Ex-FBI agent criticizes harsh terrorism tactics

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods used during the Bush administration on terrorism suspects produced unreliable evidence and were ineffective, a former FBI agent told Congress on Wednesday.

Ali Soufan made the charge before a Senate Judiciary panel in the first congressional hearing since the release last month of Justice Department memos that authorized tactics such as waterboarding, sleep and food deprivation and forced nudity.

"These techniques ... are ineffective, slow and unreliable and as a result harmful to our efforts to defeat al Qaeda," said Soufan, who noted that he obtained valuable intelligence from al Qaeda suspects without using harsh methods.

He said he objected to the practices of CIA interrogators.

"I could not stand by quietly while our country's safety was endangered and our moral standing damaged," he said.

The hearing occurred amid increasing calls by human rights groups for more investigation and perhaps even criminal prosecutions of Bush administration officials for the techniques denounced by critics as illegal torture.

Soufan also interrogated prisoners at Guantanamo and was a key prosecution witness last year during the only two trials completed in the special tribunals at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba. His testimony helped convict Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan, and al Qaeda videographer Ali Hamza al Bahlul.

Soufan, born in Lebanon, was one of a handful of native Arabic speakers at the FBI before the September 11 attacks and was one of the bureau's top experts on al Qaeda.