It has been reported consistently since 2002 that the young children of al Qaeda suspect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed were taken by the CIA in 2002 in a failed attempt to capture Mohammed. When Mohammed himself was captured in 2003, it was said that his children were used as leverage in his interrogations. He mentioned this in his arraignment hearing in 2007. A 2007 Human Rights Watch/Amnesty International report on "disappeared persons" mentions Mohammed's children as well.
In Iraq, noncombatant children of former Iraqi military leaders and suspected insurgents have been detained by U.S. military and intelligence forces for use as bargaining chips to get family members to turn themselves in.
Have there been investigations into this practice? What oversight is provided to ensure that these children suffer no ill effects of capture? Are they returned to their families? What has happened to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's children, who were captured six years ago?
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