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John McCain: No 'Torture' for 9/11 Mastermind
Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the U.S. was wrong to "torture" al Qaeda 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shiek Mohammed, saying that torture shouldn't be used against suspects even if they have extensive knowledge of terrorist operations planned against the U.S. Asked "if you could save American lives" by threatening a terrorist like Mohammed with torture, McCain told "Fox News Sunday": "If you decide to torture him you probably don't get the right information, because torture doesn't work." McCain said he feared that by permitting torture of even the most dangerous suspects, worldwide resentment against the U.S. would grow. "How many people could turn against the United States of American when they hear that we are torturing people," he told Fox.
Story Continues Below In fact, after Mohammed was captured and subjected to "waterboarding" [simulated drowning] by U.S. interrogators, he gave up what the New York Times described as "rich and important information about terrorist operations." While U.S. intelligence has declined to detail the wealth of information extracted from Mohammed, the Times noted that some of it was used to foil at least one plot against the U.S. "In the Sept. 11 commission's final report, Mr. Mohammed is said to have told his interrogators that he dispatched Mr. Hindi, under the name Issa al-Britani, to case potential economic targets in New York," the paper reported last August. "The authorities believe that Mr. Hindi traveled to New York in 2000 and 2001 to conduct surveillance operations at five financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington." McCain's claim that torture doesn't work is also contradicted by his own story. In a 1973 account he gave "U.S. News & World Report," McCain recalled how his plane was shot down over North Vietnam, with the crash leaving him severely wounded. After the North Vietnamese captured him, he said his captors slapped him around for "three or four days." On the fourth day, McCain said he called for an officer and said, "O.K., I'll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital." In his book, "Faith of My Fathers," McCain continued the story: "Demands for military information were accompanied by threats to terminate my medical treatment if I did not cooperate. Eventually, I gave them my ship's name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant." Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Al-Qaeda
Inside Cover Stories
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