waterboarding

Stories 141 - 160 | << Prev   Next >>

Cheney Touts Harsh Interrogations
Cheney Touts Harsh Interrogations

Cheney Touts Harsh Interrogations

As CIA boss concedes tactics may be illega

(Newser) - Dick Cheney yesterday defended the use of controversial interrogation techniques, crediting them with possibly “foiling an attack against the US," just as the director of the CIA was conceding to a congressional committee that waterboarding may be illegal. The VP defended the use of  “a tougher program...

New Claims of Taped CIA Torture
New Claims of Taped CIA Torture

New Claims of Taped CIA Torture

Lawyers to present evidence to Senate panel

(Newser) - 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,...

CIA Acknowledges Waterboarding 3 Suspects

Senate committee hears specifics, warning of possible Al-Qaeda spread

(Newser) - The CIA used waterboarding three times following the 9/11 attacks, the agency's current director testified today. Interrogators used the method on suspected attack planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two top al Qaeda members, Reuters reports. Michael Hayden's statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee marks the first time a US official...

Look Who's Trying Out Waterboarding
Look Who's Trying Out Waterboarding

Look Who's Trying Out Waterboarding

Young men sample torture technique to settle debate

(Newser) - As the debate over waterboarding continues unabated, it has occurred to more than one cocky—or conscientious—young man that anyone can see for himself what it feels like, and whether it constitutes torture. The Wall Street Journal talks to several who've tried it—using friends with no special training....

Mukasey Won't Budge on Waterboarding

He again refuses to answer senators' questions on legality

(Newser) - Testifying before a Senate committee today, Attorney General Michael Mukasey frustrated attempts to get him to answer on whether waterboarding constitutes torture. "I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to pass definitive judgment on the technique’s legality,” said Mukasey, hedging in a manner that,...

Senate Grills Mukasey Today on Waterboarding

Mukasey warns he'll stonewall on questions about legality

(Newser) - A high-noon face off is looming today between Attorney General Michael Mukasey and the Senate Judiciary Committee over waterboarding, the simulated drowning interrogation technique that many consider torture. Committee chair Patrick Leahy said Mukasey faces "serious questions" on the issue at today's hearing. But Mukasey has warned Leahy in...

Waterboarding Returns to Spotlight
Waterboarding Returns to Spotlight

Waterboarding Returns to Spotlight

Ex-spy chief confirms use of tactic as Mukasey preps for Hill hearing

(Newser) - American interrogators' tactics included waterboarding sometime before 2005, but the tactic "has not been used in years," the ex-director of national intelligence says. John Negroponte's acknowledgment, the most definitive confirmation yet of the Bush administration's use of waterboarding, comes as Michael Mukasey prepares to return to Capitol Hill...

Waterboarding Is Torture: US Intelligence Chief

Can't imagine 'how painful,' says McConnell

(Newser) - US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said it "would be torture" if he were subjected to the controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding. "If I had water draining into my nose, God, I just can't imagine how painful!" McConnell told the New Yorker. "For me, it...

CIA Tapes Were Made—and Destroyed—for PR

Interrogations filmed to counter mistreatment accusations; stopped when techniques grew harsh, reports NYT

(Newser) - Concern over its image prompted the CIA to first secretly create—and later destroy—tapes depicting the harsh interrogation of detainees, the New York Times reports. In spring 2002 the agency decided to document every moment of senior al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah's custody so that perceptions of mistreatment—by prosecutors,...

Judge Won't Order Probe of Gitmo Tapes

Jurist reluctant to duplicate DoJ's efforts in CIA investigation

(Newser) - In the first public hearing on the issue, a federal judge today refused to immediately order an investigation into the destroyed CIA interrogation tapes. Lawyers for Yemeni nationals held at Guantanamo argued that the destruction violated a 2005 order by Judge Henry Kennedy, who ordered today's hearing. The White House...

CIA to Surrender Tape Records
CIA to Surrender Tape Records

CIA to Surrender Tape Records

House will get secret documents on destroyed water boarding videos

(Newser) - 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...

House Passes Ban on CIA Waterboarding

Interrogations must meet Geneva standards under bill

(Newser) - The House of Representatives today approved a bill that would forbid the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods, including waterboarding, Reuters reports. The measure follows revelations that the agency destroyed tapes showing al Qaeda suspects subjected to simulated drowning. But the bill still has to pass the Senate, and has...

Congress Kept in Dark, CIA Chief Admits

Hayden backtracks after 'stunning' closed-door committee testimony

(Newser) - CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden acknowledged today that the agency did not inform Congress about the creation or destruction of videotapes of harsh interrogations of al-Qaeda detainees, the New York Times reports. “We could have done an awful lot better at keeping the committee alert and informed,” Hayden...

CIA Chief Sheds Little Light on Tapes

Hayden grilled by Senate panel, says videos predate him

(Newser) - Senators grilled CIA chief Michael Hayden for 90 minutes today, but his appearance behind closed doors shed little light on the agency's destruction of interrogation videotapes, the AP reports. Hayden's session was "useful and not yet complete," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller of the intelligence panel. Afterward, Hayden said...

Ex-CIA Agent: Waterboarding Useful Torture

He saw a key prisoner break in 35 seconds; intel saved many lives

(Newser) - The highly controversial use of waterboarding in terrorist interrogations has "probably saved lives" but is torture, a former CIA officer told ABC News last night and the Today show this morning. John Kiriakou watched a prisoner break down under waterboarding in 35 seconds, he said, and "from that...

McCain Updates Waterboard Dig at Romney

Says that US hanged Japanese who did it to Americans in WWII

(Newser) - John McCain today extended his angry response to Mitt Romney’s cagey comments on torture in last night’s debate, reminding Americans that the US hanged members of the Japanese military for waterboarding Americans in WWII. “There should be little doubt that we consider that as torture,” McCain...

Senate Confirms Mukasey as AG
Senate Confirms Mukasey as AG

Senate Confirms Mukasey as AG

Bush nominee overcomes waterboarding flap

(Newser) - The Senate tonight approved retired judge Michael Mukasey to be the next attorney general, AP reports. Mukasey, whose refusal to declare that waterboarding is illegal nearly torpedoed his nomination, will replace Alberto Gonzales. "This is the only chance we have," said Dianne Feinstein before the 53-40 vote, referring...

Bush Criticizes Mukasey Inquisitors

Senators asked AG nominee 'unfair questions' on torture

(Newser) - Interrogation techniques held the spotlight today as President Bush accused Senate Democrats of asking attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey "unfair" questions about waterboarding and torture. Bush claimed Mukasey "doesn't know whether we use that technique or not," and lauded the candidate for not telling "an enemy...

Mukasey Faces Uncertain Vote
Mukasey Faces Uncertain Vote

Mukasey Faces Uncertain Vote

Attorney General nominee on thin ice with Democrats

(Newser) - A vote that could send the nomination of Michael Mukasey as US attorney general to the full Senate will come Tuesday, the Democrat in charge of the Senate Judiciary Committee said today. Once thought certain, Mukasey's confirmation now appears to hinge on his refusal to classify as illegal torture the...

Mukasey Calls Waterboarding 'Repugnant,' Dodges Legality

AG nominee's 'massive hedge' worries critics

(Newser) - Attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey frustrated senators on both sides of the aisle by again refusing to specify whether he considers waterboarding a form of torture, calling it only "repugnant," CNN reports. "Hypotheticals are different from real life," Mukasey wrote to confirmation committee members yesterday, adding...

Stories 141 - 160 | << Prev   Next >>