David Petraeus, Barack Obama's choice to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, says the US should consider using special interrogation techniques when a captive is withholding information that is immediately needed to save lives.
In the vast majority of cases, General Petraeus said, the ''humane'' questioning standards mandated by the US Army field manual were sufficient to persuade detainees to talk. But while he did not use the word torture, General Petraeus said ''there should be discussion … by policy makers and by Congress'' of something ''more than the normal techniques''.