Fox & Friends hosts falsely claim that torture led US military to Osama bin Laden

2014 Senate “torture report” made clear that such claims were overblown

From the May 10 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

Video file

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): I thought she was great, and I thought she was strong, and while she was also proud of what she accomplished in keeping America safe and stopping the next attack that goes forward, bottom line is she does not consider enhanced interrogation torture. Number two is it worked. You don't get bin Laden without it, and most of these senators know it, and they felt they didn't stop it when they were there, like Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein (D-CA) who's been there for ages. Now all of a sudden she comes out and she has questions about what's taking place. 

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): You're talking about what happened with [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed], they -- they did do the enhanced interrogation on KSM, when it was legal, when you could do that, and then that led us to the courier that was talking to bin Laden. We followed that courier, and then got bin Laden as a result. 

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Absolutely. And, Aisnley, you made a great point right there, and that was everything that she did at that point was legal. 

EARHARDT: She said, “I followed orders.”

[...]

DOOCY: When you go back to the immediately after 9/11 mindset, anthrax came into this building, people in the United States of America were just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And they were doing -- the patriots at the CIA, and all the operatives around the world, were doing everything they could to stop another attack. And that was her job.

KILMEADE: How do you think [Daniel] Pearl's family feels about KSM getting waterboarded? Do you think they bleed for him? Because their kid's head was cut off by that guy. 

Related:

Vox: The Senate report proves once and for all that torture didn't lead us to Osama bin Laden

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program

Previously:

Fox News uses Nuremberg defense to cover for Gina Haspel’s torture record

Fox News panel says torture while Gina Haspel was in the CIA was no big deal

Fox & Friends hosts architect of CIA's torture program to go to bat for Gina Haspel