interrogation techniques

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CIA Can Skirt Torture Laws, Justice Claims

Letters justify legal 'latitude' for tactics to prevent terrorism

(Newser) - International anti-torture laws don't necessarily apply to CIA agents fighting terrorism, the Justice Department has explained to Congress in letters recently made public, reports the New York Times. The letters reveal the White House position that interrogators have some legal "latitude" outside the Geneva Conventions protecting detainees from "...

White House 'Duped' General Into Torture: Book

Myers 'hoodwinked' into permitting harsh techniques

(Newser) - The Bush administration "hoodwinked" one of the country's top military men in order to establish harsh interrogation techniques on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, according to revelations in a new book reported in the Guardian. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers was misled by White House...

Waterboarding at Work Heads to Utah Court

Employee alleges torture; company calls it 'team-building exercise'

(Newser) - A Utah sales rep is suing his company after his boss waterboarded him as a “team-building exercise” outside a Provo office park, the Washington Post reports. Sure, the man volunteered, but he says he had no idea what he getting himself into. “I’m not getting any air,...

Top Bushies Personally OK'd Tough Interrogation Tactics

Meetings show high-level approval of CIA's 'enhanced' detainee treatment

(Newser) - Senior White House officials explicitly approved interrogation technique details in several meetings beginning in 2002, sources tell ABC. It was previously known that the CIA drafted a “Golden Shield” memo approving highly specific tactics for use on al-Qaeda detainees, but that top officials—including Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Colin...

Justice Memo Backed Torture Interrogations

President's wartime powers override law, document argued

(Newser) - Laws banning torture and assault should not apply to US military interrogators overseas, argues a 2003 Justice Department memo released yesterday. The Defense Department was told not to rely on the memo nine months after it was issued, but it established a legal foundation for controversial interrogations, the Washington Post...

Bush Vetoes Ban on Waterboarding
Bush Vetoes Ban on Waterboarding
UPDATED
Mar 8, 2008 9:49 AM CST

Bush Vetoes Ban on Waterboarding

He says terrorist threat remains; Dems don't have votes to override

(Newser) - President Bush today vetoed a bill that would have prevented the CIA from using harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, the New York Times reports. "We need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists,” the president said. Democrats do not...

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
Jan 31, 2008 12:38 PM CST

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....

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...

US Makes Canadian Torture List
US Makes Canadian Torture List
Jan 18, 2008 6:40 AM CST

US Makes Canadian Torture List

'Torture awareness' manual for diplomats includes US, Syria, Israel, Iran

(Newser) - The US, along with China, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and Israel, is listed in an official Canadian foreign ministry document of countries where prisoners are at risk of torture, the BBC reports. The "torture awareness" training manual classifies as torture some US interrogation techniques, including forced nudity, isolation, and sleep...

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 Obstructed 9/11 Inquiry, Commission Heads Charge

Destroying tapes at odds with probe

(Newser) - By withholding and ultimately destroying videotapes of the interrogation of al-Qaeda detainees, the CIA willfully obstructed the 9/11 commission, its top two members charge in today’s New York Times. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton say the CIA repeatedly stonewalled their investigation in 2003-04, answering questions vaguely, denying access to...

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,...

Mukasey Tells Congress to Back Off CIA Tapes Inquiry

AG won't divulge investigation details

(Newser) - Michael Mukasey isn't about to open up to Democratic lawmakers who want details of the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into the CIA’s destruction of interrogation tapes, the Washington Post reports. In letters sent today, the new AG also restated his objections to appointing a special prosecutor to investigate,...

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...

Gitmo Manual Leaked Online
Gitmo Manual Leaked Online
Nov 14, 2007 11:03 AM CST

Gitmo Manual Leaked Online

Wikileaks reveals what FOIA request could not

(Newser) - A sensitive manual from the military's Guantanamo Bay facility has surfaced online, Wired News reports. It lays out exacting instructions for psychologically manipulating detainees, dealing with hunger strikes, rewarding prisoners with “comfort items” like extra toilet paper, and evading Red Cross inspectors. The administration promised the Red Cross full...

CIA Sat on Tapes of Al Qaeda Questionings

Agency told court no recordings existed during trial of Moussaoui

(Newser) - Though it twice declared otherwise in court, the CIA has three video and audio recordings of high-level al Qaeda interrogations, federal prosecutors revealed yesterday. The defense team for convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui requested the tapes, but the CIA denied their existence. The tapes probably won’t undo Moussaoui’s conviction—...

Rudy Would Outdo W on Power Grab
Rudy Would Outdo W on
Power Grab
Oct 30, 2007 12:51 PM CDT

Rudy Would Outdo W on Power Grab

Record shows Hizzoner had little patience for checks and balances

(Newser) - Rudy Giuliani’s record in New York shows a leadership philosophy built on overlooking rules, says Washington Monthly’s Rachel Morris. Should the GOP frontrunner end up in the Oval Office, he would seize even more executive power than his assertive predecessor, Morris predicts.

WWII Vets Slam US 'Torture' Techniques

Vet says chess, ping-pong were old grilling tricks

(Newser) - Silent for 60 years, a handful of WWII vets are admitting their old interrogation tricks — and slamming alleged torture techniques used by the US today. Almost two dozen ex-fighters met for a ceremony by the Potomac yesterday, the Washington Post reports, but one refused the award, protesting the Iraq...

Dems Demand Torture Memos
 Dems Demand Torture Memos
Oct 5, 2007 3:19 AM CDT

Dems Demand Torture Memos

Anger erupts over secret approval for extreme interrogation techniques

(Newser) - The disclosure by the New York Times of secret Justice Department memos greenlighting the use of torture techniques on terror suspects has triggered an uproar on Capitol Hill. Democrats have demanded to see the memos, which authorized head-slapping, sleep deprivation, freezing, a near-drowning technique called water boarding and other painful...

Stories 61 - 80 | << Prev