Apr 20th, 2009
Posted by Jameel Jaffer, ACLU National Security Project at 12:16pm	Torture

Obama Was Right to Release Torture Memos

(Originally posted on Index on Censorship’s Free Speech Blog. Index on Censorship is a British organization and magazine that promotes freedom of expression.)

Last week the Obama administration released four legal memos that supplied the basis for the Bush administration’s torture program. The memos, which were disclosed in response to a lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed five years ago, include detailed descriptions of the interrogation methods that CIA interrogators were authorized to inflict on prisoners in their custody. Described methods included ‘the facial slap’, ‘the water board’, and perhaps most grotesque, ‘cramped confinement box with insect’.

These revolting memos shouldn’t have been written in the first place, but the Obama administration was right to release them. The public can now better understand the nature of the CIA’s interrogation and detention program, and the role that Justice Department lawyers played in developing and implementing it. CIA officials reportedly pressed President Obama to withhold key passages in the memos, but the president rightly recognized that redacting these passages would have enmeshed the new administration in a cover-up of the Bush administration’s crimes.

In a self-serving op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Michael Mukasey (who served as attorney general from 2007 to 2009) and Michael Hayden (who served as director of the CIA from 2006 and 2009), contend that President Obama’s disclosure of the memos makes the United States less safe; they argue that the disclosure of the memos, and of the interrogation techniques discussed in them, unwisely broadcast to terrorists ‘the absolute limit of what the U.S. government could do to extract information from them’, and they warn that terrorists will now ’supplement their training’ so that they can resist the described techniques. They add that the disclosure of the memos will make CIA interrogators timid and risk-averse, unwilling to use ‘aggressive’ methods even when Justice Department lawyers assure them that such methods are lawful.

But the methods described in the memos are illegal under both domestic and international law, and they were illegal when the Bush administration endorsed them. For years, the U.S. State Department’s human rights reports have described these methods as torture. And after the Second World War, the United States prosecuted Japanese commanders for having inflicted some of the methods that the memos purport to authorize. It does not compromise national security to broadcast to the world that the US will eschew methods that are criminal under US and international law, that the State Department has described as torture, and that the United States has previously prosecuted as war crimes. Indeed, to propose that the nation’s security would be compromised by that message is to propose that the nation’s security would be compromised by the rule of law.

Nor will it be unfortunate if CIA interrogators hesitate before relying on legal advice that strikes them as implausible or wrong. Indeed, there is something astounding about a former attorney general characterizing this kind of hesitation as ‘timidity’. Anyone who reads the memos will understand immediately that the CIA and Justice Department each sought to absolve itself from responsibility for torture by basing its actions on transparently worthless assurances from the other. It would be a good thing if CIA interrogators hesitated before entering into this kind of arrangement again.

Permalink |	Torture

1. Vic Livingston Says:
   Apr 20th, 2009 at 1:52pm

   Why was my post regarding the DOJ's apparent approval of RADIATION WEAPONS use on detainees AND U.S. citizens taken down?

   Was this the ACLU's decision -- or is this another example of apparent censorship and/or prior restraint and telecom tampering by a regional DHS-administered "fusion center"?

   Regarding the first issue on still-secret DOJ torture memos:

   http://nowpublic.com/world/bush-torture-memos-oked-radia tion-weapon-use-americans-too

   On the second issue of internet/telecommunications surveillance being used as a pretext to harass and censor:

   http://nowpublic.com/world/govt-fusion-center-spying-pr etext-harass-and-censor

   OR (if links are corrupted / disabled):

   http://NowPublic.com/scrivener

2. T. Stein Says:
   Apr 20th, 2009 at 3:22pm

   As always, ACLU has no idea about getting information from terrorist to save American lives. I guess you think that when you see the terrorists on TV holding a American or foreign hostage, and then found later beheaded; You say,Oh No its terrible and too agressive. Get over yourselves, and growup. Even if there are international laws, the individual countries can accept them or ignore them, just like any resolution the UN passes which is totally useless like you people.

3. Kt D Says:
   Apr 20th, 2009 at 3:42pm

   This is an excellently written article, clearly pointing out the legal implications of the heavily discussed torture memos. How can the U.S. hold other countries to high standards of humane treatment and just warfare if the nation itself uses such actions in its interrogations? Still, some are worried about the backlash of all of this. I watched an interesting video that summarizes various viewpoints at newsy.com today. It's worth watching:

   http://www.newsy.com/videos/making_sense_of_the_memos /

4. Alvin C. McCuistion Says:
   Apr 20th, 2009 at 5:00pm

   The infuriating aspect of the whole thing is that virtually none of the detained individuals were ever charged with anything and can be presumed innocent of any wrong doing. They were pronounced terrorists or enemy combatants with little acceptable investigation. As an aside I recall that Senator Shumer approved the appointment of Judge Mukasey as AG as he feared if he didn't President Bush 'would nominate someone worse.'

5. tedbohne Says:
   Apr 21st, 2009 at 9:12am

   I simply cannot get my head around this ongoing nonsense about the fact that despite the continuous lies by the Bush Cartel, the US ARMED FORCES DID, IN FACT, ENGAGE IN TORTURE FOR THE PURPOSES OF GAINING INFORMATION. Innocent people were tortured, some to death. THIS IS TORTURE. IT IS BANNED BY US LAW, AND THE UN. There ARE no questions. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, people who were NEVER elected to the offices they squatted in, and their cohorts committed crimes against humanity. They tortured and killed an unknown number of people. WHY ARE THESE CRIMINALS STILL AT LARGE?! They saved NO ONE. They killed hundreds of thousands or more. They're still killing today! The offer the joke that their 'anti-terrorist' activities were successful since there's been no more terrorist attacks. This is INSANE! Especially given the fact that the US staged 911. Along with the UK, Israel and Pakistan. It was a FRAUD FOLKS!! Osama bin Laden DIDN'T DO IT! Nor did Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Until these bastards are arrested and KILLED, justice weeps.

   tedbohne
   N321MM@msn.com

6. tedbohne Says:
   Apr 21st, 2009 at 9:26am

   This terrorism hoax is perhaps the worst lie in human history. Another "ism" that cannot be addressed given the fact that terrorism is most always committed by a large state such as the US against a small poor state, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Haiti, El Salvador, Chile, Peru, Panama and etc. ad infinitum. The US is the largest purveyor of TERRORISM ON EARTH. Follow by Israel. When small countries engage in unconventional warfare, it is referred to as "guerrilla" fighting. We have known for years Iraq has done nothing to warrant US abuse. But then, neither did these countless other countries. You don't see the COWARD US going after the DPRK. Simple, the US would take an asskicking of biblical proportions. Hell, the US didn't beat the Iraqis. The US is getting beat like a drum with homemade bombs, many with US components and explosives left behind by the first BUSH WAR. Trillions of dollars have been made by the wealthy in the US with these wars. Massive changes to constitutional ammendments, and nonsensical laws and etc, have been cobbled together by the Bush Cartel. This color code nonsense. Works for kindergarteners, otherwise, worthless. Bill Fritz thinks george saved 10 million people. I'm wondering what planet that happened on. We Americans let these pigs slop the formerly hallowed offices an halls of power in the country. Most Americans couldn't give an accurate historical account of the US since it's inception if their lives depended on it. And in a manner of speaking, they do! This wretched "government" is absolutely dependent on "sheeple" rather than informed people. It couldn't exist without them.

   tedbohne
   N321MM@msn.com

7. KRISCALL Says:
   Apr 21st, 2009 at 11:05pm

   ARE YOU KIDDING ME THE ACLU IS A JOKE AND IS DESTOYING THE AMERICAN WAY...ADVERTISING OUR TORTURE METHODS IS DANGEROUS AND STUPID..AMERICA WAS ATTACKED BY SOME LAWLESS RADICAL THUGS THAT KILLED ORDINARY AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT THREATENS OUR FREEDOM IS VERY DESERVING OF SOME TORTURE TO GET INFORMATION FROM THESE THUGS IS JUSTIFIED I GUESS IF WE GET ATTACKED AGAIN THE ACLU WILL FIND SOME WAY TO STILL BLAME THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND MAKE OBAMA OUT TO BE A HERO..

8. KRISCALL Says:
   Apr 21st, 2009 at 11:09pm

   I THINK tedbohne SHOULD MOVE TO Afghanistan SINCE HE THINKS terrorism IS A hoax WHAT AN IDIOT