Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and former prisoner of war, said Thursday he doesn’t believe the harsh interrogation techniques used by the Bush administration played a role in hunting down Osama bin Laden.
Supporters and opponents of the Bush administration’s use of harsh interrogation techniques, including the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, have squared off since the raid that killed bin Laden, arguing over the role such methods played in locating the al Qaeda leader.
In a speech on the Senate floor and in an op-ed in the Washington Post, Sen. McCain said Leon Panetta, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told him that the initial disclosure that lead to the discovery of bin Laden’s courier did not come as a result of the enhanced techniques.
Some former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, said that the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded, helped identify the courier.
But Mr. Panetta told Sen. McCain that the first mention of the courier’s alias, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, came from a detainee held in another country and that the U.S. did not learn of the courier’s real name as a result of waterboarding.
“In fact, not only did the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed not provide us with key leads on bin Laden’s courier, Abu Ahmed; it actually produced false and misleading information,” Mr. McCain said.
Some intelligence officials say the picture is not as cut and dry as Mr. McCain presents it. The officials said that Mr. Mohammed, who was repeatedly subjected to the harsh techniques, was evasive about the courier, piquing U.S. interest in the courier’s possible connection to bin Laden.
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This article is very important: Part of John Mccain’s statement was left out of this WSJ article. The Washington Post however prints all of Mccain’s remarks.
We now know from John Mccain that the former attorney general of the United States, chosen by Bush and Cheyney, Michael Mukasey, recently lied to the American people when he claimed,
John Mccain’s full self written article says, quote:
“…Michael Mukasey recently claimed that “the intelligence that led to bin Laden . . . began with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques that included waterboarding. He loosed a torrent of information – including eventually the nickname of a trusted courier of bin Laden.”
“That is false”, Mccain said.
[So Mccain telling us black and white that the former attorney general Mukassey appointed by Bush just lied to the American people about a critical issue.]
Mccain continues, quote:
“In fact, the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced false and misleading information. He specifically told his interrogators that Abu Ahmed had moved to Peshawar, got married and ceased his role as an al-Qaeda facilitator – none of which was true. According to the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, the best intelligence gained from a CIA detainee – information describing Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti’s real role in al-Qaeda and his true relationship to bin Laden – was obtained through standard, noncoercive means.So now we know, as we did before, that when newspapers claim that high government sources say something publicly or anonymously, they can be flat out lying about STATEMENT OF FACT.” end Mccain quote.
[So now we know, as we did before, that when newspapers claim that high government sources say something publicly or anonymously, they can be flat out lying about STATEMENT OF FACT.
HOW MUCH MORE SO IS THIS TRUE WHEN people like Charles Krauthhammer make a living by doing this
Would everyone please consider this ugly problem: What if torture really works as a way of getting information? Under what circumstances, if any, should torture be allowed?