Confirmed: Waterboarding led to the killing of Osama

 From the AP:

Officials say CIA interrogators in secret overseas prisons developed the first strands of information that ultimately led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Current and former U.S. officials say that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, provided the nom de guerre of one of bin Laden's most trusted aides. The CIA got similar information from Mohammed's successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi. Both were subjected to harsh interrogation tactics inside CIA prisons in Poland and Romania.

The media will refuse to disseminate this. Yes, the trail began with Bush policies and would not have begun with Obama policies.

But you know who will make sure people know this?

Dick Cheney, in his national, full-spectrum omni-media You're Welcome tour.

Flashback: Media lambastes "black sites" in Romania and Poland.

In his second report on so-called "extraordinary renditions" of terror suspects, Council of Europe special investigator Dick Marty writes that there is "enough evidence to state" that American secret prisons in Poland and Romania existed. The illegal deportation of suspects by CIA kidnapping teams in Europe amounts to a "massive and systematic violation of human rights," the report says.

Marty, who conducted the investigation on behalf of the Council of Europe, accuses the CIA of having committing a number of transgressions: "We believe we have shown that the CIA committed a whole series of illegal acts in Europe by abducting individuals, detaining them in secret locations and subjecting them to interrogation techniques tantamount to torture."

The Washington Post, of course, first revealed these sites in 2005-2006, in Bush's term.

By revealing these sites, the media pressured our allies to shut them down and probe their own officials for potential criminal charges.

Including Lithuania.

So apparently Obama and the left like to campaign hard on naivete in order to make partisan attacks on a Republican President, but they will gladly take the information they themselves opposed procuring and then claim credit for the fruit of that information.

Let Me Say Something About Bush and Cheney: For the last four years, they have known they broke KSM and this other high value target and got the names of Osama's couriers.

They have only stated elliptically, without specifics, that "important information was learned."

They were called liars every time they said this.

At any time, they could have exposed their critics as the anti-American, terrorist-coddling hyperpartisans they were, by revealing this crown jewel of American intelligence.

But they didn't.

They allowed their names to be slurred on a daily basis in order to preserve the secret. To allow Obama to capitalize on the information they procured.

Well.

The secret is out now.

It's time for credit to be taken and apologies to be granted -- or apologies to be forced and shamed out of people.

Cheney on FoxNews Now: He's actually saying he's not sure about this... he says he needs to know more before he can conclude that enhanced interrogation led to this.

Posted by: Ace at 03:32 PM