Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-described planner of the September 11th terrorist attacks, now sits in the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

When he was first detained a decade ago by the CIA, he was held in secret prisons in Eastern Europe and subjected to harsh interrogations.

Agency officers forced him to stay awake for 180 hours. Additionally he underwent 183 instances of waterboarding.

His handlers also let him to take on an unusual project: Mohammed was allowed to design a vacuum cleaner. That last bit we found out this week from an Associated Press story by Adam Goldman.

“They needed to find a way to occupy him, they wanted to keep him mentally engaged,” said Goldman speaking with The World’s host Marco Werman. “The CIA had to work hard to make sure, in fact, these guys didn’t go insane.”