ANALYSIS
His tough campaign rhetoric sets tone as left looks for change
New York Times Dec 3, 08 12:08 PM CST
(Newser)
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On the campaign trail, Barack Obama frequently railed against the CIA’s secret jails and harsh interrogation techniques. Now, he must lead the agency, and the transition’s already proving rocky, the New York Times reports. Liberal outcry derailed his rumored pick for director, John Brennan. Brennan was chief of staff for George Tenet when the policies were created, but says he was a “strong opponent” of them.
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Fearing backlash, CIA sought and received support
Washington Post Oct 15, 08 7:17 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The Bush administration gave its blessing in writing for the CIA to use waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques in two secret memos that have only now come to light, the Washington Post reveals. Intelligence officials sought to get something on paper in 2003—more than a year after the secret interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects began—to cover their backs in the event of public criticism, according to security sources.
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Communist methods became US training manual
New York Times Jul 2, 08 3:37 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Guantanamo Bay interrogators learned their techniques from Chinese Communists who used them on American POWs in the Korean War, the New York Times reports. A 1957 Air Force chart labeled Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance detailed methods like prolonged standing and exposure to cold, and was used as a training aid by military trainers. The chart was copied verbatim for use at Guantanamo.
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Methods were 'reverse-engineered' from manuals
Washington Post Jun 18, 08 8:06 AM CDT
(Newser)
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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."
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Defense Department lawyers played bigger role in Gitmo than first thought
New York Times Jun 17, 08 5:33 AM CDT
(Newser)
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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.
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He was beaten,
hung from ceiling,
shocked with electricity
ABC News May 21, 08 12:02 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A man arrested in Pakistan and held as an enemy combatant in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay was hung from the ceiling, beaten, and shocked with jolts of electricity, he testified to Congress yesterday. The German-born Turkish citizen told lawmakers that US interrogators also forced water down his throat. He was released without charge after nearly 5 years in custody.
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Key document said to outline waterboarding techniques
Reuters May 9, 08 6:30 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A federal judge has ordered the CIA to release a 2002 memo believed to outline interrogation methods that may amount to torture. The ACLU, which brought the suit sparking the order, claims that the memo details harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, and calls it "one of the most important torture documents still being withheld by the Bush administration." The judge will decide whether to make the memo public on Monday, reports Reuters.
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VP battling House subpoena for key aide on interrogation policy
Reuters May 7, 08 10:13 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Whether a key Dick Cheney aide can be forced to testify is at the heart of a pending blow-up between Congress and the White House over a probe into interrogation techniques, Reuters reports. The House Judiciary Committee plans to subpoena Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington—but the vice president insists Addington, a key interrogation-policy player, can't be forced to testify.
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Myers 'hoodwinked' into permitting harsh techniques
Guardian (UK) Apr 19, 08 7:54 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The Bush administration "hoodwinked" one of the country's top military men in order to establish harsh interrogation techniques on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, according to revelations in a new book reported in the Guardian. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers was misled by White House aides into abandoning the military's long-standing ban on inhumane treatment of prisoners, according to London law professor Phillipe Sands in his book Torture Team.
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Measure hamstrings US intelligence operations, Bush says
New York Times Feb 13, 08 7:01 PM CST
(Newser)
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The Senate today passed a measure that would outlaw harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding—though the ban is part of a larger intelligence bill President Bush has promised to veto, the New York Times reports. Passed by the House in December, the bill cleared the Senate 51-45, largely along party lines.
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Lawyers to present evidence to Senate panel
Time Feb 7, 08 4:38 AM CST
(Newser)
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Evidence that another CIA detainee was videotaped allegedly being tortured by interrogators is expected to be presented to the Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow, reports Time magazine. A former suburban Baltimore high school student underwent unspecified "systematic torture" that may have involved waterboarding in a secret CIA prison in 2003, his attorneys charge. Majid Khan, now 27 and being held at Guantanamo Bay, says he was grabbed by the CIA while traveling from his home in the US to visit his brother in Pakistan.
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Lawmakers seek explanation for why he had tapes destroyed
New York Times Dec 21, 07 4:20 AM CST
(Newser)
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The former head of the CIA's clandestine service has been subpoenaed to testify about the destruction of videotapes of the harsh interrogations of two al-Qaeda suspects. The subpoena for Jose Rodriguez was issued after the House Intelligence Committee staff studied documents on the interrogations that the CIA had surrendered to the panel. Rodriguez may seek immunity in exchange for his testimony.
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House will get secret documents on destroyed water boarding videos
New York Times Dec 20, 07 4:32 AM CST
(Newser)
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The CIA will provide documents on the destruction of interrogation videotapes to the House Intelligence Committee and allow the agency's top attorney to testify, the New York Times reports. It's unclear whether the man who ordered the videos destroyed, clandestine service chief Jose Rodriguez, will also testify. The tapes showed al-Qaeda suspects being subjected to water boarding.
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