Porter Goss , the Director of Central Intelligence , in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 17 , 2005 , described waterboarding as falling into the area of " professional interrogation techniques , " differentiating them from torture : '' The Washington Post '' reported in January 2009 that Susan J. Crawford , convening authority of military commissions , stated about the interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani , one of the alleged " 20th hijackers " of the September 11 attacks : The techniques they used were all authorized , but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent ... . You think of torture , you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual . This was not any one particular act ; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him , that hurt his health . It was abusive and uncalled for . And coercive . Clearly coercive . It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge i.e. , to call it torture . Crawford decided not to prosecute al-Qahtani because his treatment fell within the definition of torture , so evidence was tainted by it having been gained through coercion
September 11 attacks
September 11 attacks
Enhanced interrogation techniques