Hello, I’m Charlotte Bellis, and you’re watching Newsy.com.

Charges of U.S.-led torture have led to a political “blame game”… leading many to question—“Did it even work?”

Here’s ABC, with the 2007 interview of a former CIA agent who says waterboarding is illegal, but necessary:

“Al Qaeda is not a WW2 German POW. It’s a different world. These guys hate us. You’re not gonna convince them because you’re a nice guy, they’re gonna confess and give you their operations.”  (ABC)

Blog Indy Mind and The Examiner bring us two opposing perspectives:

First, Indy Mind writes: “Ultimately the water-boarding… led to multiple foiled plots… disrupting and ultimately stopping [terrorists’] Iraqi operations and many more.”

The Examiner responds with this perspective: “The error inherent in this line of thinking is the assumption that, through torture, the interrogator can extract reliable and accurate intelligence. History and a consideration of human behavior would appear to refute this assumption.”

FOX News brings us former Vice President Dick Cheney, who says waterboarding worked:

“There are reports that show specifically what we gained as a result of this activity. They have not been declassified. I formally ask that they be declassified.”
-Dick Cheney (FOX News)


Time magazine retorts: “Just because there were no attacks after 9/11 doesn't necessarily mean that the interrogations deserve the credit.”

While Canada’s Chronicle Herald agrees: “The truth is, it’s not at all clear whether waterboarding did shake critical information … that wouldn’t otherwise have been obtained.”


Stay with Newsy.com as we continue to follow this developing story, and please check out our sources.

U.S. News

Questioning Waterboarding

April 28, 2009
(1:59)
Former Vice President Dick Cheney says waterboarding helped prevent terrorist attacks, sparking questions of the efficiency of the technique.
   
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