Bin Laden killing: Tough interrogation redeemed?

Candidate Obama campaigned against the Guantonomo Bay terrorist detention center, he backed the failed Bill Clinton-era law enforcement approarch to fighting jihadists, and he opposed enhanced interrogation methods used on these brutes.

But President Obama is basking in the success of killing Osama Bin Laden--and he deserves credit. But could the seeds of Sunday's victory have been planted by George W. Bush?

From McClatchey:

More than 8,000 miles from the walled compound where U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden, some of the men who helped make it happen are probably sitting today in cells at Guantanamo.

While it is not publicly known which detainees gave CIA or Guantanamo interrogators the nom de guerre of one of the few al-Qaida couriers trusted by bin Laden, a senior U.S. official confirmed that crucial piece of intelligence was gathered from "detainees in the post-9/11 period."

A second U.S. official with knowledge of the situation confirmed that some of the information used to track down the courier was given by Guantanamo detainees. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the details involved.

The news underscored the ongoing debate about the legacy and value of Guantanamo.

From AP:

In a secret CIA prison in Eastern Europe years ago, al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, gave authorities the nicknames of several of bin Laden's couriers, four former U.S. intelligence officials said. Those names were among thousands of leads the CIA was pursuing.

One man became a particular interest for the agency when another detainee, Abu Faraj al-Libi, told interrogators that when he was promoted to succeed Mohammed as al-Qaida's operational leader he received the word through a courier. Only bin Laden would have given al-Libi that promotion, CIA officials believed.

If they could find that courier, they'd find bin Laden.

The revelation that intelligence gleaned from the CIA's so-called black sites helped kill bin Laden was seen as vindication for many intelligence officials who have been repeatedly investigated and criticized for their involvement in a program that involved the harshest interrogation methods in U.S. history.

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