THE LIMITS:

CIA holds young sons of captured al-Qa'eda chief (Olga Craig, 09/03/2003, Daily Telegraph)

Two young sons of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, are being used by the CIA to force their father to talk.

Yousef al-Khalid, nine, and his brother, Abed al-Khalid, seven, were taken into custody in Pakistan last September when intelligence officers raided a flat in Karachi where their father had been hiding.

He fled just hours before the raid but his two young sons, along with another senior al-Qa'eda member, were found cowering behind a wardrobe in the apartment.

The boys have been held by the Pakistani authorities but this weekend they were flown to America where they will be questioned about their father.

Last night CIA interrogators confirmed that the boys were staying at a secret address where they were being encouraged to talk about their father's activities.

"We are handling them with kid gloves. After all, they are only little children," said one official, "but we need to know as much about their father's recent activities as possible. We have child psychologists on hand at all times and they are given the best of care."

It's perfectly acceptable to keep them in custody long enough to develop some information, but the use of such innocents for purposes of forcing the father to talk--a method that Jordan used to break up Abu Nidal's group--can never be allowed the United States, even if effective. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 8, 2003 9:34 PM