“Jose Rodriguez, the former head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center who oversaw the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques,’ gave his first public interview to Time magazine this week [early May 2011] to defend the role the use of techniques like waterboarding played in the operation against Osama bin Laden. The question of the role such techniques played in this mission arose after reports revealed that two key terror detainees–Khalid Sheikh Mohammed [KSM] and Abu Faraj al-Libi–gave American officials the nickname of a courier who ultimately led U.S. intelligence officials to bin Laden. The two detainees gave the initial information up at foreign CIA ‘black sites,’ where waterboarding–historically considered a form of torture by the U.S.–and other ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques were used. ‘Information provided by KSM and Abu Faraj al-Libi about Bin Laden’s courier was the lead information that eventually led to the location of [bin Laden’s] compound and the operation that led to his death,’ Rodriguez told Time.”
– Stephanie Condon, “Bush’s Counterterror Chief Defends Harsh Interrogations,” CBS News, May 4, 2011