“From March until June 2002, the FBI began a rapport-building method of dealing with [al Qaeda operations chief] Abu Zubaydah… According to [FBI Agent Ali] Soufan, FBI’s top experts on al-Qaeda and fluent in Arabic, he and [FBI Agent Steve] Gaudin were able to gain the confidence of Abu Zubaydah with the use of proven FBI interrogation techniques. Under their supervision, Abu Zubaydah eventually identified Khalid Sheikh Mohammed as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks and the Jose Padilla dirty bomb plot. The arrival of CIA interrogators, specifically James Mitchell, brought a drastic change in the treatment of Abu Zubaydah. Soufan described the CIA’s method of interrogation to be ‘borderline torture’ after observing a coffin-like box that Mitchell had built for Abu Zubaydah. Soufan objected directly to the CIA, but he was assured that the procedures had been approved ‘at the highest levels.’ Distressed at what was happening at the CIA ‘black site,’ Soufan described the methods of the CIA’s interrogation to FBI counterterrorism Assistant Director Pasquale D’Amuro, who in turn brought the concerns to the Bureau’s Director, Robert Mueller. Mueller ordered Soufan and other FBI agents home, and soon thereafter, issued a directive banning FBI personnel from participating in CIA interrogations.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– M. Cherif Bassiouni, The Institutionalization of Torture by the Bush Administration, Pages 58-59