Quote:
Sen. John McCain: Osama Bin Laden was not killed because of information obtained by torture
BY Helen Kennedy
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, May 12th 2011, 2:27 PM

Torture did not produce the information that led to Osama Bin Laden, Arizona Sen. John McCain declared Thursday.


"It was not torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees that got us the major leads," he said on the Senate floor.

The key information about Bin Laden's courier "was obtained through standard, noncoercive means" - not from waterboarding detainees, McCain wrote in a Washington Post editorial.

A former prisoner of war who endured five years of mistreatment in Vietnam, McCain has a unique authority to speak on the subject.

Former Bush administration officials have repeatedly claimed that the relentless waterboarding of terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed cracked the case.

McCain said he learned from CIA Director Leon Panetta and staffers at the Senate intelligence committee that Mohammed actually lied to his interrogators about the courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti.

"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," McCain said.

The initial information about the courier's central role in Al Qaeda and his nickname, which ultimately led to Bin Laden, "came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured," McCain said.

McCain's account directly contradicts the version told by several top Bush administration officials.

...

nydailynews.com

Fair play!