Intelligence Pick Bows Out Over CIA Tactic Ties

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama has ordered the creation of an elite squad that will take over terror interrogations from the CIA, senior officials tell the Washington Post. Dubbed the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, or HIG, the unit will be housed with the FBI, but overseen by the White House through the National Security Council. Its director will likely come from the FBI, but the deputy could come from the CIA. More»

Bush-era docs give OK for waterboarding

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration faces a tough call on whether to declassify Bush-era Justice Department memos that outline harsh CIA interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, the Wall Street Journal reports. The president is still reviewing internal arguments but is leaning toward keeping the most sensitive documents classified, insiders say. More»

American contractor says defense sec approved his detention, torture in Iraq

(AP) - An Army vet who says he was imprisoned unjustly and tortured by the US military in Iraq can sue former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally for damages, a judge ruled yesterday. The veteran, a private contractor who worked as a Marine translator in the volatile Anbar province, says he was repeatedly abused while detained for nine months at Camp Cropper. Lawyers for the man, who is in his 50s, say he was preparing to come home to the United States on annual leave when he was abducted by the US military and held without justification while his family knew nothing about his whereabouts or even whether he was still alive. More»

Psychologists first known waterboarders in secret prisons

(NEWSER) - The CIA secretly agreed to pay at least $5 million in legal fees for two contractors who designed interrogations and repeatedly waterboarded detainees, say former US officials. Whereas CIA agents generally receive agency-paid insurance for potential legal bills, psychologists Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, the first individuals to have been confirmed as having carried out waterboarding sessions, wanted extra coverage as public citizens. So the CIA agreed to pay Mitchell and Jessen’s firm’s legal fees directly. More»

'Appendix M' also limits more humane method

(NEWSER) - More than a dozen expert interrogators have written an open letter urging defense chief Robert Gates to scrap a section of the Army Field Manual because it endorses methods they consider "abusive" and "counterproductive," reports Harper's . "The use of sensory deprivation techniques, extreme isolation and stress positions is likely to lead to false information, facilitate enemy recruitment, and further erode the reputation of the United States,” they write of the manual's Appendix M. More»