http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8491509/Osama-bin-Laden-k illed-CIA-admits-waterboarding-yielded-vital-information.html
bin Laden killed: CIA admits waterboarding yielded vital information Leon Panetta, the CIA director, has confirmed that controversial "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding yielded some of the intelligence information that ultimately led to Osama bin Laden. Osama bin Laden killed: CIA admits waterboarding yielded vital information Image 1 of 2 Mr Panetta argued that "waterboarding is torture and it's wrong" Photo: REUTERS http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01886/osama3_1886626c.jpg Image 1 of 2 Osama bin Laden Photo: AP By Toby Harnden, Washington 8:00AM BST 04 May 2011 "In the intelligence business you work from a lot of sources of information and that was true here," he told NBC News. "It's a little difficult to say it was due just to one source of information that we got. I think some of the detainees clearly were, you know, they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of these detainees." The White House and its Capitol Hill allies had earlier been at pains to state that such techniques, used under the Bush administration but banned by Mr Obama as amounting to torture, had not played a part in yielding significant information. Mr Panetta's admission lays Mr Obama open to politically explosive claims that bin Laden would not have been killed had it not been for the use of those techniques by the Bush administration. In his 2009 Senate confirmation hearings, Mr Panetta, a moderate Democrat and former California congressman, argued that "waterboarding is torture and it's wrong". But he stated candidly last night that discussion about its use will continue. "Whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches I think is always gonna be an open question," he said. Mr Panetta's comments come hours after Eric Holder, the US Attorney General, defended as lawful the intelligence gathering and raid that resulted in the death of bin Laden. The mission was "lawful, legitimate and appropriate in every way", he told the House Judiciary Committee. "The people who were responsible for that action, both in the decision making and the effecting of that decision, handled themselves I think quite well." American officials have said that one of the crucial clues that led to bin Laden was a piece of information about an al-Qaeda courier that came from September 11th mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or from the so-called 20th hijacker, Mohammad al-Qahtani. It is acknowledged that both Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Mohammad al-Qahtani had been subjected to enhanced interrogation, a policy authorised by Mr Bush. "We used this technique on three people, captured a lot of people and used it on three. We gained value; information to protect the country. And it was the right thing to do as far as I'm concerned," Mr Bush said in an interview in 2010. The debate about such methods has now been re-ignited, and fuelled by Mr Panetta's comments. This week, Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, said: "The road to bin Laden began with waterboarding." He added that the technique was a "moral imperative" that "saves lives". [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
