‘Torture’ debate re-ignites over source of tip-off

THE possibility that US spies located Osama bin Laden with help from detainees who’d been subjected to “enhanced interrogation” techniques seems certain to reopen the debate over practices that many have equated with torture, security experts believe.

One of the key sources for initial information about an al-Qaida “courier” who led US authorities to bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaida operative said to have masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks, a former US national security official said.

KSM, as he was known to US officials, was subjected to “waterboarding” 183 times, the US government has acknowledged.