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Bush-era interrogation techniques discussed at Senate panel hearing

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] In the first hearing on whether Bush administration interrogation techniques constituted torture, one witness before the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts on Wednesday called memos on enhanced interrogation methods "an ethical train wreck" and another witness claimed that the methods were not effective. Georgetown law professor David Luban testified:Unfortunately, the interrogation memos fall far short of professional standards of candid advice and independent judgment. They involve a selective and in places deeply eccentric reading of the law. The memos cherry-pick sources of law that back their conclusions, and leave out sources of law that do not. They read as if they were reverse engineered to reach a pre-determined outcome: approval of waterboarding and the other CIA techniques.Ali Soufan, who interrogated terrorists, called the enhanced interrogation methods "ineffective, slow and unreliable." Former Counselor of the Department of State and executive director of the 9/11 Commission Phillip Zekilow testified that although he was unable to determine whether Justice Department lawyers acted unethically or improperly in writing the memos, he believed that "some of their legal opinions on this subject were unsound, even unreasonable." St. Mary's law professor Jeffrey Addicott testified that none of the enhanced interrogation techniques meet the internationally accepted definition of torture. Addicott recently wrote on the topic for JURIST. Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy (D-VT) stated that federal judge Jay Bybee had declined Leahy's request to testify at the hearing. The recent release of four CIA interrogation memos has renewed calls for the criminal prosecution of the memos' authors. Last month, UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak said that the US must prosecute DOJ lawyers who drafted the memos. US President Barack Obama has said that he would not rule out the possibility of prosecuting lawyers responsible for authoring the memos. Obama had previously said that he would not pursue prosecutions of CIA interrogators, a pledge which drew sharp international criticism.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 13, 2009 (boomark / email).