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| CIA briefed 68 lawmakers on interrogation plan |
| 2010-02-25 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] CIA officials briefed at least 68 U.S. lawmakers between 2001 and 2007 on enhanced interrogation methods like simulated drowning that were being considered or used against captured al-Qaeda members, according to declassified documents released on Tuesday. The once-secret CIA papers, obtained in a lawsuit by the conservative legal foundation Judicial Watch, shed new light on which lawmakers knew the details of the controversial interrogation program and when. Human rights groups have argued the harsh interrogation methods were forms of torture and violated U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions on treatment of war prisoners. President Barack Obama banned the techniques shortly after taking office in January 2009. The declassified memos show the program began after the capture of al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi-born Palestinian who was the group's operations director, in the city of Faisalabad in central Pakistan in March 2002. In a statement to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence dated April 12, 2007, then-CIA director Michael Hayden said the agency decided new "techniques" were needed because "Abu Zubaydah was withholding information that could help us track down al-Qaeda leaders and prevent attacks." The CIA briefed lawmakers as it began seeking expanded authority for the interrogation program. Current House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then minority whip, attended a briefing on Abu Zubaydah's interrogation April 24, 2002, along with seven other members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the documents show. The CIA did not begin using the interrogation techniques until after receiving legal guidance from the Department of Justice in August 2002. Pelosi, who became House Democratic leader in late 2002, said at a news conference in April last year that she was never told at the time that simulated drowning, or waterboarding, and other harsh interrogation techniques were being used. She said she was only told the CIA had legal opinions that approved harsh interrogation methods. Hayden, in his 2007 statement for the Senate Select Committee, said as the CIA began implementing the interrogation program in 2002 "the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, the speaker, and the minority leader of the House, and the chairs and ranking members of the intelligence committees were fully briefed on the interrogation procedures." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Pesky documents! abu wasn't 'boarded anyway. Attention snatched by a 5'1", 107lb, very cute, female Reservist MP from NJ. They let him clean up the feces, urine - started talking and couldn't shut up. heh |
| Posted by: Last Breath Farm Resident 2010-02-25 21:04 |
| #3 What, Twitter wasn't around then? Was Blackberry? Not that it matters, it's their job to pay attention in such meetings. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-02-25 11:26 |
| #2 Pelosi is a botox-faced liar. |
| Posted by: jack salami 2010-02-25 10:31 |
| #1 "Oh THOSE briefings" "I must have been tweeting my friends during them. What, Twitter wasn't around then? It doesn't matter and don't bother me with the facts!" |
| Posted by: Poobah Nancy the Supreme 2010-02-25 08:34 |