WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2008
Justice Investigates Waterboard Approval
Ongoing Probe Into Bybee Memo Which Admin. Says Made Use Of Torture Technique Legal
-
A Justice Department investigation into a top official's memo allowing the use of waterboarding in CIA interrogations is looking into whether the legal advice "was consistent with the professional standards that apply to Department of Justice attorneys." (CBS)
-
Interactive Gitmo Tribunals Detainees on trial, photos and a history of the naval base.
The investigation was revealed at the request of Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. A Justice Department spokesman, however, said the inquiry has been ongoing for several years.
Questions about waterboarding are part of a larger Justice probe of the so-called Bybee memo, wrote Marshall Jarrett, head of the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, in a Feb. 18 letter to the two senators.
"Among other issues, we are examining whether the legal advice contained in those memoranda was consistent with the professional standards that apply to Department of Justice attorneys," Jarrett wrote.
Asked for details, Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said, "This is not a new investigation, but rather has been ongoing for some time."
Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his or her cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world. Critics call it a form of torture.
The memo at the heart of the internal Justice inquiry was dated Aug. 1, 2002, and written by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee for then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales. It defined torture as recognized by U.S. law as covering "only extreme acts" causing pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure.
The Bush administration maintains waterboarding was legal when it was used by CIA interrogators in 2002 and 2003 on top al Qaeda detainees Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Earlier this month, CIA Director Michael Hayden said waterboarding was used, in part, because of widespread belief among U.S. intelligence officials that more catastrophic attacks were imminent.
The CIA banned its personnel from using waterboarding in 2006. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused to publicly discuss whether waterboarding is currently legal since it is no longer used by CIA interrogators.
Durbin called the internal Justice inquiry "long overdue" and noted that the U.S. government has previously prosecuted waterboarding as a war crime.
"Within the question how America could come to use interrogation techniques of the Inquisition is the question how the Department of Justice could have overlooked its own precedents to authorize waterboarding," added Whitehouse, a former federal prosecutor.
He suggested "the answer was preordained and the department was driven by politics and obedience, not law and independence."
Mukasey told Congress earlier this month that he would not pursue criminal charges against CIA officials who used waterboarding after relying on Justice Department guidance that the interrogation tactic was legal. He said Friday he did not believe the Bybee memo was politically motivated.
"I have no reason to believe that politics was involved in that or any other analysis," Mukasey said.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
More From U.S.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 22 Commentsahhh ... this is a problem. i assume this is just posturing ... cause if he really believes this ... he''s not suited for this role.
As soon at around 10:00am Jan 20, 2009, I expect several indictments to come down by the world court.
Bush may find himseld immune but I can see Cheney, Rummy, Gonzo, and many others indicted - to include the CIA officers. What were they thinking? - that they would actually get away with it. That will follow them for the rest of their lives.
So Gonzo tries redefine torture, contrary to established norms, and literal definitions. "It defined torture as recognized by U.S. law as covering "only extreme acts" causing pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure."
Drowning causes pain and anxiety similar in intensity to death, as it is the last experience a drowning victim has before death, and during a drowning incident, the organs called "lungs" fail to provide oxygen enough to continue to live, so "controlled drowning" or waterboarding, as they call it, still by their own definition still falls within the definition of torture.
"Why did the US hang Japanese soldiers at the end of WWII for water boarding US POW''s"?
Answer - Because it is torture.
When one human places another in a cage and then tortures them, we all have a vested interest in quickly ending that persons life on the end of a rope for all to see.
Now we know who was involved in authorizing the torture, it was Bush. Remember the memo? It was congress, remember the patriot act and now even worse legislation? It was the CIA. It was psychologist working for the government. It was the justice dept. and Ashcroft and Gonzo. It was soldiers that put them in the cage or chained them over backwards over a rail. It was congress that knew all along. It was everybody that stood by and watched and did nothing. It was every american that did not rise up, drag these war criminals into the street and lynch them from the nearest tree. It was you and me.
You and I will only be clean again when all of the government officials involved have been hanged for crimes against humanity. Every last one of them.
For what it is worth, water boarding is only one of the torture methods they are using. The are others and they are worse.
how can they determine anything if they don''t know how it feels?
Mukasey?? He never donned a uniform--why would he even care?
-Water boarding, any one?
MAYBE BUSH COULD USE THIS PHOTO IN HIS NEW LIBRARY IN DALLAS.
He has the support on this matter of his AG, who has adopted the "Sergent Shultz" position of "I know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing!", which is a position used frequently by the former AG, Alberto "the Great Gonzo" Gonzales. In fact, it is as if the Great Gonzo never left the Justice Department and that his spirit lives on there, much to the satisfaction of the Great Emperor Bush!
Still, the Great Emperor is becoming frustrated in his dealings with the Whimpo-crats on this matter and it is rumored that he is contemplating having the CIA "introduce" some Whimpo-crat congressmen to this "advanced form of hygiene" up close and personal!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!
"I have no reason to believe that politics was involved in that or any other analysis," Mukasey said.
------------
Ignorance or "just following orders" is not an excuse for breaking the law and international treaties. Whether the Bybee memo was politically motivated or not is obfuscation by Mukasey to dodge the issue of the illegality of torture.
Posted by creeper00 at 12:44 PM : Feb 23, 2008
What is wrong with all those whimps in congress why do they let this administration and there stooges get away with this, by whimps I mean republicans and democrats we need a change allright boot them all out at election time, and vote for the new guy whoever, do away with these lobbyist loving incumbents,throw them all out
Torture is evil. Those who torture are evil. Those who condone torture, for whatever reason, are evil. Those who pretend that torture is NOT torture so they can condone it, are evil.
Posted by MyIDonCBS at 01:42 PM : Feb 23, 2008
They think if they stretch it out long enough we will forget about it even if it after the election we should get them all and that Muskasey needs to go another stooge for Bush
I just thought that needed repeating!
Torture is evil. Those who torture are evil. Those who condone torture, for whatever reason, are evil. Those who pretend that torture is NOT torture so they can condone it, are evil.
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 22 Comments