American Civil Liberties Union

There has never been a more urgent need to preserve fundamental privacy protections and our system of checks and balances than the need we face today, as illegal government spying, provisions of the Patriot Act and government-sponsored torture programs transcend the bounds of law and our most treasured values in the name of national security.


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"Top Ten List" of Torture-Related Documents (1/25/2005)

Select Undisclosed Documents Referenced in News Articles,
Government Memoranda and Reports

1. Memorandum from the Justice Department to CIA providing guidance on twenty permissible interrogation techniques and specifically authorizing "waterboarding" (Aug. 2002)

2. Presidential order authorizing CIA to set up series of secret detention facilities (late 2001)

3. Presidential order, signed by President Bush, renewing and revising a Clinton presidential order, authorizing the CIA to transfer detainees to the custody of foreign nations that engage in torture (date unknown)

4. Memorandum for William J. Haynes, II, General Counsel, Department of Defense, from Jay S. Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, entitled "The President's Power as Commander in Chief to Transfer Captured Terrorists to the Control and Custody of Foreign Nations" (March 13, 2002)

5. Memorandum from the Justice Department on the liability of interrogators under the Convention Against Torture and the Anti-Torture Act when a prisoner is not in U.S. custody (date unknown)

6. Documents relating to CIA's request that the Defense Department hold certain detainees without registering them on prison rolls (Oct.-Nov., 2003)

7. Memorandum from William Howard Taft IV, Department of State, responding to the January 9, 2002 Yoo/Delahunty memo on the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to Taliban and al Qaeda detainees (Jan. 11, 2002)

8. Memorandum from James C. Ho, Attorney-Advisor, OLC, to John Yoo, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, OLC, re: interpretation of Geneva Conventions' Common Article 3 (Feb. 1, 2002)

9. Electronic communication summarizing FBI's concerns about DOD's interrogation methods (May 30, 2003)

10. Cable from CIA agency station in Baghdad to CIA HQ expressing concern about certain interrogation techniques used by DOD (July, 2003)

 



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