[Infowarrior] - More 'torture memos' released by Administration

[Richard Forno]

Surprisingly they're not very redacted   ---rf


(Copies of the memos are @ http://cryptome.org/olc-cia-torture.zip)


April 17, 2009
Interrogation Memos Detail Harsh Tactics by the C.I.A.
By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/us/politics/17detain.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department made public on Thursday detailed  
memos describing harsh interrogation techniques used by the Central  
Intelligence Agency, as President Obama said that C.I.A. operatives  
who carried out the techniques would not be prosecuted.

One technique authorized for use by the C.I.A. beginning in August  
2002 was the use of “insects placed in a confinement box,” presumably  
to induce fear on the part of a terror suspect. According to a  
footnote, the technique was not used.

The interrogation methods were among the Bush administration’s most  
closely guarded secrets, and what was released on Thursday afternoon  
marked the most comprehensive public accounting to date of a program  
that some senior Obama administration officials contend included  
illegal torture.

The memos were released after a tense internal debate at the White  
House. Saying that it is a “time for reflection, not retribution,” Mr.  
Obama reiterated his opposition to a extensive investigation of  
controversial counterterrorism programs.

“In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who  
carrying out their duties relying in good faith upon the legal advice  
from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to  
prosecution,” theWhite House statement said.

One memo showed that a top Justice Department lawyer issued a legal  
opinion in 2005 saying that C.I.A. officers were allowed to use a  
combination of interrogation methods to produce a more effective result.

“Interrogators may combine water dousing with other techniques, such  
as stress positions, wall standing, the insult slap, or the abdominal  
slap,” wrote the official, Stephen G. Bradbury.

An early review suggested that the administration had declassified the  
vast bulk of the memos’ contents, a defeat for C.I.A. officials who  
had argued that such a step could be harmful to national security. The  
documents included Justice Department memos from 2002 and 2005  
authorizing the C.I.A. to employ a number of aggressive techniques —  
including sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures and  
“waterboarding,” the near-drowning technique.

Among the documents were the 2005 memos by Mr. Bradbury, then the  
acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel,  
authorizing the C.I.A. techniques. The documents have never before  
been made public, but an article in The New York Times in October 2007  
said that the memos gave legal support for using a combination of  
coercive techniques at the same time and concluded that the C.I.A.’s  
methods were not “cruel, inhuman or degrading” under international law.

Another document released Thursday afternoon was a Justice Department  
memo written August 1, 2002. The memo, written by John C. Yoo and  
signed by Jay S. Bybee, two Justice Department officials at the time,  
is a legal authorization for a laundry list of proposed C.I.A.  
interrogation techniques. The debate about just how much detail to  
include in the public release has bitterly divided an Obama  
administration through its early months.

Fueling the urgency of the discussion was Thursday’s court deadline in  
a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which had sued  
the government for the release of the Justice Department memos.

Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, has pressed the White House for  
weeks to redact sensitive details about specific interrogation  
techniques. He argued that revealing such information would pave the  
way for future disclosures of intelligence sources and methods and  
would jeopardize the C.I.A.’s relationship with foreign intelligence  
services.

But the most immediate concern of C.I.A. officials is that the  
revelations could give new momentum to a full-blown congressional  
investigation into covert activities under the Bush administration.