Post by unlawflcombatnt on Apr 16, 2009 21:35:52 GMT -6
from the Los Angeles Times
Memos reveal harsh CIA interrogation methods
By Greg Miller and Josh Meyer
April 16, 2009
"Obama releases Justice Department documents that guided the CIA on how to use waterboarding and other tactics with terrorism suspects. Intelligence officials won't be prosecuted over the interrogation.
Baring what he called a "dark and painful chapter in our history," President Obama on Thursday released previously secret Justice Department memos that provided graphic guidance to the CIA on how far it could go in using waterboarding and other coercive methods....
At the same time, Obama assured CIA employees and other U.S. counter-terrorism officials that they would be protected from prosecution for their roles in running a network of secret prisons....
"This is a time for reflection, not retribution," Obama said in explaining his decision to release a collection of documents that CIA veterans and some senior officials in his administration had fought to keep sealed....
Prisoners could be deprived of sleep for as much as 180 hours, could be shoved against a wall "30 times consecutively," or be forced to undergo the simulated drowning method known as waterboarding as many as 6 times within a two-hour stretch.
"We understand that water may enter -- and may accumulate in -- the detainee's mouth and nasal cavity, preventing him from breathing," reads one passage in a May 10, 2005, memo sent to the CIA from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. If a prisoner failed to recover, the document says, "the intervening physician would perform a tracheotomy." (i.e., cut a hole in the torturee's throat to stick a tube down it.)....
The memos were crafted by the Office of Legal Counsel, a unit that was at the center of a series of debates during the Bush administration over the limits of executive power and counter-terrorism tactics.
The 4 documents cover a period of time stretching from 2002...to 2005, when the government was forced to recalculate its approach in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal....
Former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said Thursday the Obama administration was endangering the country by releasing the memos.
The latest memos carry the signature of Steven G. Bradbury, who served as head of the Office of Legal Counsel until President Bush left office. The Justice Department said Thursday the opinions contained in the memos were no longer valid as legal guidance.
The release of the documents represented a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that have fought in court to force the government to disgorge memos on the CIA's interrogation and detention programs. But Obama's decision to shield agency employees from legal liability is likely to draw criticism from the left. (and most everyone else, for that matter.)
Holder said the Justice Department would not prosecute CIA employees, would appoint lawyers to fight legal challenges in the United States or overseas and would even pay judgments or penalties assessed against employees who followed the guidance they got from his department....
"My administration will always act in accordance with the law," Obama said. "That is why we have released these memos, and that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within them never take place again.""
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-interrogation17-2009apr17,0,5555846.story
Memos reveal harsh CIA interrogation methods
By Greg Miller and Josh Meyer
April 16, 2009
"Obama releases Justice Department documents that guided the CIA on how to use waterboarding and other tactics with terrorism suspects. Intelligence officials won't be prosecuted over the interrogation.
Baring what he called a "dark and painful chapter in our history," President Obama on Thursday released previously secret Justice Department memos that provided graphic guidance to the CIA on how far it could go in using waterboarding and other coercive methods....
At the same time, Obama assured CIA employees and other U.S. counter-terrorism officials that they would be protected from prosecution for their roles in running a network of secret prisons....
"This is a time for reflection, not retribution," Obama said in explaining his decision to release a collection of documents that CIA veterans and some senior officials in his administration had fought to keep sealed....
Prisoners could be deprived of sleep for as much as 180 hours, could be shoved against a wall "30 times consecutively," or be forced to undergo the simulated drowning method known as waterboarding as many as 6 times within a two-hour stretch.
"We understand that water may enter -- and may accumulate in -- the detainee's mouth and nasal cavity, preventing him from breathing," reads one passage in a May 10, 2005, memo sent to the CIA from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. If a prisoner failed to recover, the document says, "the intervening physician would perform a tracheotomy." (i.e., cut a hole in the torturee's throat to stick a tube down it.)....
The memos were crafted by the Office of Legal Counsel, a unit that was at the center of a series of debates during the Bush administration over the limits of executive power and counter-terrorism tactics.
The 4 documents cover a period of time stretching from 2002...to 2005, when the government was forced to recalculate its approach in the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal....
Former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said Thursday the Obama administration was endangering the country by releasing the memos.
The latest memos carry the signature of Steven G. Bradbury, who served as head of the Office of Legal Counsel until President Bush left office. The Justice Department said Thursday the opinions contained in the memos were no longer valid as legal guidance.
The release of the documents represented a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that have fought in court to force the government to disgorge memos on the CIA's interrogation and detention programs. But Obama's decision to shield agency employees from legal liability is likely to draw criticism from the left. (and most everyone else, for that matter.)
Holder said the Justice Department would not prosecute CIA employees, would appoint lawyers to fight legal challenges in the United States or overseas and would even pay judgments or penalties assessed against employees who followed the guidance they got from his department....
"My administration will always act in accordance with the law," Obama said. "That is why we have released these memos, and that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within them never take place again.""
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-interrogation17-2009apr17,0,5555846.story