John "kissy-face" McCain on Torture and Finding Bin Laden

The "kissy-face" comes from one of the comments at the quoted piece. The Arizona senator says that those who did the torturing shouldn't be prosecuted, so once again, the rule of the state's own phony law is thrown out and the privileged class (agents of the state) are given a pass by one of their own. You waterboard someone 183 times and you aren't fully cognizant of the criminal act you're committing by doing so?

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.-Bin Laden’s death and the debate over torture