CHENEY, KSM AND TORTURE

I've read one of the two documents provided by Spencer Ackerman, the one entitled "Detainee Reporting Pivotal in the War against Al-Qa'ida" and dated June 3, 2005. The parts which deal with Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was captured in March 2003, indicate that he may not have needed to be waterboarded 183 times.

Here are 3 examples from that document:

[1] Sometimes the detainee gives information he calculates—rightly or wrongly—that the debriefers already know.

• Uncharacteristic for most detainees, KSM almost immediately following his capture in March 2003 elaborated on his plan to crash commercial airlines into Heathrow Airport; he may have assumed that Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, who was captured in December 2002, had already divulged this plan. (page 9)

[2] ln March 2003, al-Qa`ida external operations chief Khalid Shaykh Muhammad (KSM) provided information about an al-Qa`ida operative, Majid Khan, who he was aware had recently been captured. KSM—possibly believing the detained operative was "talking"—admitted to having tasked Majid with delivering a large sum of money to individuals working for another senior al-Qa`ida associate. (page 2)

[3]In response to questions about al-Qa`ida's efforts to acquire WMD, KSM also revealed he had met three individuals involved in al-Qa`ida's program to produce anthrax. He apparently calculated-incorrectly—that we had this information already, given that one of the three—Jl operative and al-Qa`ida associate Yazid Sufaat, been in foreign custody [REDACTED]for unrelated terrorist activity.(page 5)