Misinformation gathered through the use of torture helped make the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and that type of event has created a crisis of public confidence in Western intelligence services, says former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke.

Clarke criticized the use of torture in intelligence gathering — including torture contracted out to other countries such as Syria and Egypt — while giving a talk Thursday in Ottawa at the annual conference of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies.

He told Canadian intelligence professionals from CSIS and other agencies that an intelligence source suggested a link between al-Qaeda, Iraq and weapons of mass destruction because he thought mentioning those three things together in a single sentence might stop the torture.

Clarke said it is now well known that there is no link between the three, but he may well have made that link himself under the circumstances.

"I don't know about you, but I'm sure if I were tortured, I think I would come to the same conclusion — that the way to stop the torture would be to say whatever they want, and I would try to imagine what it is that they want."

'I'm sure if I were tortured ... I would come to the same conclusion — that the way to stop the torture would be to say whatever they want.'-Former U.S. presidential security advisor Richard Clarke

Clarke resigned in 2003 from his post as special advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush on national security, cyber-security and counter-terrorism.

In his speech on Thursday, he called Bush's interrogation methods "repugnant."

He also warned that the growth in the use of torture since the 9-11 terrorist attacks —along with methods of detention and surveillance used by intelligence agents and officials — has seriously damaged public confidence in their work.

Regaining trust

Clarke did have some advice about how intelligence professionals can regain the trust of the public.

"The easiest and most straightforward way of dealing with this is simply to say that we will not engage in torture, period," he said.

That was the only comment in his speech that drew any applause from the audience.

Clarke served as a counter-terrorism advisor to four presidents, including both Bush and Bill Clinton.

He was highly critical of both the Bush and Clinton administrations' approaches to counter-terrorism in his testimony at the 9/11 Commission, which was set up to investigate the events and circumstances leading up the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., and which released its report in 2004. 

Clarke detailed similar criticisms in his 2004 book Against All Enemies. The book was about the government handling of terrorism threats and the war on terror.