White House memos endorsed CIA waterboarding

[Achilles]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration explicitly endorsed the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods against al Qaeda suspects in a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

 

The previously undisclosed classified memos were requested by then CIA Director George Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, the newspaper reported, citing administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents.

 

A White House spokesman had no comment on the report.

Link to the full story

 

At what point does Mr. Bush get to visit the Netherlands?

[mimartin]

Bush reply, "I misunderstood, I thought waterboarding was like you know...surfing."

 

Would like to say I'm shocked or appalled, but this is just par for the course.

[Litofsky]

Link to the full story

 

At what point does Mr. Bush get to visit the Netherlands?

 

When the people in The Hague grow a pair?

 

On a more serious note, I'm against torture. Not only is it cruel to their person (which violates their 8th Amendment rights [this applies to non-Americas, as if we don't apply our rights equally, we're not being objective]), but it could potentially backfire, resulting in more (potentially) death.

 

If we've declined so much that violence has overcome the strength of words, I fear (even more) for America and the Western World.

[jawathehutt]

A large portion of the actual terrorists we captured are trained in what to do when tortured, hold for a while, then make their side sound far more powerful than it really is. One example of this exaggeration could be be saying that a certain country is making nuclear weapons even though the UN told it not to, resulting in the US attacking it in march of 2003.

But you know, we're the US, who gives a damn about international treaties and one of the main documents that our country is based off.

[Q]

I think we've all known this ever since the whole "It's not torture" spiel during the interview with Couric. Bush was basically acknowledging it then. Good to get some confirmation, though.

 

Who needs the World Court? What this administration has done is against the law here, and is an impeachable offense, if I'm not mistaken. Of course, if a sitting president can't be successfully impeached when he has obviously committed perjury on camera, what's the chance of it actually working this time? Unfortunately Bush will get away with it, just like they all do. That's just the way it is. Justice is a myth.