The legal advisor to the Convening Authority for Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay testified before members of Congress Dec. 11 that evidence gathered from interrogation techniques such as waterboarding may be admissible during military commission proceedings if it is "reliable and probative." Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W.Hartmann declined to answer senators' questions regarding whether waterboarding is illegal when used by or against Americans.

Hartmann's testimony came a day after retired CIA agent John Kiriakou confirmed the use of waterboarding during the interrogation of top al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah. Kiriakou said that the tactic's efficacy in helping to disrupt "a number of attacks, maybe dozens" outweighed its harshness. An upcoming intelligence funding bill reportedly aims to restrict CIA interrogators to using only those interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual. The Washington Post has more. (Jurist, Dec. 12)

See our last post on the torture scandal.