Nightly News   |  May 12, 2011

McCain makes impassioned speech against torture

While Bin Laden's death has re-ignited a fierce debate over the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques," Senator John McCain took to the Senate floor on Thursday to say that torture did not lead the U.S. to bin Laden. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> it's become fashionable among some to say in washington and elsewhere, that so-called enhanced interrogation , what some define as torture worked in this case, it helped congress contribu contribute to the death of bin ladin . today john mccain headed to the floor of the senate to refute that. mccain was the only one who was tortured as a pow in vietnam. he repeated his longstanding belief that torture is wrong.

>> in my personal experience, the abuse of prisoners, sometimes produces good intelligence, but often produces bad intelligence. because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear whether it is true or false, if he believes it will relieve his suffering. i opposed waterboarding and similar enhanced interrogation techniques before osama bin ladin was brought to justice, and i oppose them now. the trail to bin ladin did not begin with a disclosure from khalid sheikh mohammed who was waterboarded 183 times. the best intelligence gained from a cia detainee was obtained through standard noncoercive means, not through any enhanced interrogation technique . this is not about the terrorists, it's about us. but i dispute that it was right to use these methods, which i do not believe were in the best interest of justice or our security or the ideals that define us. and which we have sacrificed much to defend.

>> arizona republican senator, vietnam veteran john mccain in his own words on the floor of the senate today.