CIA

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Did Brutal Questioning Pay Off? The Battle Heats Up

(Newser) - President Obama says the harsh interrogation methods used by the CIA both compromised American values and provided unreliable information. “Those are a convenient pair of opinions,” notes Scott Shane of the New York Times. But it's not going to be that easy for the new administration to defend...

Obama Rejected Idea of Interrogation Inquiry

(Newser) - More details are emerging from the Obama camp's debate on how to handle the Bush interrogation memos. In the Washington Post, Dan Balz writes that President Obama rejected the idea of setting up an investigation panel along the lines of the 9/11 Commission. Obama wanted to move on rather than...

Clinton: Cheney Not a 'Particularly Reliable Source'

(Newser) - No love lost between Hillary Clinton and Dick Cheney. Asked today on Capitol Hill about Cheney’s request to declassify information related to the interrogation memos, Clinton responded, “It won’t surprise you that I don’t consider him a particularly reliable source,” the Los Angeles Times reports....

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,...

Memo Release Paralyzes CIA 'Shadow Warriors'

(Newser) - The ripples from the release of the torture memos continue to ruffle the CIA, David Ignatius writes for the Washington Post. “America will be better off, in the long run, for Obama's decision to expose the past practice of torture,” he acknowledges. “We all knew the political...

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...

Cheney Hasn't Asked CIA for More Memos: Source

(Newser) - Dick Cheney hasn’t actually asked the CIA to release more memos to support his claim that torture works, a source tells Plum Line blogger Greg Sargent. “The agency has received no request from the former vice president to release this information,” the intelligence insider says. A Cheney...

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,...

If CIA Gets Pass on Torture, Why Not Lynndie?

Abu Ghraib convict's team cries foul over double standard

(Newser) - Among those infuriated at President Obama's decision to "turn the page" rather than prosecute officials who sanctioned torture at CIA prisons, and agents who conducted it, are supporters of Lynndie England, the jailed “face of the Abu Ghraib scandal.” They agree that her abuse of prisoners was...

Cheney Seeks Release of More CIA Memos

Former VP says they show how techniques worked to save lives

(Newser) - It’s no surprise that Dick Cheney thinks President Obama is wrong on torture. The surprise is that the infamously secretive former VP is suddenly in favor of public disclosure of classified memos that he thinks will prove his point. For his memoirs, Cheney has asked the CIA to declassify...

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...

Summers: End of Cuban Embargo 'Way Down Road'
 Summers: End 
 of Cuban Embargo 
 'Way Down Road' 
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP
Apr 19, 2009 9:42 AM CDT

Summers: End of Cuban Embargo 'Way Down Road'

Economic adviser says Obama acting out of 'morality'

(Newser) - The US trade embargo against Cuba won’t be ending anytime soon, President Obama’s economic adviser insisted today. “That’s way down the road, and it’s going to depend on what Cuba does going forward,” Lawrence Summers told NBC’s Meet the Press, saying Obama’s...

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...

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,...

Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos
Bush AG, CIA Chief Slam Obama on Torture Memos
OPINION
Apr 17, 2009 7:48 AM CDT

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...

'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...

We Need a Torture Commission
 We Need a Torture Commission 
opinion
Apr 16, 2009 9:31 PM CDT

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...

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...

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.

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