Terror Expert: Keep Waterboarding, It Led SEALs to bin Laden

The waterboarding of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed stopped “enormous” terrorist plots and his interrogation led to the courier who in turn led the CIA to Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan, investigative journalist Richard Miniter tells Newsmax.

New York Times best-selling author Miniter’s latest book is “Mastermind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.”

He asserts that President Obama went back on his word to 9/11 families not to seek a civilian trial for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (K.S.M.), but adds that if Khalid had been executed we would not have gotten to bin Laden. And he says it took Obama 18 hours before he finally decided to green light the bin Laden operation, showing indecision that was “not exactly Reaganesque.”

Miniter is a former editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal whose other books include “Losing Bin Laden.”

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV on Wednesday, Minister cites the waterboarding of terrorist subjects and says: “There’s a very good chance that waterboarding helped the CIA stop a number of plots — plots to blow up the U.S. embassy in Paris, plots to kill the U.S. ambassador in Singapore, plots to sink U.S. warships off the Straits of Gibraltar, plots to blow up the stadium at the World Cup soccer games.

“So enormous plots were stopped thanks to interrogating K.S.M. and waterboarding him. He was waterboarded for about a month in March 2003 following his capture. And once he broke he started talking freely ever since. “More recently he began talking to the CIA and to his [Department of Defense] interrogators at Guantanamo about the name of the courier, the most trusted link between Osama bin Laden and the outside world, and that tip coming directly from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed led the CIA to Osama’s lair in Pakistan.”

K.S.M. continues to disclose such valuable intelligence that it could be “dangerous” to execute him, Miniter asserts.

“It may be more dangerous to execute him because frankly we need K.S.M.’s constant fountain of information,” he tells Newsmax.

“We need him alive and talking to us. That’s how we found bin Laden, thanks to the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed a few years ago. “The senior leaders of al-Qaida know about all the long-term plots. More importantly, they know the personnel, the long-term relationships. That kind of thing is extremely valuable. In fact, as we saw from the successful attack on Osama bin Laden’s hideout, K.S.M. knew the name of that courier and he knew other key details that were useful to the CIA. If we’d executed him we’d never have gotten to bin Laden.”

Miniter writes in his book that Obama administration officials lied to the families of 9/11 victims. He explains: “Shortly after Obama was elected but before he was sworn in, he met with a number of the 9/11 families. They were very concerned, based on Obama’s campaign, that he was going to shut down the military commissions and deny the families the right to closure and to finally get justice for their lost sons, daughters, fathers and mothers.

“Obama looked them in the eye and said, no, I will not stop the military commissions. We will do civilian trials for other defendants but not these. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the other four people directly involved in the planning of 9/11, they will continue in the military commissions.

“Two days after Obama is sworn in as president, he changes his mind. He stops the commissions and K.S.M. is spared a trial for the following two years while Eric Holder, the attorney general, has a fruitless fight trying to get a civilian trial for K.S.M. in New York. What a waste of time.

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/bin-lad ... ode=C348-1

I personally don't like the idea of waterboarding. It takes too much time. I think jumper cables attached to the testicles would work faster.

Nipple clamps & jumper cables, sounds like a Friday Night at vl's.




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