At one point, National Intelligence Director J. Michael McConnell distanced himself from recent comments in a magazine article indicating he considered waterboarding a form of torture. The comments were taken out of context, he said.
McConnell acknowledged the severity of the technique, saying that "waterboarding, taken to its extreme, could be death." But there are scenarios in which it might be employed, he said.
"It is a legal technique," he said, "used in a specific set of circumstances."
Moments after McConnell's comments, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III seemed to undercut the case for using extreme methods, testifying that the FBI had extracted critical information from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein without coercive techniques.
Asked whether the FBI's method had been effective, Mueller said, "We believe so."
The sparring came during testimony in which the nation's top intelligence officials offered a mixed assessment of the security environment confronting the United States.
They contrasted security improvements in Iraq with growing violence and unrest in Pakistan. McConnell testified that 1,360 Pakistanis were killed by suicide bombings and other extremist attacks in 2007, more than in the previous six years combined.
The December assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto "could embolden Pashtun militants, increasing their confidence that they can strike the Pakistani establishment anywhere in the country," McConnell said.
The troop surge has brought significant gains in stability in Iraq, McConnell said, but it remains unlikely that the Iraqi government can resolve divisions among sectarian and ethnic groups over the next year.
Al Qaeda remains the most dangerous threat to the United States, the senators were told. But the terrorist network has begun to "lose some of its luster" among Muslims around the world because of setbacks in Iraq, McConnell said.
Nevertheless, he continued, Al Qaeda has strengthened its ability to strike targets in the West because of a steady flow of recruits from Western countries into Al Qaeda's base in the tribal region of Pakistan.
"Al Qaeda is improving the last key aspect of its ability to attack the U.S.," McConnell said, citing "the identification, training and positioning of operatives for an attack in the homeland."
