torture memo

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GOP Torture Stance Is All Politics, But Media Is Mum

(Newser) - Republican calls for the selective release of memos on torture techniques is a naked political ploy, Greg Sargent writes on the Plum Line. “The emerging official position of the GOP on torture is that the only classified information about torture that should be released is that which can bolster...

Obama Approval at 69%; US Split Over Memos

Strong partisan divide over their release, probe talk

(Newser) - As he nears the 100-day mark, President Obama’s approval ratings remain high at 69%, a Washington Post-ABC News poll finds—but the recent release of torture memos has sparked a major partisan split. Just over half of those polled back the release; three-quarters of Dems support it, while about...

Ex-CIA Chief: Congress' Sudden 'Amnesia' a Joke
Ex-CIA Chief: Congress' Sudden 'Amnesia' a Joke
OPINION
Apr 25, 2009 2:46 PM CDT

Ex-CIA Chief: Congress' Sudden 'Amnesia' a Joke

(Newser) - The outrage on Capitol Hill against Bush-era interrogation policies is nothing more than a disingenuous “circus,” former CIA chief Porter Goss writes in the Washington Post. Goss, also a former congressman, says he and other senior lawmakers were briefed more than once about CIA tactics. “I do...

Bybee Rues Signature on Torture Memos

Friends say he regrets way the legal opinions were used

(Newser) - Jay Bybee has told friends and colleagues that he regrets his role as one of the authors of the so-called torture memos, the Washington Post reports. Most notably, Bybee, who's now a federal judge, signed off on the 2002 memo that authorized waterboarding. "I've heard him express regret at...

Waterboarding Isn't Easier 2nd Time, or 183rd
Waterboarding Isn't Easier 2nd Time, or 183rd
ANALYSIS
Apr 24, 2009 2:39 PM CDT

Waterboarding Isn't Easier 2nd Time, or 183rd

Turns out the body never gets used to simulated drowning

(Newser) - Like many other forms of torture, waterboarding doesn’t get any easier with repeated exposure. After multiple sessions of the simulated drowning technique, accused al-Qaeda plotters Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah would at best have been able to slightly modify their response, explains Brian Palmer in Slate. The experience...

Reid Resists Torture Commission
Reid Resists Torture Commission
Apr 24, 2009 2:57 AM CDT

Reid Resists Torture Commission

Senate leader rejects Pelosi, joins Obama in opposing panel

(Newser) - Harry Reid will back President Obama in resisting calls to immediately create an independent commission to probe the CIA's harsh interrogation program, the New York Times reports. The majority leader, backed by other top Senate Democrats, said it would be "very unwise" to start establishing commissions or tribunals before...

Torture Memos Bear Me Out: Abu Ghraib Boss

She long held that interrogation techniques were under orders

(Newser) - A retired colonel who helped run Abu Ghraib prison long asserted that she and her troops were just following orders in the prisoner interrogations that sparked a global outcry. Now, Janis Karpinski tells CNN, the release of torture memos has finally proven her case. “When they were first released...

Condi Was First to OK Waterboarding

Condi gave go-ahead before Rumsfeld, Powell even knew about it: Senate

(Newser) - Condoleezza Rice played a greater role than she has acknowledged in the CIA's harsh interrogation program, and approved the use of waterboarding, according to a newly released report from the Senate Intelligence Committee. The report finds that Rice, as national security adviser, verbally approved the CIA's request to waterboard a...

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....

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...

Obama Pandered to Lefties With Memo Release: Cheney

Ex-VP slams Obama terror policies

(Newser) - Dick Cheney said President Obama’s release of Bush administration torture memos was meant “essentially to appease a certain element of the Democratic Party or because of campaign commitments,” Politico reports. Speaking on Fox News, Cheney did a mocking impression of al-Qaeda’s reaction: “Gee whiz, isn't...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

Limbaugh Slaps Himself to Mock Torture Debate

Meanwhile, Texas lawmaker calls Rush 'just an entertainer'

(Newser) - Rush Limbaugh slapped himself silly, groaned, and sighed on-air today to make a comment about the newly released Bush torture memos, the Huffington Post reports. Trying to demonstrate that torture techniques approved by the Bush administration—and revealed by President Obama this week—are less painful than terrorist strikes, Limbaugh...

'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...

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...

Obama Defends Bush 'Torture Memo' Author

Yoo case should be up to executive, Congress, Justice Dept argues

(Newser) - President Obama’s Justice Department is defending a Bush official being sued over his interrogation memos, ABC News reports. Lawyers for Jose Padilla, who was sentenced to 17 years in jail for conspiring to support Islamist extremists, are arguing in court that John Yoo’s memos were behind Padilla’s...

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