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Interrogation Memos Reveal Rough Treatment of Detainees

Kaitlynn Riely

Posted: Apr 16th 2009 9:00PM

Filed under: News, Media, Notre Dame

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday released four Office of Legal Counsel opinions that describe interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency during the Bush administration.

Politico reported that White House senior adviser David Axelrod said President Barack Obama spent a month trying to decide whether to release the memos about the techniques.

In a letter to the officers of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), posted on the agency's Web site, Obama thanked them for their service to the country. He said he made the decision the night before to allow the Justice Department to release the memos.

"I did not make this decision lightly," he wrote in the letter. "As you may know, the release is part of an ongoing court case. I have fought for the principle that the United States must carry out covert activities and hold information that is classified for the purpose of national security and will do so again in the future. But the release of these memos is required by our commitment to the rule of law."

Obama said that while he has prohibited use of the interrogation techniques described in the memo since he took office, he and Attorney General Eric Holder would "protect all who acted reasonably and relied upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that their actions were lawful." Holder affirmed this in a Thursday news release from the Department of Justice.

The individuals in the CIA who carried out the harsh interrogation actions will not be prosecuted, or so Obama says. Will anyone?
Although most of the information described in the memos was already known in general terms by the public, reading the details about interrogation methods is chilling.

One of the memos is signed by Jay S. Bybee, a Justice Department official at the time, and addressed to CIA attorney John A. Rizzo, dated Aug. 1, 2002. The memo states that the proposed interrogation techniques described in the memo would not violate U.S. law prohibiting torture.

The prisoner being discussed is Abu Zubaydah, believed to be a high ranking member of al Qaeda. "The interrogation team is certain that he has additional information that he refuses to divulge," the memo says. In order to obtain this information, the CIA desired to move the interrogations to the "increased pressure phase."

The interrogators wished to use 10 techniques, the memo says, including cramped confinement, placing insects in a confinement box, facial slapping and and escalation to waterboarding. I think everyone knows what waterboarding is by now. "Walling" is a new one I haven't heard of, but it involves a flexible false wall and the interrogator pulling the prisoner forward, then quickly pushing him back toward the wall, which will make a loud noise to shock the individual, thereby creating a sensation which seems like it would be akin to being in a car crash.

The memo concluded that walling was okay, and that this technique, like the nine others listed in the memo, did not qualify as torture: "You have informed us that the sound of hitting the wall will actually be far worse than any possible injury to the individual. ... While it may hurt to be pushed against the wall, any pain experienced is not of the intensity associated with serious physical injury."

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta sent a letter to CIA employees Thursday reaffirming that he would oppose any efforts to punish those members of the CIA who followed the guidance of the Justice Department.

"Although this Administration has now put into place new policies that CIA is implementing, the fact remains that CIA's detention and interrogation effort was authorized and approved by our government," Panetta wrote.

This is true, but at some point, shouldn't someone have stood up to say, this is the United States? This isn't right?

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mahalapril

2:03PM 2:03PM Apr 21st 2009

TRogers-What fair play are you talking about. Are you happy that Obama has a Treasury Secretary and Head of IRS that intentionally evades paying taxes. How about HHS tax cheat Sebelius, is that fair play. How come they don't go to jail anymore.We are now a corrupt,dishonest,pathological lying third world nation.Why do you care so much about waterboarding terrorists. America has no more moral values,no integrity,no honesty,no duty ,no country. We idolize movie stars and singers who are decadent,immoral,promiscuous,drunk drivers,drug abusers, in and out of rehab,abortionist. Are you proud of what we have become under Obama who himself is an incompetent president,anti-military,anti-America and anti-veterans. How about his associates in Chicago Ayers,Wright,Pfleger,Rezko,Blago,Acorn,standing with the muslims,ridiculed by Al-Zawahri,Chavez,a small Taliban terrorist,North Korea,Iran,Russia. You are a one- tracked mind, stupid, uneducated American.You can't look at the whole picture at the same time in a single setting.

Rating : 2 stars Reply to this commentReport!

mahalapril

3:03PM 3:03PM Apr 21st 2009

TRogers-Do you really believe that because of Gitmo we have more terroist. You should grow up. In 1978 the Weak president Carter was humiliated by Iran by storming the US embassy in Tehran and holding a hundred Americans inside hostage for 444 days. We didn't do anything to encourage recruitment of islamic terrorists. You should know that the islamic fanatics have been slaughtering and beheading infidels for a THOUSAND YEARS when we didn't even have Gitmo and Abu Graib at that time.You are being lied to by the democrats and you don't even know it.What Obama and his corrupt associates are saying are pure lies. We don't have to apologize to anybody because we did nothing wrong. We are the defender of democracy i n the world and the provider of he poor people and nations.Obama is a lying coward,incompetent,anti-America,ani-military and ANTI- US VETERANS.OBAMA IS CRITICIZING THE US AS ARROGANT,TORTURER AND RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL EVIL IN THE WORLD. HE BOWS TO AN ISLAMIC KING,SHAKES THE HANDS OF A TYRANNICAL DICTATOR,SUBSERVIENT TO OUR ENEMIES IRAN,NORTH KOREA,RUSSIA,VENEZUELA,CUBA,NICARAGUA. oBAMA SHOULD BE EXECUTED FOR TREASON.

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Gregory Dittmer

8:24PM 8:24PM Apr 24th 2009

mahalapril

2:03PM 2:03PM Apr 21st 2009

America has no more moral values,no integrity,no honesty,no duty ,no country. We idolize movie stars and singers who are decadent,immoral,promiscuous,drunk drivers,drug abusers, in and out of rehab,abortionist. Are you proud of what we have become under Obama

######################################################

While most of what you claim has happened in this Nation is true, it has NOTHING whatsoever to do with Obama being POTUS!

This nation has been decaying in moral values, honesty and integrity for many years. The slide down hill was increased greatly under Republican "leadership." In recent times we have had "Tricky Dick" Nixon and his band of merry thieves and his "I am not a thief" speech. Then we had more than a decade of Reagan and Bush deals with Saddam Hussein, the Iran/Contra affair where Reagan allowed drugs to be imported to this Nation in order to finance illegal weapons purchases from Iran to give to the Contras in direct opposition to Congess.
Then we have the latest version of Bush and his cohort Cheney, their lies about WMD in order to invade a sovereign nation and their public outing of a CIA operative because her husband pissed off Cheney. And let us not forget Cheney's hunting "accident" where alcohol was consumed prior to him shooting his friend in the face!

Oh but the past 3 MONTHS with Obama is where YOU place ALL the blame!?!

Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is this country has been under the control of Republicans for 2/3 of the last half century. The times they had COMPLETE control of the government should have been used to impart the supposed Republican maoral code... instead, the nation was sliding into the sewer under their control. I WISH the few items I mentioned of past events were the ONLY things brought to us courtesy of the Republicans, but I haven't even begun to scratch the surface.

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Gregory Dittmer

8:36PM 8:36PM Apr 24th 2009

mahalapril

2:03PM 2:03PM Apr 21st 2009

You are a one- tracked mind, stupid, uneducated American.

#####################################################

This falls under the catagory of the kettle calling the pot black! Virtually every post you make is a "one- tracked... stupid, uneducated" rant without a basis in reality.

EVERYONE that posts online makes occassional spelling errors and other grammatical errors while writing. Normally, I just don't comment on such mistakes... but YOU having the audacity to call ANYONE "stupid" or "uneducated" is laughable!! Yor spelling sucks, you have no sentence structure, your punctuation is very poor and your overall typing skills are about the level of a 12 year old!

Rating : 2 stars Reply to this commentReport!

Gregory Dittmer

6:54PM 6:54PM Apr 27th 2009

For those that want to define torture in THEIR terms rather than the entire International Community, we have ratified the UN Convention Against Torture. There are a few points where even the so-called "Patriot Act" has illegal provisions according to this treaty.

CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN
OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT
The States Parties to this Convention,
Considering that, in accordance with the principles proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations,
recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of
freedom, justice and peace in the world, Recognizing that those rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person, Considering the obligation of States under the Charter, in particular Article 55, to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Having regard to article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 7 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which provide that no one shall be subjected to
torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Having regard also to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the General Assembly on 9 December 1975,
Desiring to make more effective the struggle against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment throughout the world, Have agreed as follows:
Part I
Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or
suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

Article 2
1. Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to
prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.
2. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal
political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
3. An order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as a justification of torture.

Although there is a lot more to this, just the very beginning is enough to PROVE Bush43 Adminstration crimes against humanity! Check out the rest if you want to know just how many laws Bush43 has broken.