Washington - A former CIA agent says captured al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah was subjected to waterboarding, an interrogation method that critics view as torture, US media reported Tuesday. Retired CIA officer John Kiriakou said he regrets the agency's use of the mock-drowning technique, but believed at the time that it was a legitimate way to prevent further terrorist strikes after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Waterboarding broke Zubaydah, an associate of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in less than 35 seconds and the next day he agreed to cooperate with interrogators, Kiriakou told ABC television.
"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," he told the Washington Post.
Zubaydah was the first major al-Qaeda suspect captured after the September 11 attacks. Kiriakou said the waterboarding was described to him by fellow CIA team members.
"At the time, I felt that waterboarding was something that we needed to do. And as time has passed, and as September 11th has, you know, has moved farther and farther back into history, I think I have changed my mind," he told ABC.
The first public comment by a CIA officer who handled top al-Qaeda suspects came as the agency and the US Justice Department investigate how CIA tapes of harsh interrogations came to be destroyed in 2005, who knew about it, and when.
CIA chief Michael Hayden headed to Congress on Tuesday for two days of closed-door hearings on the issue by the intelligence committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Hayden was not in charge of the CIA when the tapes were destroyed.
At least two tapes, made in 2002, documented interrogations of Zubaydah and another top al-Qaeda member. Hayden said last week that the videos were destroyed to protect the identity of the CIA agents.
Senior lawmakers in the Democratic-led Congress have questioned that explanation and pressed for a full probe, alleging the CIA wanted to cover up torture and protect its agents against possible criminal prosecution.
Bush refuses to discuss specific US interrogation methods, but he has repeatedly said the United States does not torture. He says Hayden told him about the destroyed tapes last week.
