Petraeus Says Torture an Option for US (Ken Dilanian)

June 25, 2011 -- WASHINGTON (Sydney Morning Herald) -- David Petraeus, Barack Obama's choice to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, says the US should consider using special interrogation techniques when a captive is withholding information that is immediately needed to save lives.

In the vast majority of cases, General Petraeus said, the ''humane'' questioning standards mandated by the US Army field manual were sufficient to persuade detainees to talk. But while he did not use the word torture, General Petraeus said ''there should be discussion … by policy makers and by Congress'' of something ''more than the normal techniques''.

Speaking at his confirmation hearing before the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday, General Petraeus described an example of a detainee who knew how to disarm a nuclear device set to explode under the Empire State Building. Congress might want to give the President the option of taking extraordinary measures to extract that information, he said.

The Republican senator John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, endorsed the idea. ''I look forward to working with you on this ticking time bomb scenario,'' he said. ''I think the person responsible should be the President of the United States … I do agree with you.''