Switchgear Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 link CIA Boss: Waterboarding May Be Illegal February 7, 2008 - 8:32pm By LARA JAKES JORDAN and PAMELA HESS Associated Press Writers WASHINGTON (AP) - Debate over waterboarding flared Thursday on Capitol Hill, with the CIA director raising doubts about whether it's currently legal and the attorney general refusing to investigate U.S. interrogators who have used the technique on terror detainees. Vice President Dick Cheney, meanwhile, said "it's a good thing" that top al-Qaida leaders who underwent the harsh interrogation tactic in 2002 and 2003 were forced to give up information that helped protect the country. "It's a good thing we had them in custody, and it's a good thing we found out what they knew," Cheney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, President Bush has "made the right decisions for the right reasons," Cheney said. "And would I support those same decisions again today? You're damn right I would." Waterboarding involves strapping a person down and pouring water over his or her cloth-covered face to create the sensation of drowning. It has been traced back hundreds of years, to the Spanish Inquisition, and is condemned by nations around the world. Critics call it a form of torture. This week, for the first time, the Bush administration acknowledged it waterboarded al-Qaida detainees Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. CIA Director Michael Hayden on Thursday said waterboarding was used, in part, because of widespread belief among U.S. intelligence officials that more catastrophic attacks were imminent. In 2006, the CIA banned waterboarding by its personnel in the wake of a Supreme Court decision and new laws on the treatment of U.S. detainees. "It is not included in the current program, and in my own view, the view of my lawyers and the Department of Justice, it is not certain that that technique would be considered to be lawful under current statute," Hayden told the House Intelligence Committee. more on the link I didn't know it already is no longer in use, though the article does say further on that it could be authorized by the President still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedskinsSuperBowl21 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Can someone fill me in on exactly what it is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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