i don't know what they would do today if they captured the equivalent of sheikh mohamed. probably read him his miranda rights. i don't know. that's a mistake for us to give up those capabilities. i hope there are no more attacks, but even as we meet here today, everybody drove to work with their car radio on this morning, heard there's a threat that's of sufficient credibility at least at this stage, that the authorities are saying, this is unconfirmed but we're taking it seriously. so, i think -- i do think it was a mistake for them not to stay as actively and aggressively involved. there was a brilliant piece of the notion that somehow we overreacted. i don't think we did. i think we did exactly what we had to do and that the results speak for themselves. >> host: one or two more from me and then we'll open it up to questions from others. you made the case at that time iraq was a central front in the war on terror. looking back on iraq, one of the things that people have focused on in reading your book and in the reviews of your book, is the fact that you don't think th

years pass on an khalid sheikh mohammed is doing very well at school. he's a good student and a bookish boy. and the family decides they don't have any money at all but the need to back the one son to get an education and that one son this is typical in the arab families at this period with the time to support the rest of them. and he is khalid sheikh mohammed and ultimately he applies to the schools north carolina and historical baptist school in murfreesboro north carolina. and either the family saved some money or more likely the muslim brotherhood of kuwait has agreed to sponsor him. he joined the muslim brotherhood after his older brothers have joined at age 16 so he arrives in america at roughly 18-years-old and he's not prefer what he sees i picked him up at the airport outside of the virginia beach and durkan to murfreesboro and what he remembers years later the memory is khalid sheikh mohammed being surprised by what he saw and a first piece of the suppressed by the geography of the intense greenery when you see the trees in kuwait they are usu

i don't know what they would do today if they captured khalid sheikh mohammed. reva miranda rights, i don't know. that's not in my mind -- it's a mistake to give up those capabilities. i hope that there are no more attacks but even as we meet here today everybody drove to work with their car radio on her that there's a threat that's sufficient credibility at least with this stage that the authorities say this is not confirmed but we are taking this very seriously. so i think that -- i do think it was a mistake for them not to stay as actively and aggressively involved. charles brough mur has written a brilliant piece on the notion that we overreacted. i don't think we did. i think we did exactly what we had to do, and the results speak for themselves. >> one or two and then we will open up to questions from others. you often made the case iraq was a central war front. looking back on iraq one of the things that has -- that people have focused on in reading your book and the reviews of your book is the fact that you don't think that a lot of mistakes were made th

he said, "but he's not a member of al qaeda, khalid sheikh mohammed." i said, "well, think again." >> smith: abu zubaydah also told soufan about an active plot which led to the arrest of an al qaeda figure named jose padilla in chicago. but the cia believed abu zubaydah knew much more, so they brought in a special contractor, a retired air force psychologist. although he has been publicly identified since, his name is still technically classified. his real name is mitchell? >> i don't... >> smith: you cannot confirm it? >> i cannot confirm or deny the individual's name in any way, shape or form. so i describe him in the book as boris. >> smith: and so boris arrives. tell me. tell me the story. >> boris arrives, and we believed we were getting some headway with abu zubaydah. but he has different opinion about how to handle this interrogation. so, we said, "what's your idea?" and he starts explaining his idea. >> smith: and that's when the trouble started? >> yeah. >> smith: boris begins to enforce nudity, loud rock music? >> yes. >> smith: so there was a

. >> khalid sheikh mohammed is about four years old. his father dies, and as search for the death records. apparently he died in 1969. and they simply did not keep records of births, deaths, marriages. we have this account of his father's death, but it is very sparse. no official transcripts. his father dies, and there is no welfare state. there is no organized charity. so his mother takes a job of washing the bodies of the dead and preparing them for burial. a very low statice, low-income job, but it enables her to eke out a living. at the time she has nine children and khalid sheikh mohammed is the fourth male. years pass and khalid sheikh mohammed does well in school, a goods didn't. a somewhat bookish boy, and the family decides that they don't have money, but they need to a back one son to get an education, and that one son, typical in arab families in this time with support the rest of them, and that sun is khalid sheikh mohammed. they ultimately, he applies to a school in north carolina. historically baptist in murfreesboro, nort

when their car is smashed by khalid sheikh mohammed. their injuries are so severe they sue him. i found a copy of the lawsuit. their last name is christian. the lawsuit is christian versus mohammed. ultimately, they win. they are awarded more than $10,000 in 1985. which is a substantial sum of money at the time. their injuries was fairly severe. he never pays. he dodges the sheriff. he flouts the law. but i talk to the christian women's attorney, and he remembers khalid shaikh bursting into his office with a translator and a posse of other arab students to lecture him about the iran-iraq war and what america is wrong on israel. israel turns out to be a very important point in his radicalization. more so than i would have thought. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> and now in a program from 2005, marian fontana becomes the first year coping with the death of her husband transit, a member of the new york fire department on september 11, 2001, in

abu zubaydah was water-boarded 83 times; khalid sheikh mohammed, 183 times.t does that tell you? does that tell you the technique is working? >> logan: a number of people in the cia and the intelligence community told us that abu zubaydah did give up information after he was water-boarded, which they say helped save american lives, and that, all moral questions aside, the enhanced interrogation program yielded significant intelligence, including information that contributed to the killing of osama bin laden. at least two former directors of the cia, george tenet and michael hayden, say that enhanced interrogation techniques do work. >> soufan: sure, sure. >> logan: they have access to more intelligence than you. >> soufan: absolutely. >> logan: if you don't know everything, how can you be so sure that they don't work? >> soufan: because i am privy to a lot of information that also i'm not telling you here. >> logan: but is it possible for you to know all the information, everything that may or may not have been gained from these techniques? >> soufan: i'm not

after the director of the cia approved the particular program is applied to khalid sheikh mohammed anddent signed off on the policy, national security council signed off and the justice department handed down a ruling saying this was not torture. we were very careful not to get into a situation where there was a danger that some americans are going to be arrested on the street and subjected to that kind of treatment. >> greta: you don't worry in the next administration or the next 20 years or something there is going to be some slippery slope that was accepted now will be used beyond that? >> i don't think so. our concern greta, was on the morning after 9/11. that when the president was very strong in this as well, that we were not ever going to let that happen again on our watch. and we were going to do whatever we had to do by way of putting together a policy that was effective in protecting and safeguarding the american people that's what we did and it worked. and i was done in accordance with our normal practices and procedures in terms of how we make policy many how we safeguard t

it was people like khalid sheikh mohammed.he united states was wobbly torturing anybody is not true, and anybody who takes the time to look at the program i think will come to the same conclusion. obviously there are people out there who differ with respect to that perspective, but when we get into the whole area, and one of the most controversial techniques was waterboarding. there was a protester this morning who commented on waterboarding. three people work waterboard, not dozens, not hundreds. 3, and the one who was subjected most often to that was khalid sheikh mohammed, and it produced phenomenal results. there are reports that the intelligence community did -- they were classified marquest and are now available on the internet. they talked about the quality of information we got. we were talking about only a handful of people who were indeed part of the al qaeda organization, and khalid sheikh mohammed was not only the man who we then had reason to believe, correctly, had be headed daniel pearl, but also claim credit fo

khalid sheikh mohammed is the fourth male. years pass on and he is doing very well at school, he's a good student come somewhat bookish, and the family decides they don't have any money at all that they need to back one masson to get an education and that was the typical of arab families it was at the time support the rest of them and that was khalid sheikh. ultimately he applies to school in north carolina at the university, the time it was college, the historically baptist school in murfreesboro north carolina. and even the family had saved some money or more likely the muslim brotherhood of kuwait had agreed to sponsor him. he joined the muslim brotherhood after his older brothers had a joint at age 16. so he arrives in america at roughly 18-years-old should and he is not prepared for what he sees. i interviewed the man who picked him up at the airport and drove him to murfreesboro and what he remembers years later is khalid sheikh being surprised by what he saw, surprised by the geography, the intense mccreary. when you se

and the one who was subjected most often do that was khalid sheikh mohammed and it produced phenomenal results for us. there are reports that the intelligence community did of the results of the program, which were declassified and at my request are now available on the internet that talk about quality of information that we got as a result of our enhanced interrogation techniques. it was applied to a handful of individuals. we were talking about only a handful of people who were indeed a part of the al qaeda organization. and khalid sheikh mohammed was not only the man who we then had reason to believe correctly had daniel pearl, the reporter from "the wall street journal," but also had claimed credit for being the architect of 9/11. killed 3000 americans that morning. another key point that needs to be made was that the tech makes meeks that we used were all previously used on american military personnel. not all of them, but all of them that they have used in training for a lot of our own specialists in the military area. so there wasn't any technique that we used on any al qaeda in

. >> narrator: al qaeda's khalid sheikh mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. it took reporter dana priest years to piece together where prisoners like khalid sheikh mohammed were. they had been hidden in a secret network of cia prisons known as "black sites." >> priest: in the investigation of the black sites, i found a worldwide system of about two dozen prisons throughout the world run by the cia, paid by the cia, organized by the cia, but with cooperation from other countries. >> narrator: top cia official john rizzo helped authorize the prisons. >> rizzo: creating a prison system was something, certainly in my 25 years, we had never done. it was essential that these people be held in absolute isolation, with... with access to the fewest number of people. that quickly led to the conclusion that... that facilities had to be built oversees, secret facilities. >> narrator: for the first time, the white house had approved the building of an international prison system entirely in secret. >> priest: the amount of secrecy is phenomenal. the desire and the willing

. >> guest: -- khalid sheikh mohammed and one or two other key operatives.e wanted to see them, and we wanted to see them eye to eye. i had a meeting with george tenet who was cia director, he invited me over for breakfast -- >> host: do they serve good things at the cia? >> guest: they serve a very good breakfast. [laughter] the first thing out of his mouth was, lee, you're not going to see those detainees. >> host: oh, really? >> guest: it was a very sensitive matter for the administration. interrogating suspects is a complicated business. they do not like people interrupting that process. and so we tried, we floated then a lot of ideas, could we put our people behind a screen? could we blindfold our people and some other suggestions. and what we finally decided was agreed with them that we could submit questions in writing to the interrogators who would then ask the question of the detainee, and we had the system worked out so well that we could immediately have follow-up questions. and in the end we asked over a thousand questions, i think, of the detain

khalid chic mohammed made very, very -- khalid sheikh mohammed made very, very clear in an interview, there in court, it's on the record, we have the verbatim interview where he under oath, such as it was, admitted enough detail, it was very clear, this man was behind the killing of thousands of americans. on 9/11. he's smart enough he did his own translation and filed this pleading in response, the judge in the case before this administration took over was kind enough to declassify this pleading and it can be found on my website, gohmert.house.gov. it can be found a number of places. the things he says are extraordinary and of course he blames the united states. but just in case there are people, mr. speaker, that wonder, do we really have the right guys that organized, planned, plotted, to kill innocent fathers and mothers and children there at the world trade centers, at the pentagon, and yes, apparently, even here at our nation's capital, that some say is the most -- nation's capitol, that some say is the most recognized building in the entire world. he says, and this is just -- h

. >> he had been hand picked by 9/11 mastermind by khalid sheikh mohammed to be the 9/11 hijacker.ng multiple names he had lived as a student in cairo and here in hamburg, germany. a key time of movement. he left san diego. moving out of the home he shared with fbi assets. it was a temporary goodbye to local imam anwar al-awlaki. he headed to yemen to recruit other muscle hijackers. and atta with a multiple entry visa touch down in florida. czech republic via new jersey. venice florida where he settled with the pilot who would fly united flight 175 into the world trade center south tower. already there was a lebanese man 26-year-old sahid he would crash united flight 93 into the ground in shanksville, pennsylvania. atta and jara made this video together as their last will and testament. san diego, all started taking flying lessons. atta was constantly on the move. flying to spain in january of 2001. after his return, he and shahe moved again into this apartment in coral springs, just outside miami. were they using a support network which had been in america for decades? >> what you

i have to reinsert my contention if you know that by waterboarding a fat pig jerk like khalid sheikh mohammedave lives and eventually get usama bin laden out of it, and you don't do it, that's immoral to me. >> bill: i think you and i agree on that 100%. yesterday on the fact were to we had al gore comparing global warming to racism. i want to resh the memory. >> my generation asks older people explain to me why it's okay to discriminate against people because their skin color is different and when they couldn't really answer that question with integrity, the change really started. we still have racism, god knows. but it is so different now. so much better. and we have to win the conversation on climate. >> bill: with all due respect to the former vice president. he is a strange guy. isn't he? >> yeah. >> bill: just the presentation. we still have racism but it's much better. it's like, you know, we still have maple syrup but this is better. >> this is a rollie polykid whose old man goes up to the hill and leaves him alone. he like the elbow would he eloie willard. he falls quite short becomi

it was people like khalid sheikh mohammed. abu zabedah. the notion that somehow the united states was wobbly -- why torturing anybody is not true, and anybody who takes the time to look at the program i think will come to the same conclusion. obviously there are people out there who differ with respect to that perspective, but when we get into the whole area, and one of the most controversial techniques was waterboarding. there was a protester this morning who commented on waterboarding. three people work waterboard, not dozens, not hundreds. 3, and the one who was subjected most often to that was khalid sheikh mohammed, and it produced phenomenal results. there are reports that the intelligence community did -- they were classified marquest -- they were declassified on my request and are now available on the internet. they talked about the quality of information we got. we were talking about only a handful of people who were indeed part of the al qaeda organization, and khalid sheikh mohammed was not only the man who we then had reason to

asked about the enhanced interrogation and he said yes, i think perhaps you've mentioned khalid sheikh mohammed >> guest: there are so many different eggs to talk about these, one is the trade-off into it not in a larger trade up with the reputation, whether there is a terrorist and not and i also think if there is indication that the enhanced interrogations optionally produced evidence that could be got that we couldn't seem to have the funny thing about classification is that ministration -- often every administration selectively declassify this information that would make its case. she never actually came out -- >> host: absolutely clear in my mind. but the general recollection was he was credited things for which his own ministration criticized the previous administration. but in this particular case is getting credit. >> guest: i guess what he was saying is no reporter has ever got their hands on an interrogations case that can make that case. and that raises my antennas as a reporter because the white house came under criticism and i do believe they would have found a way to get at least

interrogations' and he said yes, what we have learned from -- i think perhaps he mentioned khalid sheikh mohammed. >> guest: let's say he did. let's say you are right there are so many different things to talk about, one which is the cost of the trade-off between doing something like that and the larger trade off with a reputation with whether that created more terrorists than not, and i also think that there was indication that the enhanced interrogation actually produced evidence that couldn't be gotten otherwise because reporters have been asked about it for a long time and the funny thing about classification is the administration's, every administration selectively declassifies information that would make its case. okay. and so -- >> host: it is interesting -- i can imagine with the director leon panetta said -- >> guest: >> host: it subsequently clear in my mind but my general recollection was the significant -- he was crediting things for which his own administration criticized the previous administration but in this case was getting credit. >> guest: i guess what i'm saying is we have nev

that was credited with identifying the mastermind, khalid sheikh mohammed.you get to the part about that interrogation, in ali soufan's book "black banners" it starts to look like this. writing for the first few pages. you start to see a few more redactions. then you get page after page of redacted text. there's something in here that somebody still doesn't want you to know. let me introduce you now to ali soufan to explain why the book is called "the black banners: the inside story of 9/11 and the war against al qaeda."k yofor b. i know you cou be anywhere for your first live interview. i'm grateful you're here. >> thank you for having me. it's a pleasure. >> let me start with the specific and broaden out. who's responsible for the redactions in your book? >> from the agency, the cia. the book was approved by the fbi. when we finished the approval process with the bureau it took about three months and it was reviewed by the counterterrorism division, reviewed by information security. we didn't have one single redaction. so unfortunately for some reason some

commercial pilots, the imagination, unfortunately, diabolical imagination of people like khalid sheikh mohammed ramsey juice -- ramzi yousef who thought up these ideas. we did not see that coming. in the 10 years that followed we probably slipped it in the other direction of overestimating the power of al qaeda. the previous panel, i think that, made the important point that the reason that al qaeda is moving toward this idea of sort of what we used to call resistance something grew up in far right circles in the united states years ago is a sign of weakness. but over these years, over these 10 years we've been lucky in many ways that we've not been hit again but i think we sort of went to the other side of the coin about the ads adversary was much more powerful than it really was. in other words one thing we learned it is difficult to develop this realistic appraiseal of the adversary in order to craft a response. in terms of the way we were responding to terrorism, what changed, what happened, i think some of the lessons are that we really did not realize how costly counterterrorism could be.