By Randall Mikkelsen
"Waterboarding has been used on only three detainees," Hayden told the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was the first time a U.S. official publicly specified the number of people subjected to waterboarding and named them.
"Waterboarding is torture, and torture is a crime," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
He said waterboarding has not been used in five years.
Hayden told reporters later that the interrogations of Mohammed and Zubaydah were particularly fruitful.
Some analysts have questioned Mohammed's credibility under interrogation. But Hayden said most of the information was reliable and helped lead to other al Qaeda suspects.
HARSH TACTICS
But applying the field manual's limitations to the CIA, he said, "would substantially increase the danger to America."
A senior intelligence official said after the hearing that it was unclear whether the CIA could legally use waterboarding in the future, given changes in U.S. law. The Bush administration says it neither uses nor condones torture.
"A Justice Department investigation should explore whether waterboarding was authorized and whether those who authorized it violated the law," Durbin said in a letter to Mukasey.
