LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer: Senate and House Democrats demanded Thursday to see two secret memos that reportedly authorize painful interrogation tactics against terror suspects — despite the Bush administration's insistence that it has not violated U.S. anti-torture laws. ...The memos were disclosed in Thursday's editions of The New York Times, which reported that the first 2005 legal opinion authorized the use of head slaps, freezing temperatures and simulated drownings, known as waterboarding, while interrogating terror suspects, and was issued shortly after then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took over the Justice Department.
That secret opinion, which explicitly allowed using the painful methods in combination, came months after a December 2004 opinion in which the Justice Department publicly declared torture "abhorrent" and the administration seemed to back away from claiming authority for such practices.
A second Justice opinion was issued later in 2005, just as Congress was working on an anti-torture bill. That opinion declared that none of the CIA's interrogation practices would violate the rules in the legislation banning "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of detainees, The Times said, citing interviews with unnamed current and former officials. (More)
LSB: Is this White House operating the way we were lead to believe the Soviet Union operated during the Cold War? Torture, media manipulation (propaganda), lying to its public, manipulating an ineffective legislative body, etc. Have our core beliefs and values been subverted in the name of security, thus ensuring less security as we create new enemies around the world? No doubt national security requires strong means of interrogating terror suspects and much secrecy in this area is required, but doesn’t Congressional oversight – with the support of the courts – provide the ‘checks and balances’ needed to ensure that our executive branch is not acting like the ‘rogue nations’ we accuse others of being?
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