58,792 and owns a 30-foot powerboat 2537 01:51:58,876 --> 01:52:01,375 called "Shaken, Not Stirred." 2538 01:52:01,459 --> 01:52:02,792 It's a great thing about this government, 2539 01:52:02,876 --> 01:52:04,250 the only people that ever stand up 2540 01:52:04,334 --> 01:52:06,626 and tell the truth are who, intelligence officers, 2541 01:52:06,709 --> 01:52:08,876 because our culture is never break faith with the truth. 2542 01:52:08,959 --> 01:52:11,500 We'll tell you, you don't have to drag it out of us. 2543 01:52:21,500 --> 01:52:22,918 Mitchell: You're not going to get me 2544 01:52:23,000 --> 01:52:24,292 to say I think it's torture. 2545 01:52:24,375 --> 01:52:25,918 You might as well just quit. 2546 01:52:26,000 --> 01:52:28,334 If you want to think it's torture, think what you want to think. 2547 01:52:28,417 --> 01:52:30,584 I'm not in the business of controlling your mind, 2548 01:52:30,667 --> 01:52:32,667 nor am I in the business of trying to coerce you 2549 01:52:32,751 --> 01:52:34,584 into saying something that you don't believe 2550 01:52:34,667 --> 01:52:36,876 or want to comment on. 2551 01:52:37,000 --> 01:52:40,042 This was the least worse of two bad choices. 2552 01:52:40,125 --> 01:52:41,751 Both choices suck. 2553 01:52:41,834 --> 01:52:43,876 Both choices are bad. 2554 01:52:43,959 --> 01:52:45,667 But on the one hand, you have 2555 01:52:45,751 --> 01:52:47,292 thousands of dead Americans 2556 01:52:47,375 --> 01:52:48,667 and on the other hand, you have 2557 01:52:48,751 --> 01:52:50,834 the temporary discomfort of a terrorist. 2558 01:52:52,375 --> 01:52:55,167 I thought there was going to be a major catastrophic attack 2559 01:52:55,250 --> 01:52:57,959 that was going to kill millions of Americans. 2560 01:52:58,042 --> 01:52:59,250 And, uh... 2561 01:53:04,417 --> 01:53:07,459 I thought that my government had asked me 2562 01:53:07,542 --> 01:53:09,751 to stop it. 2563 01:53:09,834 --> 01:53:13,125 And I felt responsible... for doing that. 2564 01:53:13,209 --> 01:53:14,709 That's what I thought. 2565 01:53:20,876 --> 01:53:22,375 Gibney: From near his home in Florida, 2566 01:53:22,459 --> 01:53:24,918 Mitchell can paddle to the Gulf of Mexico. 2567 01:53:26,250 --> 01:53:27,542 From there, it's a straight shot 2568 01:53:27,626 --> 01:53:29,626 to Cuba and Guantanamo, 2569 01:53:29,709 --> 01:53:32,334 where Abu Zubaydah lives out his days. 2570 01:53:32,417 --> 01:53:34,000 As its creators intended, 2571 01:53:34,083 --> 01:53:36,459 Gitmo is a kind of nowhere land 2572 01:53:36,542 --> 01:53:38,709 outside of time and place. 2573 01:53:38,792 --> 01:53:42,167 The images you see here were shot by me in 2006. 2574 01:53:42,250 --> 01:53:44,292 The government won't permit me to return, 2575 01:53:44,375 --> 01:53:46,459 so I depend on others to tell me 2576 01:53:46,542 --> 01:53:47,876 not much has changed. 2577 01:53:47,959 --> 01:53:51,334 Fast food, first-run movies, 2578 01:53:51,417 --> 01:53:53,500 the gift shop where I bought my T-shirt, 2579 01:53:53,584 --> 01:53:57,459 sporting a local joke about interrogators. 2580 01:53:57,542 --> 01:53:59,834 After Thailand, Abu Zubaydah would be sent 2581 01:53:59,918 --> 01:54:01,417 to black sites in Poland, 2582 01:54:01,500 --> 01:54:03,292 Lithuania, and Morocco. 2583 01:54:03,375 --> 01:54:05,334 When he first landed in Gitmo, 2584 01:54:05,417 --> 01:54:08,083 he was imprisoned in the secret CIA unit 2585 01:54:08,167 --> 01:54:10,334 known as Strawberry Fields, 2586 01:54:10,417 --> 01:54:11,918 as in forever. 2587 01:54:12,000 --> 01:54:15,042 ♪ Strawberry fields forever ♪ 2588 01:54:15,125 --> 01:54:17,250 Recently, along with the 13 others 2589 01:54:17,334 --> 01:54:19,500 held in indefinite detention, 2590 01:54:19,584 --> 01:54:23,209 he was moved to Guantanamo's Camp V. 2591 01:54:23,292 --> 01:54:26,375 No one will say what kind of law governs Abu Zubaydah. 2592 01:54:26,459 --> 01:54:28,167 So he has two legal teams, 2593 01:54:28,250 --> 01:54:31,459 one civilian and one for the military commissions. 2594 01:54:31,542 --> 01:54:33,751 His military lawyer, Chantell Higgins, 2595 01:54:33,834 --> 01:54:35,167 sees him most often. 2596 01:54:37,000 --> 01:54:39,500 Zayn is a colorful storyteller. 2597 01:54:40,292 --> 01:54:41,334 Very funny. 2598 01:54:41,417 --> 01:54:43,918 Always well-dressed. Very particular. 2599 01:54:44,000 --> 01:54:47,792 He's a sort of a... 2600 01:54:47,876 --> 01:54:50,626 how do I say it, a diva. (laughs) 2601 01:54:53,209 --> 01:54:55,959 Gibney: Does he suffer from some kind of PTSD? 2602 01:54:56,042 --> 01:54:58,125 I don't know how anyone could have endured that 2603 01:54:58,209 --> 01:55:00,584 and not suffered from PTSD. 2604 01:55:00,667 --> 01:55:03,125 I know that he has nightmares about drowning. 2605 01:55:04,167 --> 01:55:05,751 Waking up and drowning. 2606 01:55:16,959 --> 01:55:18,918 Gibney: To what extent does Abu Zubaydah remember 2607 01:55:19,000 --> 01:55:20,751 anything about James Mitchell? 2608 01:55:20,834 --> 01:55:22,834 Does he remember who he was? 2609 01:55:22,918 --> 01:55:24,250 (sighs) 2610 01:55:25,918 --> 01:55:29,125 Uh, yeah, he remembers very clearly who he was. 2611 01:55:30,584 --> 01:55:31,751 Yeah. 2612 01:55:31,834 --> 01:55:34,209 Gibney: And does he understand that he was the guy 2613 01:55:34,292 --> 01:55:36,042 who designed these techniques? 2614 01:55:36,125 --> 01:55:37,250 He does. 2615 01:55:37,334 --> 01:55:39,792 I think all the detainees understand that by now. 2616 01:55:42,125 --> 01:55:45,542 Rizzo: Abu Zubaydah was the first high-level detainee. 2617 01:55:45,626 --> 01:55:47,125 But he's not one of the ones 2618 01:55:47,209 --> 01:55:50,542 who have actually been charged by the military commissions. 2619 01:55:50,626 --> 01:55:54,959 So his status is... really permanent limbo. 2620 01:55:55,042 --> 01:55:56,709 I can't imagine any US President 2621 01:55:56,792 --> 01:55:59,250 in any US administration ever letting him go. 2622 01:55:59,334 --> 01:56:02,334 But what do you do with him? 2623 01:56:02,417 --> 01:56:04,167 Lt. Col. Chantell Higgins: In America, we have this thing 2624 01:56:04,250 --> 01:56:06,292 called innocent until proven guilty. 2625 01:56:06,375 --> 01:56:08,250 If we think they're guilty of something 2626 01:56:08,334 --> 01:56:10,250 we should take them to trial, 2627 01:56:10,334 --> 01:56:12,876 give them opportunity to be heard, 2628 01:56:12,959 --> 01:56:16,167 sentence them accordingly, and send them on their way. 2629 01:56:17,542 --> 01:56:20,709 It's just inhumane 2630 01:56:20,792 --> 01:56:24,125 to... detain someone... 2631 01:56:24,959 --> 01:56:27,209 and not give them rights. 2632 01:56:27,876 --> 01:56:28,876 Period. 2633 01:56:31,083 --> 01:56:32,667 Mora: Almost half of the American public believes 2634 01:56:32,751 --> 01:56:35,042 that the use of torture is acceptable. 2635 01:56:35,125 --> 01:56:37,709 There's growing acceptance of the use of cruelty 2636 01:56:37,792 --> 01:56:39,000 as a tool 2637 01:56:39,083 --> 01:56:41,500 to address social situations 2638 01:56:41,584 --> 01:56:43,667 or national security crises. 2639 01:56:43,751 --> 01:56:45,542 And I think in the right combination of situations, 2640 01:56:45,626 --> 01:56:48,834 you have other individuals who'll say, 2641 01:56:48,918 --> 01:56:51,250 "This is another tool we should use again," 2642 01:56:51,334 --> 01:56:53,667 and we'll go back to use it despite all the reasons 2643 01:56:53,751 --> 01:56:56,042 why it shouldn't be countenanced again. 2644 01:56:59,667 --> 01:57:01,334 Gibney: For nearly 20 years, 2645 01:57:01,417 --> 01:57:04,042 Abu Zubaydah has been in US custody. 2646 01:57:04,125 --> 01:57:06,375 In all that time, the man with one eye 2647 01:57:06,459 --> 01:57:07,751 and one good leg 2648 01:57:07,834 --> 01:57:11,626 has remained mostly incommunicado. 2649 01:57:11,709 --> 01:57:13,626 I can see some of his drawings. 2650 01:57:13,709 --> 01:57:15,459 I can read censored letters, 2651 01:57:15,542 --> 01:57:17,542 and the briefs of his lawyers. 2652 01:57:17,626 --> 01:57:19,375 But I cannot talk to him. 2653 01:57:19,459 --> 01:57:21,000 His voice has been kept silent, 2654 01:57:21,083 --> 01:57:23,250 just as the CIA promised. 2655 01:57:24,417 --> 01:57:26,125 He's the forever prisoner 2656 01:57:26,209 --> 01:57:27,709 meant to fade from memory 2657 01:57:27,792 --> 01:57:30,542 like old photographs left in the sun. 2658 01:57:42,042 --> 01:57:43,792 Twenty years after 9/11, 2659 01:57:43,876 --> 01:57:45,542 I'm stirred to remember the innocents 2660 01:57:45,626 --> 01:57:47,792 who died on that day. 2661 01:57:47,876 --> 01:57:50,000 But I'm also stirred to remember the purpose 2662 01:57:50,083 --> 01:57:52,209 of that vicious attack. 2663 01:57:52,292 --> 01:57:53,792 It wasn't to win a war. 2664 01:57:53,876 --> 01:57:55,417 It was to provoke us to abandon 2665 01:57:55,500 --> 01:57:59,250 the principles of democracy we claim to live by. 2666 01:57:59,334 --> 01:58:01,626 The forever prisoner is a living reminder 2667 01:58:01,709 --> 01:58:03,876 of one of the ideals we abandoned: 2668 01:58:03,959 --> 01:58:06,167 equal justice under the law. 2669 01:58:06,250 --> 01:58:07,709 As the saying goes, 2670 01:58:07,792 --> 01:58:10,500 there is no them, there is only us. 2671 01:58:11,500 --> 01:58:13,167 If we believe in that idea, 2672 01:58:13,250 --> 01:58:15,959 how can we imprison a man without charge 2673 01:58:16,042 --> 01:58:18,167 for the remainder of his life? 2674 01:58:18,250 --> 01:58:20,209 Not for what he did to us... 2675 01:58:20,292 --> 01:58:22,667 but for what we did to him. 2676 01:58:23,751 --> 01:58:26,626 ♪ ♪ 2677 01:58:28,334 --> 01:58:31,417 ♪ ♪