The CIA is rolling out its charm offensive this week in the wake of reports that destroyed evidence and in the face of increasing public scrutiny of the waterboarding technique. Former CIA agent John Kiriakou got on the teevee to talk about that rose-hued day he and his team waterboarded notorious Al-Quaida bad guy Abu Zubaydah (pictured).

According to Kiriakou, his waterboarding interrogation on Zubaydah was one of the ones taped that the CIA subsequently destroyed, but said it was totally okay because Zubaydah cracked in less than 35 seconds and was cooperative with the CIA thereafter.

Um, hey, buddy? If it only takes about 30 seconds of non-torture-y waterboarding to break a senior terrorist dude, then either waterboarding is way more torture-iffic than you really know, or the guy's such a pussy you probably didn't need to torture him in the first place to get the information out of him. I'm just sayin'.

Ex-CIA agent: Waterboarding OK'ed at top [Yahoo News]