Interrogation Task Force Broadens Scope Beyond Techniques

The task force advising the Obama administration on interrogating terrorism-related detainees is wrapping up its work this week, and although some of its final recommendations remain unfinished, officials familiar with its work indicate that it will focus less on specific interrogation techniques than on recommending interrogators develop their non-abusive strategies More…

Fire Ants on Detainees?

OK, so which is more shocking:

1. Aram Rostam’s report for The Huffington Post that the CIA used fire ants on a detainee’s head to “break him”; or

2. The fact that Rostam ran a report based on a second-hand account of a years-old outburst by a CIA “supervisor” More…

Decision Allowing Yoo Lawsuit to Continue Carries Narrow Implications

Since U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White ruled late Friday in San Francisco that former “enemy combatant” Jose Padilla can proceed with his lawsuit against “torture memo” author John Yoo, the decision has been interpreted by many in the media as a broad vindication of detainees’ rights to sue former Bush More…

Why Didn’t Phil Mudd Get Dick Cheney to Back Down on Torture?

Over the weekend, The Washington Post had this telling account about how Philip Mudd’s nomination to be Homeland Security undersecretary for intelligence unraveled:

Over the Memorial Day recess, Mudd met with senior staff members of the Homeland Security panel whose interest was primarily how he would handle issues of

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McChrystal on Detainee Abuses Under His Former Command

Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal sent a written statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee on detention policy, which is a focal point of criticism for his nomination to head the Afghanistan war. “We must at all times obligation treat detainees humanely … military necessity does not permit us” to More…

What Part of the Law Don’t Dick Cheney and The Wall Street Journal Understand?

In insisting during his speech yesterday that President Obama and the CIA declassify the memos that he claims will show the effectiveness of the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” former vice president and anointed Republican spokesman Dick Cheney neglects to mention one critical fact: torture is illegal, even if it More…

Ron Paul: Pelosi Commission Vote a ‘Partisan Stunt’

Yesterday’s Republican attempt to — well, technically to resolve to investigate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), but more realistically to keep the “CIA scandal” going a few more days — drew “nay” votes from Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.). Paul’s spokeswoman Rachel Mills talked to More…

More Cheney Truth-Squaddery

McClatchy does a good job outlining the “omissions, exaggerations and misstatements” in former Vice President Dick Cheney’s speech at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday. (That’s via Attaturk.) For real granular detail, check out Dan Froomkin’s take at Neiman Watchdog. In particular, Froomkin takes on Cheney’s debunked More…

One ‘Recidivist’ Ex-GTMO Detainee Tortured Into Confessing He ‘Returned’ To Terrorism

So claims Human Rights Watch in a press release.

The former detainee, Rasul Kudaev, has been held for more than three years in pretrial detention in Nalchik, a city in southern Russia, where he is accused of participating in an October 2005 armed uprising against the local government. Human Rights

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Graham, Goss and Torture Timelines

Bob Graham (D-Fla.), the former chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, expands on his account of what the CIA told him about “enhanced interrogation” techniques on Sept. 27, 2002 to Marcy Wheeler. Porter Goss, the former chairman of the House intelligence committee and CIA director, declined to do the More…