NEW YORK - A U.S. federal judge refused on Wednesday to release records describing interrogation techniques authorized for overseas use by the CIA, saying it was up to the agency to decide if they should remain secret.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled against requests by the American Civil Liberties Union to release documents from a total of 580 that included names and dates of when detainees were captured as well as descriptions of destroyed videotapes that showed CIA interrogations of two suspects.
WASHINGTON — High-ranking government officials are usually protected from claims that they violated a person's civil rights. In lawsuits stemming from law enforcement and intelligence efforts after the Sept. 11 attacks, three federal courts have left open the possibility that former Attorney General John Ashcroft and a lieutenant may be held personally liable.
MEMORANDUM FOR: The President
FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
SUBJECT: Accountability for Torture
We
write you, Mr. President, as former intelligence professionals to voice
strong support for Attorney General Eric Holder's authorization of a
wider investigation into CIA interrogation. We respectfully disagree
with the direct appeal to you by seven former CIA directors to quash
that wider investigation.
WASHINGTON — The CIA's harsh interrogation program likely damaged the brain and memory functions of terrorist suspects, diminishing their physical ability to provide the detailed information the spy agency sought, according to a new scientific paper.
The paper scrutinizes the harsh techniques used by the CIA under the Bush administration through the lens of neurobiology. Researchers concluded that the harsh methods were biologically counterproductive to eliciting quality information because prolonged stress harms the brain's ability to retain and recall information.
For the CIA supervisors and operatives
who were responsible for torture, the chickens are coming home to roost.
That is, if President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder
mean it when they say no one is above the law - and if they have the
courage to stand up to brazen intimidation.
WASHINGTON - Seven former CIA directors asked President Barack Obama on Friday to quash a criminal probe of harsh interrogations of terror suspects during the Bush administration.
The CIA directors, who served both Democratic and Republican presidents and include three who worked under President George W. Bush, made their request in a letter sent Friday to the White House.
Unlike many of my progressive friends,
for me the current administration's behavior on torture is a glass
half full. In my view, the real scandal is how very few have taken
a sip.
Sure, President Barack Obama and Attorney
General Eric Holder have adopted some of the secrecy habits of the previous
administration. But, for heaven's sake, read what Obama and
Holder have gone ahead and released - and done - before you grouse any
louder about the torture photos and other data still suppressed.
