Report: Review finds torture methods not key in bin Laden hunt

A forthcoming Senate report concludes that waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques did not provide any critical evidence that aided the hunt for Osama bin Laden, The Associated Press reports.

Congressional aides and other experts familiar with the review shared its findings with the AP. 

The CIA, however, disputes that conclusion. Bush administration officials claimed enhanced interrogation techniques led to evidence that pointed to bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. 

{mosads}Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the highest-level al Qaeda member detained by the United States and was waterboarded 183 times, the AP reports.

While intelligence officials have said Mohammed mentioned an al Qaeda courier, he didn’t emphasize the person’s significance or identify his name. Sources told the AP that the report, therefore, showed he didn’t provide critical information. 

That courier is the person who led the CIA to bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011. 

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) have said the CIA did not learn details about the courier through the agency’s detention and interrogation program.

According to the AP, Feinstein will push to release a summary of the investigation this week, but documents might take months to declassify.