McCain: Torture gave us false information, not Bin Laden

by: Carnacki

Thu May 12, 2011 at 10:21:08 AM EDT

Former GOP presidential candidate  John McCain, himself tortured as a prisoner by the North Vietnamese, responds to these falsehoods about torture from people on his side of the political aisle:  

Former attorney general 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.  I asked CIA Director Leon Panetta for the facts, and he told me the following: The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. The first mention of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — the nickname of the al-Qaeda courier who ultimately led us to bin Laden — as well as a description of him as an important member of al-Qaeda, came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his whereabouts or an accurate description of his role in al-Qaeda.  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.

I doubt if McCain's words will sway any on the right who have made the support of torture a fundamental plank of their ideology. Facts interfere with their radical views.

McCain writes:  

Ultimately, this is more than a utilitarian debate. This is a moral debate. It is about who we are.

Moral people do not torture so appealing to the morality of those who support it is meaningless.