Jason McCullough
12-18-2006, 03:22 PM
So says Suskind (http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/10/suskind_the_pre.html):
Spiegel Online: And what happened to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed?
Suskind: He was really the prize. He is the 9/11 operational planner, a kind of general in the al-Qaida firmament. He was water-boarded, hot and cold, all matter of deprivations, beatings, threats. He told us some things, but frankly things that professional interrogators say could have been gotten otherwise.
Spiegel Online: With waterboarding, the prisoner is made to feel as though he is drowning, even if he isn't really at risk of dying. There are reports that Mohammed was a kind of unofficial record-holder when it came to waterboarding.
Suskind: With extraordinary minutes passing he earned a sort of grudging respect from interrogators. The thing they did with Mohammed is that we had captured his children, a boy and a girl, age 7 and 9. And at the darkest moment we threatened grievous injury to his children if he did not cooperate. His response was quite clear: "That's fine. You can do what you want to my children, and they will find a better place with Allah." ...
Spiegel Online: And what happened to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed?
Suskind: He was really the prize. He is the 9/11 operational planner, a kind of general in the al-Qaida firmament. He was water-boarded, hot and cold, all matter of deprivations, beatings, threats. He told us some things, but frankly things that professional interrogators say could have been gotten otherwise.
Spiegel Online: With waterboarding, the prisoner is made to feel as though he is drowning, even if he isn't really at risk of dying. There are reports that Mohammed was a kind of unofficial record-holder when it came to waterboarding.
Suskind: With extraordinary minutes passing he earned a sort of grudging respect from interrogators. The thing they did with Mohammed is that we had captured his children, a boy and a girl, age 7 and 9. And at the darkest moment we threatened grievous injury to his children if he did not cooperate. His response was quite clear: "That's fine. You can do what you want to my children, and they will find a better place with Allah." ...