Mother Jones has picked up on TalkLeft's criticism of the CIA taking custody of Al Qaeda detainee Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's 7 and 9 year old sons, flying them to America to interrogate them about their father and his activities and using them as pawns to get their father to talk:

LAW AND JUSTICE : Halfpint Hostages

The capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed made headlines around the world last week, with the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind being snatched from his bed in Pakistan and shipped off to a US military prison in Afghanistan.

As it turns out, though, while Mohammed was settling into his cell at Bagram Air Force Base, the CIA was taking his sons, aged seven and nine, into custody as well. Held by Pakistani authorities since last fall, the boys have now been transferred to a secret location in America, where the CIA is interrogating them and using them to force their father to talk, Olga Craig of London's Daily Telegraph reports. As one CIA official puts it, Mohammed's children are a valuable tool in the war on terror:

"'His sons are important to him. The promise of their release and their return to Pakistan may be the psychological lever we need to break him.'"

Though the CIA insists the boys are being given "the best of care," the pundits at TalkLeft are horrified that Washington is holding Mohammed's children hostage -- no matter what his crime.

" ... what Mohammed is really being told is that something awful will befall his sons if he doesn't cooperate. Legal? Probably. It's also morally bankrupt. But let's leave the father out of this for the moment. Our concern is the kids.
...

We didn't realize that enemy combatant status was hereditary. A lawyer and a guardian ad litem should be appointed for these kids immediately. The kids should be returned home without delay to whatever family they have left. This is taking 'sins of the father' to an unprecedented and unconscionable level."

Thanks, Mother Jones. We think this issue needs more media coverage and debate.