John Kiriakou

And they pitched to him over this dinner,

their idea of enhanced interrogation techniques.

They wrote this up as a memo that was referred to the CIA's covert action staff.

The covert action staff approved it and sent it to the CIA general counsel's office.

The general counsel liked the idea and sent it to the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department.

They approved it despite the fact that torture was specifically outlawed from 1945

They approved it and sent it to the National Security General Counsel.

After his signature, it went to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

And after Rice approved it, it went to the president.

And as soon as the president signed it, the CIA began torturing its prisoners.

I remember at the time thinking, you know, these guys have been in Guantanamo for a long time and we're not hearing anything about trials or jury selection or federal charges or anything.

And a colleague said to me, oh, the vice president nixed that.

It was Vice President Dick Cheney.

who decided or realized or concluded that while at Guantanamo, these men had no rights.

Upwards of 80 or 85% of the people that we had at Guantanamo were innocent people who were scooped up in these dragnets.

Most of them were...

Afghan citizens or Pakistani citizens who were involved in disputes with neighbors.

Maybe they had loaned money to a neighbor and the neighbor didn't want to pay it back.

So he would call the Americans and say, hey, my neighbor is Al-Qaeda.

The US Army or the CIA grabs the guy, puts him on a flight to Guantanamo, and nobody ever sees him again.