From the June 29 edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360:
Video file
ANDERSON COOPER (HOST): Let me just ask you about when Donald Trump talks about waterboarding, as a way basically to do something about terrorism. What do you -- as somebody who has worked for the FBI and CIA, what do you think?
PHILIP MUDD: I bristle.
COOPER: You bristle?
MUDD: I bristle. In the midst of a political season, let's have a reality check. In August of 2002, the Department of Justice authorized waterboarding and nine other procedures we called “interrogation techniques.” The White House was aware, the Senate was briefed. 15 years later, a president says that's torture, a Department of Justice says we won't do it, and the Senate issues a report that says you violated American values. If any president, Democrat or Republican, wants to return to waterboarding, I got a couple questions. Number one, you'd better find a CIA office who will do it, cause I don't know any.
COOPER: Really?
MUDD: Number two, I do not know any. Not because they think what we did was wrong, but because there ain't no learning the second kick of the mule. We're not doing it again. Number two, you better find an Attorney General who will once again, after one president called this torture, determine that it is legal, and then go out to the American people and say “Once again, we're going to try it,” while the CIA says “We ain't doing it.”
