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CIA Gave Pentagon Torture Tips

Methods were 'reverse-engineered' from manuals

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 18, 2008 8:06 AM CDT
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(Newser) – The CIA gave the Pentagon advice about the legality of harsh interrogation techniques to be used on detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, the Washington Post reports. Documents shown to a Senate committee yesterday reveal that the agency had a bigger role than first thought. Torture is "subject to perception,"a CIA lawyer told officials at a 2002 meeting. "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong."

The documents show how techniques green-lighted by CIA lawyers, including waterboarding, had been "reverse-engineered" from training manuals advising US troops what to do if tortured by enemy forces. The CIA's advice "will go down in history as some of the most irresponsible and shortsighted legal analysis ever provided to our nation's military and intelligence communities," said GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham.  

In this Feb. 2, 2002, file photo, a detainee from Afghanistan is carried on a stretcher before being interrogated by military officials at Camp X-Ray at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In this Feb. 2, 2002, file photo, a detainee from Afghanistan is carried on a stretcher before being interrogated by military officials at Camp X-Ray at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.   (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
This file image shows Sgt. Michael Smith, left, with his dog Marco, watching a detainee at an unspecified date in 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.
This file image shows Sgt. Michael Smith, left, with his dog Marco, watching a detainee at an unspecified date in 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.   (AP Photo/File)
This Dec. 12, 2003, file image shows interrogators with a dog during an incident at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.
This Dec. 12, 2003, file image shows interrogators with a dog during an incident at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq.   (AP Photo)
How on Earth did we get to the point where a United States government lawyer would say that torture is subject to perception? asked committee chair Carl Levin, seen here in a 2007 file photo.
"How on Earth did we get to the point where a United States government lawyer would say that torture is subject to perception?" asked committee chair Carl Levin, seen here in a 2007 file photo.   (AP Photo)
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Pentagon used techniques from Vietnam, North Korea
Associated Press

Military hid detainees from Red Cross
Seattle Times

CIA lawyers thought they had found 'legal loophole''
New York Times

Politics • US

 
CIA • Pentagon • Guantanamo Bay • Lindsey Graham • interrogation techniques • harsh interrogation • Senate Armed Services Committee

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