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October 6, 2008 10:56:55 PM CDT

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Ex-Pentagon Lawyers Face Grilling in Torture Probe

Posted Jun 17, 08 5:33 AM CDT in Politics,  Crime & Courts,  US 

(Newser) – Pentagon lawyers had more input than was initially thought into the harsh interrogation techniques used on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, sources close to a Senate investigation have told the New York Times. Documents from 2002 reveal that officials in the Department of Defense, then run by Donald Rumsfeld, researched techniques like waterboarding months before they were used on detainees.

Harsh techniques were instituted after Pentagon lawyers expressed frustration by the lack of intelligence information coming from prisoners, said a senior lawyer due to testify today before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Chairman Carl Levin said it was "particularly disturbing" that the more aggressive techniques came from a US military training manual on how to survive interrogation if captured by enemies that ignored the Geneva Conventions.

Source New York Times

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Documents obtained by a Senate committee show Pentagon lawyers researched harsh interrogation techniques months before they were used on detainees at Guantanamo Bay.   (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this Oct. 11, 2006, file photo, then Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld pauses during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Aides to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld researched harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding and sensory deprivation in 2002.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Pentagon  • Guantanamo Bay  • Donald Rumsfeld  • interrogation techniques  • Carl Levin  • harsh interrogation  • Senate Armed Services Committee


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