A senior US politician slams a new film for suggesting that the waterboarding of an al Qaeda man led the US to Osama bin Laden.

11:18, UK, Wednesday 19 December 2012

Zero Dark Thirty




Kathryn Bigelow and Jessica Chastain at Zero Dark Thirty after party

John McCain, a senior Republican Senator and former US Navy pilot who spent five years in captivity during the Vietnam War, was given a copy of the movie.

He insisted Mohammed was not the one who provided the information that led the Seals to bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in Pakistan.


In fact, the name of bin Laden's courier, Abu Ahmed al Kuwaiti, came from a detainee who was being held in another country.


Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, backed up Mr McCain's assessment that the waterboarding of Mohammed did not produce the crucial tip-off.

John McCain

Mr McCain, who was tortured during his own captivity in North Vietnam, opposes waterboarding and any form of torture tactics.

He said they could be used against Americans, and their use damages the nation's character and reputation.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon's top intelligence official, who could become the next CIA director, is under investigation for giving information about the raid to Bigelow and Zero Dark Thirty writer Mark Boal.

Michael Vickers, the undersecretary of defence for intelligence, is being investigated by the Pentagon's inspector general.

But a spokesman said he only provided unclassified information to the makers of the movie, and the meeting had been arranged by the Pentagon's office of public affairs.

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