In a New York Times op-ed on April 22, 2009, Ali Soufan, the FBI interrogator of al Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaydah, wrote: “There was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn’t, or couldn’t have been, gained from regular tactics. In addition, I saw that using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions–all of which are still classified. The short sightedness behind the use of these techniques ignored the unreliability of the methods, the nature of the threat, the mentality and modus operandi of the terrorists, and due process.”
– Ali Soufan, “My Tortured Decision,” The New York Times, April 22, 2009