“A Great Deal Is Permitted”

Sands has been shaking his head in defiance at nearly everything Feith says. And that’s not so surprising, considering that Feith has repeatedly said that if detainees received P.O.W. status it would have precluded interrogation. “A great deal is permitted,” Sands says of interrogation consistent with Geneva Conventions protection. “What works is rapport building… The main problem with torture is that it doesn’t produce useful information.”

Princeton professor Deborah Pearlstein adds that an FBI interrogator told her that all he needed to get actionable intelligence was “a room and time.”