ACLU: Memos Show White House Endorsed CIA Waterboarding

[marmar]

Memos Show White House Endorsed CIA Waterboarding (10/15/2008)


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [phone]; [e-mail]

NEW YORK – The White House issued two secret memos endorsing the CIA's use of waterboarding and other forms of torture on detainees, according to a news report published today in the Washington Post. The memos, which show that senior Bush administration officials expressly endorsed the CIA's abusive practices, should have been turned over in response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking information on the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody overseas.

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project:

"This new report supplies further evidence that the decision to endorse torture was made by the administration's most senior officials. The report also underscores once again how much information is still being withheld by this administration. The government is not permitted to withhold records in order to shield officials from embarrassment or to conceal evidence of illegal activity, but this administration continues to use the classification power to suppress information for precisely those ends."

To date, more than 100,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU's lawsuit. They are available online at: www.aclu.org/torturefoia

Many of these documents are also compiled and analyzed in "Administration of Torture," a book by Jaffer and staff attorney Amrit Singh. More information is available online at: www.aclu.org/administrationoftorture

In addition to Jaffer and Singh, attorneys on the case are Alexa Kolbi-Molinas and Judy Rabinovitz of the national ACLU; Arthur Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the New York Civil Liberties Union; Lawrence S. Lustberg and Jennifer B. Condon of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons P.C.; and Shayana Kadidal and Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

[annabanana]

1. It's back to business, folks.

edited to add: REC THIS UP


This is the kind of thing that tends to get buried under all the "stuff du jour" stuff around here.

"further evidence that the decision to endorse torture was made by the administration's most senior officials"

When we have the White House, the Senate and the House, there will be one opportunity to do the right thing. It must be addressed early, it must be addressed loudly.. and it must be addressed UNTIL IT IS ATTENDED TO.

Anything less than a full engagement of the combined efforts of all branches of the Government to fully investigate and prosecute will ruin our reputation for all time in the eyes of the World. We will not get a "do over" on this one. We are either a moral Country that will work in the best interests of Humankind, as we were structured to do by the Founding Fathers.. or we are NOT.

[FatDave]

6. Couldn't have said it better.

Can I repeat for you?

"Anything less than a full engagement of the combined efforts of all branches of the Government to fully investigate and prosecute will ruin our reputation for all time in the eyes of the World."

:applause:

[magellan]

2. My hope that justice will be done in this matter is all but non-existent

But I'll k&r in any case.

[crickets]

3. "the decision to endorse torture was made by the administration's most senior officials"

As though it we didn't know. Still, it's good to get the proof on paper. Keep digging, ACLU.

Kick.

[marmar]

4. Late afternoon kick.....

:kick:

[annabanana]

5. one more rec guys. . . . . n/t

[annabanana]

7. I will kick this in the evening

I will kick this in the morning

I will kick it right through the 4th of November...