if they won't engage, then you move to the more harsh measures. >> even with somebody like khalid sheikh mohammed, let's talk about him. i mean, you walked into a room with khalid sheikh mohammed. >> yeah, i was -- yes. yes, i did. >> what condition was he in? what was he wearing? how was he restrained? >> i don't think he was wearing anything. i don't recall exactly because it's been so long ago. and although that seems very exciting to other people, it was an ordinary part of my life for a long time. so the specifics of a single incident like the very first day, i don't remember that. but in general what i remember about those first interrogations was that he was arrogant. that he was immensely arrogant. that he was disdainful and that he was just -- he had a propensity at that particular point to be confrontational without being physical. >> this is a man, khalid sheikh mohammed, who masterminded the 9/11 attacks, who personally beheaded daniel prole among many other atrocities. did you feel like you were in the presence of evil? >> i felt like i was in the presence of an evil man, that's for

kelley sat down with james mitchell who says waterboarding isn't what broke 9/11 mastermind khalid sheikh mohammed. >> what was it that finally broke khalid sheikh mohammed. >> we felt that waterboarding wasn't particularly effective on him. >> it was not? >> it was not. >> so how did you get him to the point where he wound up providing what we're told is very useful information? >> the other eit, i don't really want to say which ones they were. >> mitchell also described how the release of the report by the senate democrats has him fearing for his life. >> how many times in your life have you had a law enforcement official call you up in the middle of the day and say, leave your house immediately. that happened to me a couple of days ago. >> do you feel your life is in danger? >> of course. you have to be cautious and you do feel your life is in danger? i don't mind, i do not mind giving my life for my country, but i do mind giving my life for a food fight between two people who should be able to work it out like adults. >> i want to play one more soundbite from james mitchell because he talked a

khalid sheikh mohammed. you walked into a room with khalid sheikh mohammed. >> yeah, i was the -- yes. yes, i did. >> what condition was he in? what was he wearing? how was he restrained? >> i don't think he was wearing anything. but in general, what i remember about those first interrogations was that he was arrogant, that he was a mentally arrogant. >> did you feel like you were in the presence of evil? >> well, i felt like i was in the presence of an evil man, that's for sure. >> when you're waterboarding ei understanding what he is and what he did, does this person's humanity, whatever amount of it there is, factor in at all? are you conscious of it? >> those techniques are so harsh that it's emotionally distressing to the people who are administering them. but even though you don't want to do it, you are doing it in order to save lives in the country. khalid sheikh mohammed has the opportunity to address the charges against him, but i don't. that's why i'm angry about this. they have a foregone conclusio

to me, i thought, wow, khalid sheikh mohammed understand it is naivete of the liberal public and the a, that they're going to support his rights and stand up in support of khalid sheikh mohammed's rights but not praise this cia officer. they really do understand us better than we think. >> they exploit it. that's one of the reasons why isis so successful in its propaganda. >> do you really think that's what people are doing? standing up applauding khalid sheikh mohammed? >> no. [inaudible conversations] >> no, no, no. [inaudible conversations] >> human rights. >> more than they're concerned about the life of dr. mitchell. >> no, that is not true. >> it is true. >> couple things. one, the cia officers and operatives complied with the doj investigation. that's what the senate report relied on because they were told not to -- because they were not being compelled to cooperate with the senate investigation. it's not like the senate investigation had a big office christmas party and didn't invite them. >> listen, this is going to pain -- >> he and his partner made $81 million. >> this is g

okay. >> pelley: come on, george. >> we don't torture people. >> khalid sheikh mohammed. >> we don'tture people. >> pelley: waterboarding. it's torture. >> i don't talk about techniques and we don't torture people. listen to me. i want you to listen to me. the context is it's post-9/11. i've got reports of nuclear weapons in new york city. apartment buildings that are going to be blown up. planes that are going to fly into airports all over gene. plot lines that i don't know-- i don't know what's going on inside the united states and i'm struggling to find out where the next disaster is going to occur. everybody forgets one central strl context of what we lived through-- the palpable fear that we felt on the basis of the fact that there was so much we did not know. >> pelley: the. >> pelley: but what what you're essentially saying is some people need to be tortured. >> no, i did not say that. i did not say that. >> pelley: you're telling me enhanced interrogation-- >> i did not say that. we do not-- listen to me. >> you called it in the book enhanced interrogation. >> that's a euphem

martha: he is the man who interrogated khalid sheikh mohammed. james mitchell on what ksm told him about the liberal media and why he can finally tell his side of the story. >> khalid sheikh mohammed has the opportunity to address the charges but i don't. that's why i'm angry. they have a foregone conclusion. they put my life in danger and put the lives of other cia personnel in danger for some sort of moral high ground? even if you've already been vaccinated with another pneumonia vaccine, prevnar 13 ® may help provide additional protection. get this one done. ask your healthcare professional about prevnar 13 ® today. martha: the men charged in a failed plot to bomb the london subway system fail in air appeal. the london authorities say the was a serious plot to subject safety. the home made bombs failed to debt nate. -- detonate. gr.bill: that was the scene we w yesterday in sydney, australia and five minutes before that we saw victims run out with their hand in the air. man haron monis was out on bond facing serious charges. the prime minister

three years later, thousands and thousands of absolutely verifiable intelligence came out of khalid sheikh mohammed, abu zubaydah. the information was no doubt accurate and helpful to us. >> i want to point out, bob, the current director of the cia, john brennan, he was a career cry official. but he was appointed, nominated to be the cia director by president obama. the cia yesterday put out a statement on this very specific point that we're seeing. it says, information that cia obtained from detainees through this enhanced interrogation, played a role in combination with other streams of intelligence in finding osama bin laden. so if john brennan and the cia say this right now, you say what? >> well, listen, i agree with bill harlow. the cia obviously has a position on this. they're not making things up. but what we really need to do is see the interrogation reports and compare them with all the other documentation. it may turn out that the cia is right. but right now, this has become too partisan. we're not getting at the truth. and i think it would behoove the cia to make its case just as it's m

we're going to ask khalid sheikh mohammed would you kindly help us out in learning about the plots thatg trained. and we'll see if you get hit on 9/11. or we'll say we can't conduct the experiment with the lives of thousands of americans. we're going to do everything in our power and we take on the %b ponsibility and it is a deep and a serious one of going beyond the bounds of what we would like to do in ordersafjf safeguard the nation. you do not conduct an experiment in gentle interrogation when the lives of thousands of americans are at stake. >> all good questions. and a sobering thought. charles, it's great to see you. thank you. >> thank you. >>> well, the white house backed the release of this report saying we needed to admit our mistakes, as i mentioned, and take the moral high ground. up next, see what happens when ed henry challenged that argument. >>> and some of the top democrats now attacking the cia say they were never told about these enhanced interrogations. the cia says that is a lie. the investigation into who is telling the truth just ahead. >> madame speaker, just to

one of them is khalid sheikh mohammed. we asked them about abu. one of them, ksm -- >> khalid sheikh mohammed, the man who ordered the attack. >> the man who conceptualized, sold it to bin laden. he told us abu left al qaeda. >> let me interrupt this. at that moment, what was the level of cooperation he was giving you and what was the level of information you trusted? and information that was actionable? >> full and complete. >> you think that was because of what? he was being waterboarded 100 times? >> my officers who conducted these interrogations -- this is said in the agency response, although it is hidden -- my officers believe that they were necessary. this gets to the necessary question. believes they were necessary to get detainees to provide actionable information. >> waterboarding? >> specifically, khalid shaikh mohammed. my officers believe that was necessary. back to the bin laden story. >> they help you get ksm. >> that's what we say. the committee says, no. ksm says, he used to work for al qaeda. the other guy says, i never heard of h

. >> once it came from the cia program, khalid sheikh mohammed, in september of 2006 clearly came out of that program. the ones that were really, we heard the label the worst of the worst. those really that label applied to the khalid sheikh mohammeds that were part of that cia group that ended up at guantanamo and we ended up with the basket of information that the public is now seeing a part of that we were handed and said hey here prosecute these guys. glpped and you were left with feeling that you -- >> and you were held with the feeling you couldn't prosecute with that? >> to me it was fundamentally contrary to american values. we hold ourselves up as the shining city on the hill. to come into court and say this was obtained by torture is contrary to what americans sign up for the military to begin with. i said we are not going to obtain any evidence obtained by -- going to use any evidence obtained by torture. i don't want to push the edge of the envelope to see how much we can get away with. we are building the cases contrary to all this evidence that just came out. late in my

interrogators had to call in medics to revive him. 9/11 plotter khalid sheikh mohammed was waterboarded, nearly drowned 183 times, slammed against walls until, the report says, he started making up stories, a fake nuclear suitcase bomb and a claim that al qaeda was recruiting african-american muslims in montana. abdul al nashiri was blindfolded threatened with a gun near his head and ohio -- a cordless power drill, and given forced enem enemas. all this at first also hidden from the secretary of state colin powell. >> there are cia records stating that colin powell wasn't told about the program at first because there were concerns, and i quote, that powell would blow his stack. >> reporter: republicans warned the report could inspire more terrorism. >> it could be used to incite unrest and even attacks against our service members, other personnel overseas, and our international partners. >> reporter: so does cia director john brennan, acknowledging some mistakes but insisting the interrogations did help thwart attack plans, capture terrorists and save lives. tonight the president spoke

when he's talking about khalid sheikh mohammed, remember khalid sheikh mohammed went to college here,th carolina at&t. he was a clown. they called him bluto because he was drinking and going crazy like many college kids and he turned on the country. >> the one guy who did the water boarding, you think they talked to him? no. never made a phone call. >> you know who we're going to talk to? ainsley earhardt. >> good morning. another fox news alert. disturbing details about the muslim extremists who unleashed australia's worst lone wolf terror attack. he and two other hostages died in the barrage of gunfire you hear there when police stormed that cafe after the 16-hour standoff. we learned the gunman man haron monis had a long rap sheet including 40 sexual assault charges and was accused of assisting a woman to kill his ex-wife. the self-professed radical cleric who said he was inspired by isis wrote hateful letters to families of soldiers killed in afghanistan. monis was free on bail when he took 17 people hostage at gunpoint. >>> an intense manhunt underway for the former marine accuse

2002 and 2009, sometimes before conventional methods had been exhausted. 9/11 mastermind khalid sheikh mohammedured a series of near-drownings which prompted him to share false intelligence ic later recanted. the tactics were devised by a pair of outside psychologists referred to as dunbar and swigert. the report claims neither had any experience as an interrogator, nor did either have specialized knowledge of al qaeda. yet the c.i.a. eventually outsourced 85% of the workforce for detention and interrogation to their company, paying them $81 million. at one detention site in parkistan, the report says detainees were kept in total darkness, shackled to the wall in 45-degree temperatures. one prisoner, gul rahman, died in 2002, apparently from hypothermia. the report's most damning conclusion is that the tactics were ineffective. despite the c.i.a.'s claim that 20 detainees subjected to them shared crucial information, some of which led to osama bin laden. >> our staff reviewed every one of the 20 cases, and not a single case holds up. >> reporter: the report claims the c.i.a. misled congress and

they say he resisted -- cooperated initially and did identify khalid sheikh mohammed but did not give him information to track him down. it was only after they were broken that they gave enough information to track khalid shaikh mohammed to his hideout in pakistan. >> the problem is that is wrong. >> that's not court to the three directors at the time. >> the information provided by the cia at the time, that's why we went underneat what the directors were saying and saw what the traffic was from the sites at the time, why we talked to the investigators. >> you never interviewed the directors in the court? >> they were in front of the committee all the time. all the time. >> none of them were interviewed for this report, that's what they say. finally, because this gets directly to that question. the third question we want to discuss, did the cia mislead the white house and congress? the senate report ses yez, but here's vice president cheney. >> the motion that the committee is trying to pedal that the agency was operating on a rogue basis and we weren't being told or the president was

. >> reporter: but the cia insists detainees the nephew of khalid sheikh mohammed -- >> enhanced interrogation contributed to the wealth of knowledge that we needed to have in order to find al kuwaiti. >> reporter: the report alleges that the crime kept the president in the dark until 2006, four years after the program started. it cisites that then secretary the cia director john brennan admitted to some mistakes, he denied the agency intentionally -- the process under taken by the committee when investigating the program provided an incomplete and selective picture of what occurred. no cia witnesses were interviewed because the justice department under attorney general eric holder would not coordinate with the senate committee. citing it's own -- >> these documents are important because they weren't based on recollections, they aren't based on revisions, and they aren't a rationalization a decade later. >> feinstein said a group of cia personnel and contractors -- their might have been north report said the democrats were attempting to rewrite history because the cia program saves lives. >> c

khalid sheikh mohammed who was the mastermind of 9/11, who has killed 3,000 americans, hit the pentagon, would have taken out the white house or the capitol building, if in fact it hadn't been on for the passengers on united 93. he is in possession, we know he's the architect. what are we supposed to do kiss him on both cheeks and say tell us what you know? of course not. we did exactly what we needed to do to catch those who were guilty on 9/11. >> the report says-zbloe the report's full of crap. let me use the real word. >> you're on cable. >> it's okay, you can bleep it. >> you're saying that this led to actionable intelligence? >> absolutely. >> look at the statement by the former directors and deputy directors of the cia issued just within the last 24 hours, it did in fact produce actionable intelligence that was vital in the success of -- >> some of the tactics described in this report are horrifying. i mean is there anything that u.s. officials interrogators are alleged to have done that you would consider torture? >> i don't know all the allegations that are out there, torture w

i feel horrible in part because this puts everyone at risk, in fact khalid sheikh mohammed told me personallyyour country will turn on you. the liberal media will turn on you. the people will grow tired of this. they will turn on you. and when they do, you with are going to be abandoned. well i don't feel abandoned by the cia they didn't throw me under the bus. >> chris, first of all what is your reaction to what you heard him saying, what you heard in that interview? his countenance, what he said about the facts, were very different from what we heard from dianne feinstein? >> i would say that you don't go to war with the policy you want. you go to war with the policy you have. these guys, these cia interrogators, they are given a policy given executive direction and given legal authority. they were operating under a fairly clear set of guidelines. to go back 13 years after the fact to second-guess i think is wholly inappropriate. if the country does not want to conduct enhanced interrogation techniques anymore, perfectly on board with that idea. perfectly on board with the idea this is not

so here is what the report says about khalid sheikh mohammed.rrogators first began threatening ksm's children. on march 9th, 2003, ksm fabricated information, indicating that jaf ar altayyar and jose padilla were planning something because he explained he felt some pressure 0 to produce information about the operations in the united states in the initial phases of the interrogation. he admits he was fabricating information because he was subjected to some of these tactics. >> the report was written by a group of people that had a political agenda. it wasn't balanced in its writing and they didn't interview everybody. it's, yeah, can you read the report all day long and i think that it's, think the report is a hit job on the agency. and i think that it could have been more balanced, there could have been more balance in its writing. they should have interviewed the people. based on the report, the agency looks like every single line looks like incompetence, brutality and it looks like the program is worth nothing at all. i refuse to believe that

the report summary released tuesday says the cia water boarded khalid sheikh mohammed, the mastermindehind 9/11. water boarded him 183 times in a single month. cia employees also repeatedly subjected khalid sheikh mohammed for what they described as medically unnecessary recollectal rehydration. the report concluded that the cia's method yofrsall did not produce information that could save lives. the president defending the report while republicans in congress say the release was a huge mistake. >> i think what it does, for the u.s. government is endanger every one of our people overseas. every embassy flying an american flag. as several colleagues have just pointed out, endanger the working relationship we've had with a variety of different countries and trying to deal with intelligence gathering. it was short, it was a big step in the wrong direction. >> some of the tactics that were written about in the senate intelligence report were brutal. and as i've said before, it constituted torture in my mind. and that's not who we are. >> three former directors of the cia denounced the rel

they then went to khalid sheikh mohammed and said is this guy important.hey went then to mike hayden, the then director of the cia and said director hayden, ksm and zu befrnlthsata say these guys aren't important. we believe they're hiding something. we think this guy is important. he becomes the guy that when they trace him and trace his relationships and trace where he goes, bring us to osama bin laden's compound in abad bad and eventually led to his death. there are plenty of examples of how this saved people's lives that are not known to the public and will never be known to the public. people who want to diminish the cia, regardless on the security of the cia, they spent $40 million in six years coming to this moment and they're desperate before they lose control of the senate intelligence committee to smear the cia. shame on them for doing so. >> tomorrow we'll get a republican member of the senate intelligence committee on "the factor." from what i understand, all the interrogation methods we used the senate intel committee knew about it. >> sure. t

ali sufant was an fbi counterterrorism agent, specifically credited with hemming to uncover khalid sheikh mohammed as the mastermind against the attacked again washington and new york, and the events leading to september 11th. so what does he think about the current pose threatened by i.s.i.l? >> i think the islamic state is a manifestation of al qaeda, it is the same group as al qaeda. a division took place between al qaeda as we know it and the so-called islamic state as we know it after syria. the islamic state headed by abu bakr al-baghdadi, to sent abu mohamed julani. he established a branch of al qaeda over there and he decided he was loyal to central not to abu bakr al-baghdadi, should be syrian centric and shouldn't focus under the islamic state in iraq. the self appointed caliph for the islamic world, and a split took place between el nusra and the islamic state, immediately issued a state called islamic state of iraq and syria, and later khalafa, islamic state, which means that now now zawhir, assumption, i think there's theological divisions now that will prevent al qaeda and i.s.i.s. t

khalid sheikh mohammed and abu zubayadah and one other. the report states that cia could have found the information in other ways. i've got that. in hindsight, it's easy to claim that. this is 2014. in 2001, you know, it was a lot different. >> all right. let's get jane harman, you were there. when were you told that the u.s. -- that the cia was engaged in these covert activities usually outside of the united states, waterboarding, sleep deprivation, what people described as torture, enhanced interrogation? how early did you as the ranking member of the house intelligence committee learn about that? >> i learned about it in february 2003. the practice started about a year early and the prior ranking member i assume was briefed in 2002 when a leadership of the intelligence committee was briefed. the leadership changed in 2003. that's when i was told about it. i was told by scott mueller and that's who i wrote the letter raising these profound policy questions. it's important to remember when this was. this was really just a year and a half

, a former cia officer with firsthand knowledge of the interrogations says 9/11 architect khalid sheikh mohammed, one of three detainees waterboarded by the cia generated 2,000 intelligence reports, a matrix of information from khalid sheikh mohammed, his nephew and a third detainee combined with technical intelligence that identified usama bin laden's courier and their hideout in pakistan where navy s.e.a.l.s killed the terror leader in 2011. writing in "the wall street journal," george tenet, porter goss and michael hayden and their senior deputies say it fails to reveal the obvious, it took al qaeda leadership off the battlefield and that saved lives. the former directors say the program led to the capture of al qaeda's east asia chief who was behind the attack in bali where two suicide bombers killed more than 200 people and the department of justice investigators today working for attorney general holder said they reviewed the senate investigation and found nothing new that would change their decision not to bring criminal charges against cia officers. >> it seems as though the study takes

interrogation tactics and this morning, new questions over whether that report will end helping khalid sheikh mohammed, the terrorist behind the 9/11 attacks, when he's sentenced. i spoke with his attorney just before he went to begguantanamo meet with his client. khalid sheikh mohammed captured in march of 2003 and immediately subjected to e.i.t., enhanced interrogation techniques. stress position, standing sleep deprivation, nudity and repeated waterboarding. 183 times in the first month alone. >> i found the report shocking. these kind of details put flesh on the bones of a general statement like torture. >> the extend belly, pushed on it and water would come out of his mouth. that's how full of water he was. >> right. the details are -- >> you're representing someone who i think americans look at as an appalling person and the cia will certainly say that type of thing as well. >> you could ask alexander hamilton about it, he said precisely in times like this, when we're under amazing pressures and when we have people that we hate, that's where we let our values fly right out the window for expedie

as a psychologist hired by the cia admits he waterboarded khalid sheikh mohammed at a black site, we look at allegations the american psychological association, the largest association of psychologists in the world, secretly colluded with the cia in the torture program. then we speak to former senator mike gravel. >> the people must know the full story of what has occurred over the past 20 years within their government. the story is a terrible one. it is replete with duplicity against the public and public officials. i know of nothing in our history to equal it for extensive failure and extensive loss in all aspects of the term. >> in 1971, alaska senator mike gravel entered 4000 pages of the classified pentagon papers into the congressional record. now he's urging outgoing senator mark udall of colorado to make the full sinnot intelligence committees torture report public. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. more than 100 people have been killed in pakistan after taliban gunmen attacked a military-run s

and the information from zubedah and -- lead us to khalid sheikh mohammed.emember he said i'll see you in new york with my lawyers. we remember how he sort of taunted america. once he broke though he led us to the efforts in southeast asia and gave up his brother in charge of the effort to attack the west coast of the united states. and we swept up 17 members of his cell. and they were in training probably to use aircraft to attack places on the west coast. the idea that somehow or another these techniques did not -- i mean, we knew about canary war, we knew about attacks on hethrow. -- >> karl, very well said. why do you think dianne feinstein did this then? >> look, i think she's being driven -- she reminds me of the red queen in "alice in wonderland." conclude first and allegation second. left wing staffers spent $40 million and six years in a vendetta against george w. bush in order to attack the fundamentals of the cia, in order to attack the record of the previous administration and achieve a partisan political goal. i'm sorry to see her do this. i thi

. >> and you said waterboarding broke khalid sheikh mohammed like a dam. why are they not sure? >> because of the way the techniques were applied. in a sense he is precise but he is dead wrong. the way the techniques are applied is if somebody becomes uncooperative, the question sto stops. they don't question him when he is being uncooperative. they take him out and apply techniques and then let him become submissive and then then he leaves afterwards. and you can't say it was a particular technique that did it. but if abu zubayda is giving information that leads to the arrest or identity of -- >> so you are saying that is a direct link. >> of course. it is a direct link. >> he didn't need to take this cause and effect line that he took today. >> because it didn't happen at the same time. and he's trying to walk a tight rope and i think it is unwise. >> and this issue, whether the word is abhorrent or whatever it might be, the issue of whether it is something the united states should have done, in 2008 you went before a senate judiciary committee hearing and you and ted kennedy

we have khalid sheikh mohammed, taken down the world trade center, hit the pentagon, would have taken out the white house or the capitol building if it hadn't been for the passengers on united 93. he is in our possession, we know he's the architect. what are we supposed to do? kiss him on both cheeks and say, please, please, tell us what you no. of course not. we did exactly what needed to be done in order to catch those who were guilty on 9/11 and to prevent a further attack. we were successful on both parts. >> this report says it's not successful. >> the report is full of crap. >> let's talk about this. i'm joined by mark fallon, former deputy commander and special agent in charge at the department of defense following the 9/11 attacks. welcome. >> good morning. >> you called dick cheney a liar. perhaps it's easy to forget how afraid americans were after 9/11. >> no. i don't forget it at all. i was at the time the commander of the u.s.s. coal task force, investigating the attack on the "u.s.s. cole." we had agents on the ground in yemen at the time of the 9/11 attacks. no one knows

the capture of khalid sheikh mohammed and the takedown of osama bin lad d osama bin ladin.n each case, the cia claimed that critical and unique information came from one or more detainees in its custody after they were subjected to the cia's coercive techniques. and that information led to specific counterterrorism success. our staff reviewed every one of the 20 cases. and not a single case holds up. in every single one of these cases, at least one of the following was true. one, the intelligence community had information separate from the use of uits that led to the terrorist disruption or capture. two, information from a detainee subjected to eits played no roles in the claimed disruption or capture and, three, the purported terrorist plot either did not exist or posed no real threat to americans or united states interests. some critics have suggested the study concludes that no intelligence was ever provided for any detainee the cia held. that is false. and the study makes no such claim. what is true that actionable intelligence that was, quote, otherwise unavailable, ot

this man served as head of external operations, the same role once held by khalid sheikh mohammed, the mastermind of the september 11th attacks. back in 2000le the 39-year-old saudi national was indicted for his alleged involvement in a plot to bomb the new york city subway system. >>> in the big easy and across louisiana it is election day, it's the final face-off between these two candidates, democratic incumbent senator mary landrieu and her republican challenger bill cassidy. both failed to win 50% of the vote in november, forcing this special election. john roberts right now is live in baton rouge, louisiana, with the latest. hi, john. >> reporter: good afternoon to you. mary landrieu hoping this will not be her last stand but she goes into today's runoff election at a definite disadvantage. she's done just about everything she can, working hard until the last minute to turn her fortunes around. she voted in her home precinct this morning and immediately hit the streets going and knocking on doors around her neighborhood and others trying to get as many other people out to the pol

there was not a playbook the cia could pull off the shelf and say, once we get khalid sheikh mohammed, this is how we are going to interrogate them. so as the cia admits, there was a very difficult program to set up and follow. and mistakes were made when they were trying to implement it in the early months and years. guest: steve said there wasn't a playbook, but it is worth pointing out there was the 1994 anti-torture statute, which made it a crime for any u.s. official to torture anyone in u.s. custody. there is the 1996 war crimes act, which makes it to commit a grave breach of the geneva convention. this includes the abuse of detainees during wartime. so no one questions that we were in a very difficult position in the days after 9/11. that resources were brought to bear. that totally understand why individual officers might have overstepped their bounds. the problem we have learned from the executive summary of this report is that this was not just a handful of rogue officers. this was a systematic program sanctioned at the highest levels of the cia, perhaps in the white house.

it finds 9/11 mastermind khalid sheikh mohammed had a series of near drownings which prompted him to share false intelligence he later recanted. president obama says there was no good time to release the report but it was important to do so. >> part of what sets us apart is when we do something wrong, we acknowledge it. >> reporter: the president commented on the report during the interviews with two spanish language networks on monday. >> we did some things that violated who we are as a people. >> reporter: president obama banned the use of torture shortly after he took office. he says its use is wrong and counterproductive. the cia says the techniques led to the capture of terror leaders and saved thousands of american lives. former cia acting director mike morrell who is also cbs news senior security contributor oversaw preparations of the cia's rebuttal of the senate report. >> the democratic report is deeply flawed. in fact, there were some members of congress who didn't think we were going far enough. >> reporter: the justice department has already decided no cia officials will

khalid sheikh mohammed the mastermind of 9/11, what are we supposed to do, kiss him on both cheeks and please, please, tell us what you know. of course not. we did what we had to do for those to catch who were guilty -- >> this report says -- >> that report is full of crap. >> joining me adam shipp of california. we appreciate you being with us this morning. >> you bet. >> let's start right there. what is your reaction to vice president cheney's comments you heard it? >> no surprise, but still shocking. yes, we tortured and denied it worked and yes, we'll do it again. that is not what america is about. what i'd like to emphasize here, a lot of debate since the report came out is whether the torture was successful. that's the least important conclusion of the report. the most important conclusion is we did something that amounted to torture. and efficacious or not, it's immoral and destructive of our values and diminishes our democracies and helps our at versus saers in the war of ideas. that i think is the most fundamental conclusion of the report. >> one who will be watching as brenna

who grew up in south florida and took over as al qaeda's chief of operations from this man, khalid sheikh mohammed, who planned the 9/11 attacks. >>> now to the breaking news about the president. he went to the hospital walter reed army medical center complaining of a persistent sore throat. afterwards the white house revealed the president had his throat examined with a scope and then a ct scan. ultimately they reported the ct scan was normal, saying it was inflammation related to acid reflux and will be treated accordingly. let's bring in abc's chief medical editor, dr. richard besser. when you have a sore throat, going for a ct scan seems like a pretty big move. >> there's a lot in this story that didn't seem to hold true with what you would normally see. normally for a sore throat initially you would do a test for strep. if it goes on for a few weeks you might do a scope but not a ct. he's a former smoker, he's the president of the united states you'll often see presidents get extra testing. >> i think it makes sense when you're dealing with the most powerful person on earth perhaps. let me as