waterboarding

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Obama Visits CIA to Defend Memo Release

(Newser) - Days after releasing top-secret memos that detailed the CIA's use of simulated drowning while interrogating terror suspects, President Obama went to the spy agency's Virginia headquarters today to defend his decision and bolster the morale of its employees. "I acted primarily because of the exceptional circumstances that surrounded these...

CIA Tactics Can Cause Mental Harm: Doctors

Bush-era interrogation memos understated long-term effects

(Newser) - Experts disagree with Bush-era rulings, made public in memos released last week, that interrogation techniques the CIA used on terror suspects don’t cause lasting psychological damage, the Los Angeles Times reports. “There’s absolutely no question they are going to lead to permanent mental harm,” one psychology...

CIA Waterboarded Gitmo Detainee 183 Times in a Month

That's twice CIA's max, challenges efficacy

(Newser) - A Department of Justice memo that detailed interrogation techniques used on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay notes that in August 2002, suspected al-Qaeda official Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 82 times, while the following March, 9/11 suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. But as the blog Emptywheel points out, there's...

CIA Objections Slowed Torture Memos' Release

(Newser) - Four former CIA directors opposed releasing classified Bush-era interrogation memos, officials say, describing objections that went all the way to the White House and slowed release of the records. Former CIA chiefs Michael Hayden, Porter Goss, George Tenet, and John Deutch all called the White House last month warning that...

Obama Releases Bush Memos Detailing Torture

Justice docs released detail OK'd techniques

(Newser) - A Bush-era memo on interrogation techniques acknowledged that waterboarding represented a “threat of imminent death,” but that the simulated-drowning procedure was not torture because it caused no lasting psychological harm, Reuters reports. The Justice Department memo and three others on interrogations were released to the public today—and...

CIA Waterboarders Won't Be Prosecuted
 CIA Waterboarders 
 Won't Be Prosecuted 
updated
Apr 16, 2009 1:56 PM CDT

CIA Waterboarders Won't Be Prosecuted

(Newser) - Seeking to move beyond what he calls a "a dark and painful chapter in our history," President Barack Obama said today that CIA officials who used harsh interrogation tactics during the Bush administration will not be prosecuted. Obama officials also released four secret memos detailing tactics against 28...

Obama May Keep CIA Torture Memos Classified

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.

Red Cross: Med Workers Complicit in Gitmo Torture

Professionals told CIA interrogators to stop, go

(Newser) - The Red Cross is accusing medical personnel of deep involvement in CIA torture at Guantanamo, calling it “a gross breach of medical ethics,” the New York Times reports. Medical professionals monitored procedures such as waterboarding, telling interrogators to “continue, to adjust, or stop particular methods,” finds...

Spain May Indict Gonzales, 5 Others for Torture

(Newser) - A top Spanish court is close to investigating six former Bush administration officials for circumventing international law to justify torture at Guantanamo Bay, the New York Times reports. Judge Baltasar Garzon, a human rights crusader who has gone after former Chilean ruler Augusto Pinochet, is reviewing the case, which could...

Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA
 Senate to Probe Bush-Era CIA 
Feb 27, 2009 4:22 AM CST

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...

Americans Want Torture Investigation: Poll

(Newser) - Two-thirds of Americans want an investigation into alleged Bush administration misdeeds, including torture and warrantless wiretapping, a USA Today/Gallup poll shows. Forty percent of respondents would like to see criminal probes; one-quarter would prefer investigations without the possibility of criminal charges. And even more—70% of those surveyed—said the...

Torture Lawyer Flees Berkeley Amid Protests

Law prof takes 1-year gig at OC's Chapman U.

(Newser) - It can be hard to be a professor: publish or perish, sit on committees…dodge protesters? Just ask John Yoo, author of the memos that laid out and justified the harsh interrogation tactics used by the Bush administration. Yoo, a Berkeley law professor, has taken leave from his left-leaning professional...

Obama Will Ban Torture— But Considers a Loophole

(Newser) - Barack Obama is set to prohibit waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques by mandating the CIA follow the US Army Field Manual when questioning suspects, the AP reports. But as the president-elect debates whether to make the changes through legislation or presidential fiat, the incoming administration is also considering a...

Exit Interviews Reveal Bush-Cheney Differences

VP defiant, combative as president adopts gracious, reflective tone

(Newser) - George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are displaying strikingly different attitudes toward their time in power as its end looms, the New York Times reports. Bush is reflective, acknowledging regrets and speaking graciously of his successor. Cheney, meanwhile, is defiant to the end, defending policies like waterboarding and letting slip...

Cheney: I OK'd Waterboarding
 Cheney: I OK'd Waterboarding 
Dec 16, 2008 4:00 AM CST

Cheney: I OK'd Waterboarding

VP gave go ahead for 'remarkably successful' tactic

(Newser) - Vice President Dick Cheney personally approved using waterboarding to interrogate 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he reveals in a wide-ranging interview on ABC News. "I was  involved in helping get the process cleared. The agency came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do," said...

Obama's In for an Awkward CIA Transition
Obama's In for an Awkward
CIA Transition
ANALYSIS
Dec 3, 2008 12:08 PM CST

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...

Make Your Case on Anti-Terror, Mr. Bush

Bill Kristol thinks America will listen

(Newser) - Republicans have fallen out of favor, and there’s probably nothing George W. Bush can say in his final days to change that. “But he could do his party—and the nation—a service by reminding Americans of our successes fighting the war on terror,” writes William Kristol....

Obama's Top CIA Pick Drops Out

Obama's Top CIA Pick
Drops Out
Nov 26, 2008 4:46 AM CST

Obama's Top CIA Pick Drops Out

Brennan withdraws under pressure but denies backing torture

(Newser) - Barack Obama's top intelligence adviser and his first choice for CIA director has withdrawn his name from consideration, the Los Angeles Times reports. John Brennan, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, was branded by some liberal groups as a proponent of the harsh interrogation techniques used against terrorist suspects...

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...

Coney Island Gets Political With Waterboarding Demo

New sideshow installation protests torture

(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...

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