Did Torture Work?

Richard Esposito and Brian Ross report for ABC News: "Kiriakou said the feeling in the months after the 9/11 attacks was that interrogators did not have the time to delve into the agency's bag of other interrogation tricks. . . .

"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've changed my mind," he told ABC News.

Here's the video of the interview, and parts one and two of the transcript.

Kiriakou described a considerable paper trail.

Kiriakou: "The cable traffic back and forth was extremely specific. And the bottom line was these were very unusual authorities that the agency got after 9/11. No one wanted to mess them up. No one wanted to get in trouble by going overboard. So it was extremely deliberate. . . . "

Ross raised the issue of false confessions -- but didn't confront Kiriakou with Suskind's reporting.

Ross: "Was there concern that-- the techniques would result in false confessions? He would just say something?"

Kiriakou: "Oh, there was always that concern."

Ross: "And how do you guard against that?"

Kiriakou: "Well, the only way that you really can at least partially guard against that is to not do these things regularly. That's why so few people were-- were water boarded. . . . [Y]ou really wanted it to be a last resort. Because we didn't want these false confessions. We didn't want wild goose chases. . . . "

Ross: "Was he ever caught in a lie?"

Kiriakou: "No."