But Reuters's Mark Hosenball includes details that tell a different story, hearing from multiple "current and former U.S. officials" that the crucial courier information only came long after harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding had been abandoned. It wasn't just post-2002 that this happened, but post-2004, i.e. after the CIA had "suspended" the harsh techniques, according to Hosenball. "The first key intelligence reports identifying the al Qaeda courier reached U.S. counter-terrorism officials in 2004," writes Hosenball, citing "a former U.S. national security official with direct personal knowledge."

The Case for Guantanamo Interrogation

Even with Reuters's account of the chronology, Hosenball writes that "the possibility that detainees who at some point were subjected to physical coercion later gave up information leading to bin Laden's discovery is sparking discussion among intelligence experts as to whether he could have been found without them." Here's the quote he gets:

"I think it ... rested heavily on some of those controversial policies," Wolfowitz told reporters in a phone briefing by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, where he's a visiting scholar. "This would not have been possible if we were releasing terrorists willy-nilly and not keeping them for the information they had, some of which often may not look that important, like the pseudonym of a driver, until it turns out that he's really a critical person," Wolfowitz said.

Given the previous harsh criticism over Guantanamo from Europe, let's take a look at Thomas Schmid's revision in an op-ed for German newspaper Die Welt, covered yesterday by the Wire: "If it is true that crucial information on the whereabouts of the target came from the Guantanamo detainees, this would throw a new light on America's handling of terrorism suspects: as problematic as the stockpiling and choosing of detainees is--there were good reasons to set up Guantanamo and not to close it prematurely."

The Case Against Guantanamo Interrogation

Tim Ross points out in The Telegraph that "Amnesty International has already warned that the killing of bin Laden must not be used as evidence that torture is 'justifiable'."

Then there's the big issue of chronology. If the detainees gave up the key info after waterboarding had already been banned, is that really an argument for waterboarding? One of Hosenball's anonymous sources in the Reuters article also said that, in fact, "for three years after the CIA stopped subjecting him to coercive measures, KSM continued to talk extensively."

Summing It Up

Given Hosenball's notes, separated by a few paragraphs in his piece, that "veterans of the Bush administration [have been] quick to claim credit for the torture-like techniques," while "Obama Administration officials confirmed the sequence of events--U.S. intelligence did not learn the identity of the courier until after the CIA interrogation program was terminated," it seems likely there could be some spin even in information from anonymous sources; the obvious issue with anonymous sources, for the reader, is that you don't know who they are or what agenda they might have. That said, it certainly looks like both sides face hurdles in maintaining their positions: waterboarding supporters have to deal with the fact that the crucial information leading to bin Laden's location came after the waterboarding stopped. Anti-Guantanamo activists have to deal with the fact that such quality information came from illegal detention centers, including Guantanamo.*

*Edited for clarity. This post also originally misstated the year that Obama took office.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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