Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's first question to FBI Director Robert Mueller during today's Senate Intelligence hearing was whether "the current interrogation techniques that are in place are they sufficient, to accomplish that goal [gathering intelligence] or do we need techniques that go outside the Army Field Manual?"
One of the first things Barack Obama did as president, of course, was banning torture by issuing an executive order confining government personnel to techniques inside the Army Field Manual. Mueller responded that the FBI's techniques weren't "coextensive" with the Army Field Manual, but that they were "sufficient to obtain the information that we need."
Rubio then pivoted to CIA Director Leon Panetta, and asked him whether it was okay that the CIA was providing "backup" on interrogations. "Is that the highest and best use of the Central Intelligence Agency on these issues?" Rubio asked. "Or would we gather more intelligence if the CIA was empowered to do more?"
The interrogation of high-value detainees under the Obama administration has been handled by interagency groups. "I think right now, the process that we have in place...it brings together the best resources that we have to get the intelligence we need, and I think it works pretty well," Panetta said.
Contrary to the spy flicks, the CIA "had no real interrogation specialists on hand to deal with the number of valuable suspects it captured after Sept. 11." That's part of how they ended up using so-called enhanced interrogation techniques under the Bush administration, an approach some seem eager to bring back.
