From NewsMax, well-known diehard conservative news site's exclusive interview with Rumsfeld:
Rumsfeld Exclusive: There Was No Waterboarding of Courier Source
So waterboarding led to the phony intelligence that got us into Iraq and was not responsible for helping us capture Bin Laden.
Rumsfeld Exclusive: There Was No Waterboarding of Courier Source
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tells Newsmax the information that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden was obtained through “normal interrogation approaches.”
...
“The United States Department of Defense did not do waterboarding for interrogation purposes to anyone. It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantanamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding.”
A number of news reports suggest that information obtained from either Al Qaeda deputy Khalid Sheik Mohammed or Abu Faraj al-Libbi, a former senior al Qaeda officer who was captured in 2005, was the key to finding Bin Laden. Like the al Qaeda figurehead, neither man was found on a battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq. American intelligence agents tracked al-Libbi's cell phone to Mardan, Pakistan, about 75 miles north of Islamabad. They tipped off Pakistani intelligence agents who picked him up and eventually transferred him to U.S. custody. Mohammed was captured by our ally's security forces in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
As one might expect, some observers are claiming that the intelligence gleaned from these "high value detainees" is proof that torture works. But that claim isn't supported by what we know so far. According to Newsweek's Evan Thomas, al-Libbi was first interrogated by the FBI, “but when the FBI wanted to use its normal, go-slow methods, the prisoner was turned over to the CIA—who promptly turned him over to the Egyptians.” He was later returned to American custody and interrogated again by the FBI, where former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insists that he yielded the information under “normal interrogation approaches ...[it was] not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding.”
But we know that while being tortured by the Egyptians, “al-Libbi talked of plots and agents,” and the information he provided “was used to make the case for war against Iraq.” As Evan Thomas noted, “there was only one problem: al-Libbi later recanted, saying that he had lied to stop the torture.”
Mohammed was also subject to torture. It was under duress that he told interrogators that al Qaeda sleeper cells had "hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe which will unleash a 'nuclear hellstorm' if Osama bin Laden is captured" -- yet more faulty information. He did not reveal the courier's name or information during waterboarding, only providing that information during regular interrogation over four years later.
So waterboarding led to the phony intelligence that got us into Iraq and was not responsible for helping us capture Bin Laden.
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