[mburbank]

The two main sources for the effectiveness of waterboarding on KSM in the wikipedia article are W and Cheney. W has repeatedly said the US does not torture. The article you are siting begins "Waterboarding is a form of torture".

The third source is an unamed CIA opperative. He sites confession of involvement by KSM in 31 terrorist plots. No info is given on veracity of this claim.

I would say that this is very flimsy evidence of effectiveness to base a decission to violate the rule of law and join the club of nations that torture.

A.) I believe they believe waterboarding yields or may at some point useful information
B.) W and Chenney have a very poor record of veracity and believe secrecy over anything makes your wiener bigger, so anything they have to say about what tenchiques yield what information should be taken with mucho salt

C.) If Mukaseys opinion is that waterboaring isn't torture, or is torture but torture is legal and moreover an good tool that yields useable results, then by all means, let him say so.