Today’s Must Read

The more Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell talks, the worse it gets.

Consider: McConnell, whose nomination early last year was applauded by lawmakers from both parties, has twice provided false information to Congress — and in both cases, they were statements that served to distort the surveillance debate. In the heat of the surveillance bill debate, McConnell claimed that three German terrorism suspects had been arrested due to intercepts made possible by the administration’s Protect America Act; it turned out the intercepts were obtained under the old FISA bill. Only a couple weeks later, McConnell told Congress that rulings by the FISA Court had prevented the NSA from surveilling Iraqi insurgents who had kidnapped U.S. soldiers for 12 hours. That turned out to be, at best, a misleading explanation for the delay.

He’s also said, over and over, that the public debate over surveillance law is endangering American lives.

But this one, to my mind, takes the cake. This week’s New Yorker features an extended piece on McConnell by Lawrence Wright, based on a number of interviews over several months (not available online). It’s a piece that I think even McConnell would agree is a fair portrayal. He comes across as a patriot obsessed with the security of the country. And yet, he also comes across as incredibly unreflective about the issue of torture.

According to McConnell, the issue isn’t complicated. “We don’t torture,” he says, but then goes on to explain that tactics critics call torture have been enormously successful. It’s gotten us “tons” of meaningful information and saved “tons” of lives. He confidently offers the example of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Wright duly notes that the reliability of Mohammed’s confessions have been “widely questioned”). And then there’s this:

McConnell asserted that it was not difficult to evaluate the truthfulness of a confession, even a coerced one. “And as soon as they start to talk we can tell in minutes if they are lying,” he said. “One, you know a lot. And you know when someone is giving you information that is not connecting up to what you know. You also know when to use a polygraph.”

Never mind the debate over Abu Zubaydah. Apparently you can torture without any concern about false information.

But that’s just a warm up for McConnell’s take on waterboarding, which really has to be quoted in full to capture the full force of its thoughtlessness. For those who’d like a contrast with McConnell’s views, see the descriptions of waterboarding here and here. From Wright’s piece:

“You know what waterboarding is?” [McConnell] asked. “You lay somebody on this table, or put them in an inclined position, and put a washcloth over their face, and you just drip water right here” — he pointed to his nostrils. “Try it! What happens is, water will go up your nose. And so you will get the sensation of potentially drowning. That’s all waterboarding is.”

I asked if he considered that torture.

McConnell refused to answer directly, but he said, “My own definition of torture is something that would cause excruciating pain.”

Did waterboarding fit that description?

Referring to his teen-age days as a lifeguard, he said, “I know one thing. I’m a water-safety instructor, but I cannot swim without covering my nose. I don’t know if it’s some deviated septum or mucus membrane, but water just rushes in.” For him, he said, “waterboarding would be excruciating. If I had water draining into my nose, oh God, I just can’t imagine how painful! Whether it’s torture by anybody else’s definition, for me it would be torture.”

I queried McConnell again, later, about his views on waterboarding, since this exchange seemed to suggest that he personally condemned it. He rejected that interpretation. “You can do waterboarding lots of different ways,” he said. “I assume you can get to the point that a person is actually drowning.” That would certainly be torture, he said. The definition didn’t seem very different from John Yoo’s. The reason that he couldn’t be more specific, McConnell said, is that “if it ever is determined to be torture, there will be a huge penalty to be paid for anyone engaging in it.”

The AP’s headline gives the impression that McConnell condemned waterboarding. He didn’t. He’s saying that if you have a deviated septum, then waterboarding is torture — because it just feels like you’re drowning. If not (and the interrogator doesn’t go overboard), then apparently it’s a-ok. It seems to be an easy distinction for him. The subtlety might be lost on others.