CIA waterboarding 'broke suspect after 35 seconds'

A former CIA officer involved in the capture and interrogation of al-Qaida suspect Abu Zubaida, has revealed on television that he was tortured by 'waterboarding' thereby incriminating his fellow agents in a felony. John Kiriakou, who was based in Pakistan for the CIA and is now retired from the agency admitted that Zubaida was subjected to a process of controlled drowning during which his lungs were filled with water and he was made to believe he was dying. "It was like flipping a switch," said Kiriakou the first person directly involved in the questioning of any high level al-Qaida detainees to speak out. He told ABC News that Zubaida was being defiant and uncooperative mid summer 2002 when he was tied down on a board, his nose and mouth wrapped cellophane to stop him breathing while water was forced down his throat. As the terrified detainee struggled for air water poured into his lungs and he broke down in about 35 seconds. Kiriakou said he was carefully briefed on what had happened. The next day, Zubaida told his torturers that he would tell them whatever they wanted to know. "He said that Allah had come to him in his cell and told him to cooperate, because it would make things easier for his brothers," Kiriakou said. The information allegedly thwarted several attacks by Al Qai'da and "probably saved lives," but Kirakou now says that he regards waterboarding as torture and un-American. Zubaida became resistant when asked to reveal details about al-Qaida's plans and leaders. He was then flown to a "black site" or secret CIA prison, where he was interrogated more harshly. "You have one more opportunity to cooperate. My guys are telling me that you're being a jerk," Kiriakou told Zubaida before the waterboarding began. "They're being jerks, too," Kiriakou says he replied. The former undercover CIA officer now apparently regrets ordering the waterboarding although he maintains that it provided a vital break that probably helped the CIA deter attacks. Crucially, he now says waterboarding is torture, and "Americans are better than that." His evidence may be crucial as investigations begin into the use of torture and other illegal methods in the Bush Administration's "war on terror." Zubaida, who is being held in Guantanamo Bay, has stated in legal documents that he told those torturing him whatever they wanted to hear in order to make the torture stop. When the recordings were destroyed, the CIA was under orders from several federal courts to preserve interrogation and detention records of terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11 attacks. Abu Zubaida's interrogation led to the capture of several of those now in Guantanamo Bay and their lawyers maintain that all recordings of his interrogation should have been saved. "The revelation that the CIA destroyed these videotapes raises grave concerns about the government's compliance with the preservation order entered by this court," wrote Marc Falkoff the lawyer for a Yemeni Mohmoad Abdah. In court papers he says that the CIA illegally flouted a June 2005 court order to the government to "preserve and maintain all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba."