'I stand on the side of the United States and by the Geneva conventions,' John McCain said. McCain: Waterboarding didn't help

Sen. John McCain denounced “advanced interrogation” methods like waterboarding Wednesday amid a growing debate over its effectiveness reopened by the killing of Osama bin Laden.

McCain told reporters leaving an intelligence briefing for senators by CIA director Leon Panetta that he has seen no information so far to indicate that techniques like waterboarding factored significantly in the information gathering that led to bin Laden’s death.


“So far I know of no information that was obtained, that would have been useful, by ‘advanced interrogation.’ In fact, according to published reports … some of the key people who knew about this courrier denied it,” McCain said, careful to note that he was not relaying information from Panetta’s classified session with Senate Intelligence and Armed Services Committee members.

“Where there is published information in the various newspapers and media that the information about this courrier was intercepted conversation between two individuals — that’s as far as I know,” the top Republicans on the Armed Services Committee added. “I stand on the side of the United States and by the Geneva conventions, of which we are signatories, which we were in violation of by waterboarding.”

Senators exiting the meeting with Panetta, who is in line to become President Barack Obama’s next secretary of defense, were tight-lipped about what the CIA chief shared inside the room. McCain said he has not seen the photograph of bin Laden taken after he was shot in the face Sunday. Other senators approached in the Capitol basement said they also had not seen the photo.

The administration said Wednesday they will not release a photo. McCain told reporters he did not think the photograph needed to be released. “My initial opinion is that it’s not necessary to do so. I think there’s ample proof that this was Osama bin Laden,” said McCain, a Vietnam War veteran.

Tuesday, the top senators on the Homeland Security Committee, Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Conn.) indicated they supported the release of the photos to “quell” any doubts that bin Laden was the man who was shot and killed in Pakistan Sunday.