Home > 10/13/09 Amrit Singh and Matthew Alexander Read from George Tenet Appearance on 60 Minutes   Amrit Singh and Matthew Alexander read excerpts from a transcript of former CIA Director George Tenet's April 2007 appearance on CBS 60 Minutes, as part of  the 2009 PEN event Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War on Terror”. Read the transcript below. Listen to audio of the reading CBS News Transcripts, 60 Minutes, Sunday April 29, 2007 TENET: You know, the image that’s been portrayed is we sat around the campfire and said, ‘Oh, boy, now we get to torture people.’ We don’t torture people. Let me say that again to you, we don't torture people. OK? So ... PELLEY: Come on, George. TENET: We don't torture people. PELLEY: Khalid Sheikh Mohammad? TENET: We don't torture people. PELLEY: Water boarding? TENET: We do not—I don’t talk about techniques ... PELLEY: It’s torture. TENET: ... and we don't torture people. No, listen to me. No, listen to me. I want you to listen to me. So the context is it’s post-9/11. I’ve got reports of nuclear weapons in New York City, apartment buildings that are going to be blown up, planes that are going to fly into airports all over again. Plot lines that I don’t know—I don’t know what's going on inside the United States. And I’m struggling to find out where the next disaster is going to occur. Everybody forgets one central context of what we lived through: the palpable fear that we felt on the basis of the fact that there was so much we did not know. I know that this program has saved lives. I know we’ve disrupted plots. PELLEY: But what you’re essentially saying is some people need to be tortured. TENET: No, I did not say that. I did not say that. PELLEY: You’re telling me that ... TENET: I did not say that. PELLEY: ... the enhanced interrogation ... TENET: I did not say that. We do not tor—listen to me. PELLEY: Look ... TENET: Look, you’re making an assumption. PELLEY: You call it in the book enhanced interrogation techniques. TENET: Well, that’s what we call it. PELLEY: I mean, that’s a euphemism. TENET: I’m not having a semantic debate with you. I'm telling you what I believe. PELLEY: Anybody ever die in the interrogation program? TENET: No. PELLEY: You’re sure of that. TENET: Yeah. In this program that you and I are talking about, no. PELLEY: Have you ever seen any of these interrogations done? TENET: No. PELLEY: Didn’t you feel like it was your responsibility to know what you were signing off on? TENET: I understood. I’m not a voyeur. I understand what I was signing off on.   Home | Site Map | Copyright / Privacy Policy | Contact Us © 2004-2012 PEN American Center. All rights reserved.