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NEWS ABOUT: harsh interrogation

Fate of Dozens of CIA Detainees Still Unknown

(Newser) - The Bush-era CIA memos made public last week revealed that an al-Qaeda suspect, Hassan Ghul, had been held in one of the agency’s secret jails. But the inadvertent disclosure of one name merely highlights how much the public still doesn’t know about the network of secret detention facilities,... More »

US Readied Waterboarding as Early as 2001

Harsh tactics were readied even before suspects captured

(Newser) - The Bush administration prepared to use waterboarding and other harsh tactics widely considered to be torture 8 months before the Justice Department approved them, and even before capturing a high-level terrorist suspect, the Washington Post reports. A Senate investigation reveals these brutal interrogation methods were approved despite warnings that they... More »

Obama's Intel Chief: Interrogations Yielded 'High Value Information'

(Newser) - President Obama's own intelligence chief said harsh interrogations of terror suspects yielded "high value information" that "provided a deeper understanding" of al-Qaeda, the New York Times reports. Dennis Blair made the statement in a memo to his staff last week, the same day the Obama administration released the... More »

Obama Open to Interrogations Probe

(Newser) - President Obama today said he’d be open to the idea of creating a panel to investigate the Bush administration’s interrogation methods in the war on terror. Obama and his aides have been dismissing the idea for weeks, but today in a press conference with King Abdullah of Jordan,... More »

Psychologists, Doctors Helped With Interrogations

Role of medical professionals in CIA program angers peers

(Newser) - Psychologists and physicians who assisted the CIA's harsh interrogation program are being accused of violating the most basic principles of their professions, the Washington Post reports. The newly released CIA memos confirm that on-site psychologists—generally contract workers with the agency—took an active role in the program, offering ideas... More »

CIA Pushed Brutal Tactics on Interrogators

Captors felt al-Qaeda suspect had already told all he knew

(Newser) - Higher-ups in the CIA pressed for harsh interrogation methods to be used on a captured al-Qaeda member despite his interrogators' assurances that he had nothing more to tell, the New York Times reports. Abu Zubaydah had already yielded important information, including tips that led to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shiekh Mohammed,... More »

Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos

(Newser) - Barack Obama made a dangerous mistake in yesterday releasing Justice Department memos about interrogation techniques from 2005, say former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former CIA Director Michael Hayden. By releasing the details of these methods, Obama is eliminating a crucial intelligence tool—not just for his own administration but... More »

'Weighty' Torture Memo Decision Took Weeks

President's belief in rule of law won out in choice to release Bush-era memos

(Newser) - President Obama spent weeks thinking "very long and hard" about his "weighty decision" to release memos on harsh CIA interrogation techniques green-lighted by the Bush administration, senior adviser David Axelrod tells Politico. In the end, Axelrod says, the president's belief in transparency and the rule of law won... More »

We Need a Torture Commission

(Newser) - President Obama appears ready to put the whole issue of CIA torture behind him. He owes it to the nation to do otherwise, writes Mark Benjamin in Salon. In particular, he should appoint a torture commission—a bipartisan group to evaluate what, if anything, the US gained from these interrogation... More »

Bush Interrogation Memo Approved Use of Insects

(Newser) - Among the weirder revelations emerging from the newly released CIA memos on harsh interrogations: Bush administration lawyers approved the use of insects. Apparently, one detainee in particular had a phobia about them, so interrogators wanted to slip one into his "cramped confinement box," Time reports. The technique never... More »

Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA

Inquiry to focus on controversial interrogation and detention program

(Newser) - The Senate Intelligence Committee plans a sweeping investigation into the CIA's actions under President Bush, the Los Angeles Times reports. Officials say the probe is a fact-finding mission rather than an investigation into whether laws were broken, but the inquiry is certain to put the spotlight back on the agency's... More »

Cheney: Soft Obama Makes Terror Attack More Likely

Says fighting extremists 'a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business'

(Newser) - Dick Cheney thinks there’s a “high probability” terrorists will attack the US with a biological or nuclear weapon, and that Barack Obama’s policies will likely only increase those odds. Fighting terrorism is “a tough mean, dirty, nasty business,” the former vice president told Politico. “... More »

Obama Signs Order to Close Gitmo

(Newser) - President Obama today signed orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within a year, review the military terror trials, and ban the harshest interrogation techniques, the AP reports. “There we go,” the president said with satisfaction after signing the orders, which promise to fundamentally reshape the country's... More »

Prez to Shut Gitmo, Secret CIA Prisons

Orders directing sweeping detention, interrogation overhaul expected today

(Newser) - The president will sign orders today ordering the Guantanamo Bay detention center shut down within a year—and directing the CIA to dismantle its network of secret prisons overseas, government officials tell the New York Times. The CIA will still be allowed to detain terror suspects in foreign countries, but... More »

Handicapping Last-Minute Bush Pardons

Scooter Libby? Alberto Gonzales? The entire CIA? Speculation swirls

(Newser) - President Bush has shown no inclination to go on a Clinton-esque pardon binge, but that won't stop Josh Gerstein of Politico from speculating. Here are the potential pardon/commutation prospects, and the odds:
  • All CIA and military interrogators: Bush could make a big splash with a blanket pardon to anyone who
... More »

Senate Report Pins Torture on Rumsfeld

Bipartisan panel, including McCain, concludes detainee abuse not just because of 'a few bad apples'

(Newser) - Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top White House officials were responsible for detainee abuse at US military prisons, a bipartisan Senate report finds. After 2 years of hearing testimony and reviewing documents, the study—released by Sens. John McCain and Carl Levin—traces controversial interrogation practices like sleep... More »

Obama's In for an Awkward CIA Transition

His tough campaign rhetoric sets tone as left looks for change

(Newser) - 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... More »

Secret White House Memos OK'd Waterboarding

Fearing backlash, CIA sought and received support

(Newser) - 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... More »

Gitmo 'Torture' Modeled on Chinese Grilling of US POWs

Communist methods became US training manual

(Newser) - 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... More »

CIA Gave Pentagon Torture Tips

Methods were 'reverse-engineered' from manuals

(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... More »

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