Is It Torture?

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August 2008
- Interrogation Debate Divides Psychologists
  
  New York Times | Aug 16, 08 8:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The use of psychologists to aid government interrogations at places such as Guantanamo Bay has triggered an acrimonious ethical debate as the American Psychological Association considers banning the practice altogether, the New York Times reports. Some say psychologists are used to “break” detainees—in some cases illegally—while others argue that psychologists must be present during questioning to ensure the safety of both the detainee and the interrogator. More »
- Coney Island Gets Political With Waterboarding Demo
  
  Bloomberg | Aug 12, 08 6:22 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Coney Island's politically charged addition to its sideshow lineup—two animatronic figures demonstrating how waterboarding works—"is disturbing in a way that journalistic accounts of torture can only approximate," writes Jeremy Gerard of Bloomberg. "It left me wrecked." For $1, spectators can peer through a barred window and watch a bound and gagged figure seemingly gasp for air as another pours water on his face. More »
July 2008
- Secret Justice Memo Bares CIA Torture Defense
  
  CNN | Jul 25, 08 1:00 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Bush administration advised the CIA in 2002 that its agents would not be prosecuted on anti-torture legislation as long as they professed an "honest belief" that their actions would not cause severe pain and anguish, CNN reports. The memo is one of three made public by the ACLU, and the rights group says they prove the Justice Department essentially sanctioned torture. More »
- Hitchens Agrees: Waterboarding Is Torture
  
  Vanity Fair | Jul 3, 08 3:10 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - "You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it simulates the feeling of drowning," Christopher Hitchens writes of waterboarding in Vanity Fair . "You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning," concludes the author, who experienced the controversial interrogation technique himself. "I find I don't want to tell you how little time I lasted." More »
- Gitmo 'Torture' Modeled on Chinese Grilling of US POWs
  
  New York Times | Jul 2, 08 3:37 AM CDT
  
  (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 a training aid by military trainers. The chart was copied verbatim for use at Guantanamo. More »
- Gitmo Prisoner Charged in Cole Bombing
  
  Washington Post | Jul 1, 08 2:18 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A suspected al-Qaeda terrorist held at Guantanamo Bay for six years has been charged with masterminding the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors and injured 50 others. The treatment of Saudi prisoner Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri in custody, which included waterboarding by interrogators, will be a key element of his defense, reports the Washington Post. More »
June 2008
- CIA Gave Pentagon Torture Tips
  
  Washington Post | Jun 18, 08 8:06 AM CDT
  
  (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." More »
- Ex-Pentagon Lawyers Face Grilling in Torture Probe
  
  New York Times | Jun 17, 08 5:33 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
- German Sues Again to Nab CIA Agents
  
  BBC | Jun 9, 08 6:35 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A German man is suing his country to have 13 CIA agents extradited in a case of "extraordinary rendition," the BBC reports. Khaled al-Masri says they grabbed him by mistake in 2003 and dropped him in an Afghan prison, where he was tortured for 5 months. But Germany decided last year not to pursue the agents, when Washington said the move would threaten "American national interests." More »
- Alleged 9/11 Leader Faces Gitmo Tribunal
  
  Washington Post | Jun 5, 08 8:07 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, will be arraigned today at a special military tribunal at Guantánamo Bay, reports the Washington Post . Five years after his arrest in Pakistan, the detainee and four others will appear in a specially designed, $4 million courtroom to face charges of terrorism and "murder in violation of the law of war." More »
May 2008
- Ex-Detainee Describes Gitmo Tortures
  
  ABC News | May 21, 08 12:02 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
- FBI Stalled in Addressing Prisoner Abuse
  
  Washington Post | May 20, 08 1:56 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - FBI agents dragged their feet in reporting torture inflicted on prisoners by Defense contractors and CIA employees, an an internal FBI report shows, but agents themselves generally did not participate in torture. FBI brass, however, was scolded for not providing more guidance or “pressing harder” to curb other agencies’ actions, the Washington Post reports. More »
- Judge Orders CIA to Release 'Torture' Memo
  
  Reuters | May 9, 08 6:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
- Showdown Looms Over Cheney Staffer
  
  Reuters | May 7, 08 10:13 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
April 2008
- CIA Can Skirt Torture Laws, Justice Claims
  
  New York Times | Apr 27, 08 8:11 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - International anti-torture laws don't necessarily apply to CIA agents fighting terrorism, the Justice Department has explained to Congress in letters recently made public, reports the New York Times . The letters reveal the White House position that interrogators have some legal "latitude" outside the Geneva Conventions protecting detainees from "outrages upon personal dignity." More »
- White House 'Duped' General Into Torture: Book
  
  Guardian (UK) | Apr 19, 08 7:54 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
- Waterboarding at Work Heads to Utah Court
  
  Washington Post | Apr 14, 08 11:45 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A Utah sales rep is suing his company after his boss waterboarded him as a “team-building exercise” outside a Provo office park, the Washington Post reports. Sure, the man volunteered, but he says he had no idea what he getting himself into. “I’m not getting any air,” Chad Hudgens says. “The sensation that’s going through my head is ‘I’m going to drown.’” More »
- Top Bushies Personally OK'd Tough Interrogation Tactics
  
  ABC News | Apr 10, 08 3:16 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Senior White House officials explicitly approved interrogation technique details in several meetings beginning in 2002, sources tell ABC. It was previously known that the CIA drafted a “Golden Shield” memo approving highly specific tactics for use on al-Qaeda detainees, but that top officials—including Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld—personally condoned the policy, on multiple occasions, is a new revelation. More »
- This Is What a War Criminal Looks Like
  
  Salon | Apr 2, 08 5:35 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - John Yoo, who as deputy AG wrote a crucial memo justifying torture, is a war criminal, Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald bluntly argues: Newly released documents reveal "a government official who, in concert with other government officials, set out to enable a brutal and systematic torture regime, and did so." What's more, Greenwald writes, "the underlying theories of omnipotent executive power remain largely in place." More »
March 2008
- Former Prisoner to Detail Torture on 60 Minutes
  
  CBS | Mar 30, 08 4:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A former terror suspect will reveal details of tortures he suffered in 5 years of US custody tonight on 60 Minutes, reports CBS News. American authorities seized the ethnic Turk in Pakistan and continued to torture him even after determining he was innocent, he charges. The Pentagon refutes his claims. "The abuses are not only unsubstantiated and implausible, they are simply outlandish," said a Pentagon spokesman in a statement. More »