Have any government officials addressed the Vanity Fair article about torture?

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George W. Bush defended harsh interrogations by pointing to intelligence breakthroughs, but a surprising number of counterterrorist officials say that, apart from being wrong, torture just doesn’t work. Delving into two high-profile cases, the author exposes the tactical costs of prisoner abuse.

Tortured Reasoning by David Rose

Only about two weeks ago, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Reyes defended the use of harsh interrogation:

Regarding the CIA's alternative interrogation program, Reyes indicated that his recommendations concerned finding a balance so the agency does not use torture but can get valuable information from suspected terrorists or other detainees.

"There are those that believe that this particular issue has to be dealt with very carefully because there are beliefs that there are some options that need to be available," Reyes said.

"We don't want to be known for torturing people. At the same time we don't want to limit our ability to get information that's vital and critical to our national security," he added. "That's where the new administration is going to have to decide what those parameters are, what those limitations are."

House Democrat urges Obama to keep Bush's intelligence chiefs

How can David Rose find out the torture program didn't work and actually made the world more dangerous while the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee seemingly is unable to do so?

[Mnpaul]

1. Not that article but many have spoken out here

including John Kerry,Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0801.torture.html

It is an extremely slow connection. If you want to read the whole thing, download the pdf. There are many stories similar to the one told by Rose.

[noise]

2. That is a great link

I think Hersh is asking the right questions:

SH (Seymour Hersh): What I have said is that there are a lot of people that I have talked to who will be much easier to talk to after the inauguration of Barack Obama.

I will be writing a book with a very fine publishing house and a very bright group of people; the idea is to write a book from the inside.

I really believe something happened to America; after 9/11 we became a different country. That is fine, presidents sometimes might want to do that, but my issue is how did Bush do it? How did he beat the press? How did he beat the military and Congress and turn everyone into a coward? Why didn't people stand up to him in this situation? In other words, how fragile is the American constitution; it turns out that it is much more fragile than people think.

Seymour Hersh: "After 9/11 We Became a Different Country"

Maybe we will find out why the Bush administration got away with such an absurd interrogation program:

The very fact that Mr. Martinez, a career narcotics analyst who did not speak the terrorists’ native languages and had no interrogation experience, would end up as a crucial player captures the ad-hoc nature of the program. Officials acknowledge that it was cobbled together under enormous pressure in 2002 by an agency nearly devoid of expertise in detention and interrogation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/washington/22ksm.html">Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation