Waterboarding worth it? Options

[impala454]

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1150278120071211

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA officials extracted valuable information from a terrorism suspect after he was subjected to waterboarding, a simulated drowning technique that has been condemned as torture, a former CIA interrogator told U.S. new media.

Suspected al Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaida offered to cooperate less than a minute after CIA officials subjected him to the controversial technique, former CIA interrogator John Kiriakou told ABC News and the Washington Post.

"It was like flipping a switch," Kiriakou told the Post. He said the session yielded valuable information and probably helped prevent attacks, but he now believes waterboarding is torture and "Americans are better than that."

Pretty interesting. I didn't realize it was less than a minute. All I'd ever heard (admittedly from the media) is that waterboarding wasn't a reliable means of extracting information. This story would seem to contradict that. And destroying the tape to prevent retaliation against the interrogaters would seem to make sense. Although I'm sure some would cry that they're lying.