Waterboarding vindicated? Security chiefs claim 'enhanced interrogation' of Al Qaeda leaders helped them find and kill Bin Laden

By MARK DUELL
Updated: 18:39 EST, 4 May 2011

Allies of George W. Bush have provoked a storm by claiming Osama Bin Laden’s death vindicates the former U.S. president’s approval of torture against Al Qaeda suspects.

Smarting at the political capital being made by Barack Obama’s Democrats over the killing of the 9/11 mastermind, they say his Republican predecessor should really be taking the credit – for permitting the use of controversial interrogation techniques.

In 2009, Obama banned the use of waterboarding – simulated drowning – on prisoners.

However, Homeland Security Committee chairman Peter King and former Justice Department official John Yoo have both come out in favour of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ this week.

Vindicated: Evidence-gathering that helped find the Al Qaeda leader’s hideaway was aided by waterboarding, Homeland Security Committee chairman Peter King and former Justice Department official John Yoo claim

9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded for information 183 times and Mr King says this was crucial to tracking down Bin Laden.

‘Osama Bin Laden would not have been captured and killed if it were not for the initial information we got from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after he was waterboarded,’ he told CBS New York.

The controversial torture technique was banned by President Obama in January 2009, who described it an Al Qaeda recruiting tool and a ‘mistake’.

Water is poured over a captive’s face to create a drowning sensation, but Mr King says it helped get the name and identity of Bin Laden’s courier from Mohammed.

Evidence: 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded for information 183 times and Mr King says this was crucial to tracking down Bin Laden at his hideaway in Abbotabad, Pakistan

‘The initial information we received on who the courier was, the person to lead us to Bin Laden, came as the result of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed being waterboarded,’ he said.

‘He appeared on the radar screen as a result of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s statements after he was waterboarded.’

More intelligence on Bin Laden’s hideaway in Abbotabad, Pakistan, came out when Mohammed’s assistant Abu Farraj al-Libbi was captured and severely interrogated.

Former official Mr Yoo wrote secret legal memorandums to justify brutal interrogations.

Protest: Human rights activists have been demonstrating against waterboarding for years, claiming the interrogation technique is unreasonable torture, such as in this Washington D.C. protest

‘President Obama can take credit, rightfully, for the success, but he owes it to the tough decisions taken by the Bush administration,’ Mr Yoo wrote in National Review on Monday.

But the New York Times claims waterboarding only played a small part in identifying Bin Laden’s courier and exposing his secret compound.

In fact the newspaper said Mohammed repeatedly misled his interrogators about the courier’s identity, despite being waterboarded 183 times.

The Bush administration argued extra force was necessary to get Al Qaeda officials talking, but it was labelled ‘torture’ by Mr Obama and human rights advocates.

Different opinions: Waterboarding was banned in 2009 by President Obama, who described it a ‘mistake’, but the George W. Bush administration said extra force was necessary to get Al Qaeda officials talking

Retired CIA officer Glenn Carle told the New York Times that coercive techniques ‘didn’t provide useful, meaningful, trustworthy information’.

'The bottom line is this - if we had some kind of smoking-gun intelligence from waterboarding in 2003, we would have taken out Osama Bin Laden in 2003,’ a National Security Council spokesman said.

‘It took years of collection and analysis from many different sources to develop the case that enabled us to identify this compound, and reach a judgement that Bin Laden was likely to be living there.’

Other enhanced techniques used on prisoners such as Mohammed included pushing them into walls, shackling them in stress positions and keeping them awake for up to 180 hours.