CIA Acknowledges Use Of Waterboarding

Controversial Tactic Used On 3 Terror Suspects, Senate Democrats Demand Criminal Probe

(CBS/AP)  Senate Democrats demanded a criminal investigation into waterboarding by government interrogators Tuesday after the Bush administration acknowledged for the first time that the tactic was used on three terror suspects.

In congressional testimony Tuesday, CIA Director Michael Hayden became the first administration official to publicly acknowledge the agency used waterboarding on detainees following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Forms of waterboarding vary but generally consist of immobilizing an individual on his or her back - head inclined downward - and pouring water over the face to induce the sensation of drowning. Waterboarding produces a gag reflex and makes the victim believe death is imminent. The technique leaves no visible physical damage.

"We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time," Hayden told the Senate Intelligence Committee. "There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al Qaeda and its workings. Those two realities have changed."

Hayden said Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002 and 2003. Hayden banned the technique in 2006, but National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told senators during the same hearing Tuesday that waterboarding remains in the CIA arsenal - so long as it as the specific consent of the president and legal approval of the attorney general.

That prompted Sen. Dick Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat and a member of the Judiciary Committee, to call on the Justice Department to open a criminal inquiry into whether past use of waterboarding violated any law. The Pentagon has banned its employees from using waterboarding to extract information from detainees, and FBI Director Robert Mueller said his investigators do not use coercive tactics in interviewing terror suspects.

Durbin, already frustrated with Attorney General Michael Mukasey's refusal last week to define waterboarding a form of torture as critics have, said he would block the nomination of the Justice Department's No. 2 official if the criminal inquiry isn't opened.

It was a particularly sharp threat by Durbin, who represents Illinois - the same state that U.S. District Judge Mark Filip of Chicago, the deputy attorney general nominee, calls home.

"In light of the Justice Department's continued non-responsiveness to Congress on the issue of torture, including your disappointing testimony on waterboarding last week, I have reluctantly concluded that placing a hold on Judge Filip's nomination is my only recourse for eliciting timely and complete responses to important questions on torture," Durbin wrote in a letter to Mukasey on Tuesday.

He added: "A Justice Department investigation should explore whether waterboarding was authorized and whether those who authorized it violated the law."

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse declined to comment except to say that the department "is reviewing the letter carefully."

The delay in confirming Filip could leave the Justice Department in leadership limbo following a year of internal upheaval and scandal, Mukasey, sworn in as attorney general in November, has made rebuilding the department a top priority for the final 11 months of the Bush administration.

Human Rights Watch, which has been calling on the government to outlaw waterboarding as a form of illegal torture, called Hayden's testimony "an explicit admission of criminal activity."

Joanne Mariner, the group's counterterrorism director, said Hayden's tesitimony "gives the lie" to the administration's claims that the CIA has not used torture. "Waterboarding is torture, and torture is a crime," she said.

Critics say waterboarding has been outlawed under the U.N.'s Convention Against Torture, which prohibits treatment resulting in long-term physical or mental damage. They also say it should be recognized as banned under the U.S. 2006 Military Commissions Act, which prohibits treatment of terror suspects that is described as "cruel, inhuman and degrading." The act, however, does not explicitly prohibit waterboarding by name.

During his own Senate appearance last week, Mukasey refused to declare waterboarding illegal, prompting Democrats to accuse him of potentially allowing the harsh interrogation tactic to be used in the future.

The attorney general said then he has reviewed Justice Department memos about the CIA's interrogation program and concluded that the spy agency doesn't currently engage in waterboarding. Beyond that, Mukasey would not discuss the legality of the classified program for fear of what he described as tipping off U.S. enemies about interrogation methods.

The Justice Department has long resisted exposing the Bush administration and its employees to criminal or civil charges or even international war crimes waterboarding is declared illegal. Hayden said interrogations have been conducted by both intelligence agents and government contractors interrogators but denied that the practice, as he described it, has been outsourced.

"This is a governmental activity under governmental direction and control in which the participant may be both government employees and contractors," he said in an exchange with Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California.

McConnell, the nation's spy chief, said in Tuesday's testimony that waterboarding "taken to its extreme, could be death; you could drown someone." But he, too, refused to declare it illegal in hypothetical cases.

"Everything I know is it is a legal technique used in a specific set of circumstances," McConnell said. "You have to know the circumstances to make a legal judgment," McConnell said.

[taotxzen]

''That 935 lies? Study paid for by George Soros.

Ya just can''''t trust anything anymore.''

Which of the 935 false claims the Bush Gang made about Iraq were not lies? I think Americans know who not to trust!

To stay with your line of logic, Fox is now calling McCain a Democrat, does this mean they cannot be trusted?

[feelfree1]

Even with numerous reports of U.S. "war" prisoners being tortured to death, and now 3 scientific studies placing the number of dead Iraqis as a result of the latest illegal U.S.-led invasion, at 1 million plus dead, Bush regime apologists like "donbl1" continue to make excuses for it.

Now we know why the German population as a whole went along with the WWII era Nazis.

How sad that our country has sunk to this depth.

###

Thursday, 31 January 2008

LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to research conducted by one of Britain''s leading polling groups.

The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with 2,414 adults in face-to-face interviews, found that 20 percent of people had had at least one death in their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.

The last complete census in Iraq conducted in 1997 found 4.05 million households in the country, a figure ORB used to calculate that approximately 1.03 million people had died as a result of the war, the researchers found.

[donbl1]

Well, Veteran71, looks like that Wistleblower documenation was a lie.....

Ya just never know who to trust anymore.

For example, George Soros paid for a study that said there were 600,000 Iraqi civilians killed. Come to find out, only 150,000 according to WHO.

That 935 lies? Study paid for by George Soros.

Ya just can''t trust anything anymore.

[inventagod]

We do not torture. - Bu$h

[aboz3]

If waterboarding is so effective, we should use it on drug dealers to identify their suppliers... Or kidnappers when we can''t locate the victim... Oh that''s right we can''t... its against the law because coerced confessions are seldom worthwhile!

[gunnerv1]

Can I help!

[emma915]

NOT TIP OFF OUR ENEMIES?! For gosh sake, all they have to do is watch CNN!

[formrusmcsgt]

"There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al Qaeda and its workings. Those two realities have changed."

Posted by ilikecats1 at 10:05 AM : Feb 06, 2008

What else could they say after being forced to admit that they have, indeed, used torture?

They are not about to admit that it was a criminal act.

[hungry1968]

"There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al Qaeda and its workings. Those two realities have changed."

Posted by ilikecats1 at 10:05 AM : Feb 06, 2008





Did you notice that he DIDN''T say that, "those two realities have changed BECAUSE of water boarding"?

Those two realities MIGHT have changed, but he WILL NOT say it''s because water boarding changed it.

[hungry1968]

If you guys really want out of Iraq instead of a promise to get out you will have to defeat the Clintons first. 70 delagates +/- is not a big spread. The Liberals still have a chance to beat her if they mobilize to do so. He is the only one that has the balls to completely pull the plug on Iraq. Or maybe you will give Hillary a pass on Iraq for 100 days of games and bread?

Posted by hillaryin08 at 09:45 AM : Feb 06, 2008





This is the second or third time I''ve seen this post, and it still doesn''t make sense.

"He is the only one that has the balls to completely pull the plug on Iraq."

Who are you talking about? It''s easier to follow you, if you make complete statements.

Maybe it''s because you didn''t make a reference to congress funding the war - apparently that''s all you can get right.