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NEWS ABOUT: harsh interrogation

First Obama Rendition Says FBI Starved, Threatened Him

(Newser) - When military contractor Raymond Azar was arrested in Afghanistan, he was hooded, shackled, stripped, photographed naked, then flown to Alexandria, Va., in the first known rendition of the Obama administration. But Azar isn’t accused of terrorism. The Lebanese citizen is accused of bribery, a charge he pleaded guilty to... More »

Holder Warns of Homegrown Terror Risk

AG: 'American people would be surprised'

(Newser) - The chilling big picture suggests that “the radicalization of Americans” who leave the country and return wanting to do “harm to the American people” is a growing threat, Eric Holder tells ABC News. It’s “something that didn’t loom as large a few months ago as... More »

Torture Photos Should Be Secret—for Detainees' Sake

(Newser) - Human rights groups may be upset that President Obama is classifying photos of detainee abuse, but former Army staff sergeant William Quinn thinks it’s a good thing—for the detainees’ sake. When Quinn was assigned as an interrogator at Abu Ghraib, he discovered that the detainees took a very... More »

Holder Mulls Political A-Bomb: Bush Torture Probe

(Newser) - Attorney General Eric Holder is "leaning toward" naming an independent prosecutor to probe Bush-era interrogation policies, even if it means war with the Obama administration, writes Daniel Klaidman in Newsweek. Such a probe would likely trigger partisan hostilities and threaten key Obama policies like health care and energy reform—... More »

Former Gitmo Prisoner Fights to Save Torture Photo

Says Pentagon wants to kill 'abuse evidence'

(Newser) - A Guantanamo prisoner released to Britain after seven years in detention is fighting to keep the Pentagon from destroying a photograph he says proves he was abused, reports the Guardian. Binyam Mohamed does not have copies of the image, taken after he was brutally beaten, but he knows it exists... More »

Gitmo Prisoners: We Lied to CIA to Stop Torture

Khalid Mohammed 'made up stories' on bin Laden's whereabouts after torture

(Newser) - Guantanamo prisoners fabricated information to give CIA interrogators after being physically and mentally abused, they told a 2007 military tribunal in transcripts released yesterday under the Freedom of Information act. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and one of the prisoners who was repeatedly waterboarded, said he... More »

CIA Calls on Court to Keep Interrogation Files Secret

Panetta warns that releasing records would benefit al-Qaeda

(Newser) - The head of the CIA urged a federal judge yesterday to keep records of harsh interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects under wraps, CNN reports. The ACLU is suing to make the files, which describe the content of destroyed CIA tapes, public. But Leon Panetta warned that doing so would have "... More »

Dems Rip GOP for Sharing Interrogation Secrets

House Republicans go on record after closed-door briefing

(Newser) - Democrats are seething today after Republicans told the press about classified intelligence gleaned in a closed-door briefing about interrogation techniques. GOP members told the Hill they were informed that harsh techniques led to information that prevented terrorist attacks. That led Democrats to blast their rivals for disclosing secret information, triggering... More »

Cheney Championed Interrogations Before Congress

Veep intervened when legislators got twitchy

(Newser) - Dick Cheney personally led at least four briefings with senior House and Senate members about harsh interrogation techniques, reports the Washington Post. The former vice president's interventions took place at critical moments when Congress was threatening to investigate or even outlaw techniques, such as waterboarding, that are widely considered torture.... More »

Bush: Interrogations Were Legal

Former president says CIA program was legal, saved lives

(Newser) - George W. Bush didn't mention Dick Cheney by name, but he backed his assertions that the CIA's harsh interrogations were legal and saved lives, CNN reports. After terror suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured in 2003, for example, Bush said he checked with "the lawyers" to determine how to... More »

Fidel to Cheney: It's Torture

(Newser) - Fidel Castro thinks those creative forms of interrogation used by the US amount to torture, and he criticized Dick Cheney for defending them, the AP reports. In an online essay, Castro argued that torture should never be used to get information from terror suspects. In fact, he went one better... More »

Politics? This Was Ali vs. Frazier

(Newser) - Today's "televised smackdown" between Obama and Cheney was the "political world's equivalent of Ali-Frazier," writes Dana Milbank in the Washington Post. After the president warned against "fear-mongering," Cheney came out swinging. He "used the word 'attack' 19 times, 'danger' and 'threat' six times apiece,... More »

Cheney 'Answers' Obama, Defends Bush Policy

Says he's 'firm proponent' of 'enhanced interrogation program'

(Newser) - Dick Cheney offered an “answer” to President Obama’s national-security speech today, standing up for the policies of the Bush administration and saying he remained “a strong proponent of our enhanced interrogation program,” CNN reports. “In the fight against terrorism,” Cheney said, “there is... More »

Pelosi Backtracks on CIA Claims

Speakers shifts focus to Bush administration after Panetta rebuff

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi retreated yesterday from her claim the CIA lied to Congress about its interrogation program and shifted the blame to the Bush administration, Politico reports. The speaker said her criticism is "separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe.... More »

'Moral Calculus' Made Torture OK: Krauthammer

Krauthammer doing 'moral calculus'

(Newser) - Nancy Pelosi’s “contemptible hypocrisy” on the torture issue tells us a great deal about the “moral calculus” behind the issue, writes Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. “Our jurisprudence has the ‘reasonable man’ standard,” he argues, which asks a jury to decide what a... More »

Pelosi Raises Stakes in Torture Debate

Speaker puts herself at center of storm over Bush policies

(Newser) - Whether by accident or design, Nancy Pelosi has turned the debate on the Bush administration's anti-terror program into a high-stakes game of brinksmanship, Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post. Pelosi's declaration yesterday that the CIA lied to Congress amounts to "a declaration of war," Balz writes, setting... More »

Pelosi: CIA Misled Me on Waterboarding

(AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today she was not complicit in the government’s decision to waterboard terrorist suspects, and she claimed the CIA misled her about whether the interrogation technique considered torture by many was being used. “To the contrary … we were told explicitly that waterboarding was... More »

Rove: Pelosi's an Accomplice to Torture

'Someone appears not to be telling the truth' about waterboarding

(Newser) - Karl Rove indulges in a bit of revenge on Nancy Pelosi in his Wall Street Journal column today, writing that "the political persecution of Bush administration officials she has been pushing may now ensnare her." As evidence mounts that the CIA told her as early as 2002 about... More »

Obama's Photo Flip-Flop Has Political Roots

White House wasn't prepared for scale of torture outrage

(Newser) - Barack Obama's about-face on the release of photographs of abused detainees has angered civil libertarian groups, who have denounced the president for turning back on campaign promises. But as Politico writes, the move demonstrated how carefully the administration is treading on an issue that has become explosive, subsuming George Bush's... More »

Anti-Torture Memo May Embarrass Bush Camp

(Newser) - Probably the most newsworthy item out of today’s Senate hearing into alleged torture techniques is that a memo written by a former State Department counselor who questioned their legality has been located and may be released, writes Zachary Roth for Talking Points Memo. Philip Zelikow’s memo, which he... More »

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