Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

CIA documents detail controversial interrogation practices

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

[JURIST] The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) conducted overseas interrogations that included sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, and physical abuse, according to documents made available earlier this week. The letters and memoranda, originally sent to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel, were released Monday pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International (AI). One of the documents provides an account of the detention, interrogation, and rendition process from beginning to end, including descriptions of sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, and forced nudity. A memo sent to CIA general counsel John Rizzo describes interrogation techniques used in "covert overseas facilities" that include head shaving, facial slaps and holds, white noise, 24-hour lighting in cells, and dietary manipulation. The memo analyzed the legality of such techniques and claimed that the "enhanced interrogation" procedures were critical to the CIA and a "key reason why al-Qaida has failed to launch a spectacular attack" in the US since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The ACLU alleges that the use of such techniques violates the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which prohibits such conduct. Enhanced interrogation techniques and legal memoranda justifying their use have lately been the subject of intensified controversy. On Monday, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the DOJ will "open a preliminary review" into allegations of prisoner abuse by CIA interrogators during the Bush administration. Last month, a former CIA counter-terrorism agent reported that waterboarding techniques were used prior to the issuance of legal memos that authorized the practice. Also in July, former DOJ lawyer John Yoo and memo author declared his intent to appeal a ruling that allowed a lawsuit against him for complicity in torture. The suit claims that Yoo's legal opinions endorsing certain interrogation techniques led to torture. A number of organizations have called for the drafters of the memos to be disbarred. In April, UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak insisted that, under international law, the US must prosecute the DOJ lawyers who drafted the memos. US President Barack Obama has said that he would not rule out the possibility of prosecution.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 27, 2009 (boomark / email).