George Tenet's Mixed Legacy: Interrogation

Thursday, May 17, 2007

By Bill Hemmer, FoxNews' America's Newsroom

April 26, 2007

Bill Hemmer: Good Morning Tim.

Tim Roemer: Hey Bill, how are you?

Hemmer: Just take, I’m fine thank you, just listen to that statement for a moment there. He is saying that this program is better than anything else we had going.

Roemer: I think he went further than that Bill. I think he went on to say that it was better than anything the CIA, the FBI, or the National Security Agency had going. First of all, I think we do need to use aggressive techniques, but they can’t violate our treaties and our constitution and our values. Otherwise they result in problems like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and they lead to fuel on the fire for motivation for more terrorists, and they lead to the second generations of terrorists.

Hemmer: Tim, everything I can from this interview says that we broke no laws. Here’s another quote from it:

“The context is it’s post-9/11. I’ve got reports of nuclear weapons in New York City, apartment buildings that are gonna blow up, planes that are gonna fly into airports all over again, plot lines that I don’t know…Everybody forgets one central context of whatever we lived through…the palpable fear that we felt on the basis of the fact that there was so much we did not know.”

Controversial program, he says, but it saved lives, Tim.

Roemer: Well you need to be aggressive Bill, as I’ve said, but you can’t go so far. Maybe [Tenet] isn’t saying this is to create the next generation of terrorists that we’re dealing with now. But we are seeing problems.

You just reported this story on the terrorists coming out of London that wanted to bomb the United States and bomb buildings here. We are seeing the terrorists come back in Waziristan and on the border of Pakistan. We are seeing the terrorists come back into Afghanistan with record numbers of suicide bombers. We are seeing al-Qaeda align with forces in Northern Africa with bombings in Algeria and Morocco. So, we need to make sure that we have a very aggressive technique here, but not torture. We need to make sure we latch up our Special Operations to this, and we also need to make sure we have good human intelligence that doesn’t just get people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after they’ve pulled off these bombings.

Hemmer: I understand your point. Let me get into number three before we run out of time. He says:

“We don’t torture people. OK?”

That’s what he says to Scott Pelley of CBS.

“These are people who will never, ever, ever tell you a thing. These are people who know who’s responsible for the next terrorist attack, who would not blink an eyelash about killing you, your family, me and my family, and everybody in this town.”

You know based on what we’re seeing from al-Qaeda in Iraq today, based on the events of 2,800 dead in New York City on 9/11, point’s pretty well taken.

Roemer: No doubt about it that al-Qaeda wants to continue to inflict pain and damage around the world. They’re getting stronger. As the Scotland Yard Director of Counterterrorism said recently: al Qaeda are on the march, they are on the move, and they are gaining strength, and we have to have a more comprehensive foreign policy to take this into affect, rebuild our human intelligence, win the hearts and minds, and also have a strong military. Just one more thing, Bill.

Hemmer: Sure.

Roemer: There is this great article in Atlantic Monthly by Mark Bowden, I know you’ve read his book on Black Hawk Down; he’s talking about aggressive techniques for interrogation that led to information to nail Zarqawi that were legal…and within our treaties…and very effective.

Hemmer: I’ll check that out.

Roemer: Alright.

Hemmer: Tim Roemer, good to have you.

Roemer: Good to see you.

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