FILE - In this Oct. 29, 2010 file photo, Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan briefs reporters at the White House in Washington. Brennan, now President Barack Obama's nominee to be CIA director, withdrew from consideration for the job in 2008 amid criticism over the agency's use of harsh interrogation techniques, like waterboarding, against terrorist suspects. This time, in 2013, he's making it clear he strongly opposes such practices. Former and current U.S. intelligence officials say Brennan wasn't so vocal a decade ago. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
Brennan doesn't know if waterboarding got results
Published: 08:53:59 PM, Thu 07 February 2013 UTC
WASHINGTON (AP) — CIA nominee John Brennan says he doesn't know whether harsh interrogation methods have produced valuable information — because of what he's read in a still-classified report on the issue.
Speaking at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, Brennan said that when he was a deputy manager at the CIA, he was told the interrogation methods including waterboarding produced "valuable information." But after reading the Senate committee's report, he does not know what the truth is and needs to study it further.
Brennan says he was aware of the CIA's interrogation program during the administration of President George W. Bush, but, in his words, "played no role in the creation, execution or oversight."
He says he shared misgivings about it with CIA personnel, but was in no position to stop it.
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