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DOJ releases secret CIA interrogation memos

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday released four top secret memos from the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) outlining controversial CIA interrogation techniques and their legal rationale. The previously undisclosed memos were released with redactions in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) during the Bush administration. The ACLU has also called for an independent investigator to probe allegations of torture during the Bush administration, but President Barack Obama said that, "n releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution." Attorney General Eric Holder said "he President has halted the use of the interrogation techniques described in these opinions, and this administration has made clear from day one that it will not condone torture." Former CIA director Michael Hayden criticized the Obama administration's decision to release the memos, calling it a threat to national security. Last week, US House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) released a final version of a report reiterating his allegations that the Bush administration engaged in numerous abuses during the "war on terror" and calling on Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether any criminal laws were violated. Human rights groups have also called for the prosecution of senior Bush administration officials for their use of enhanced interrogation techniques. Such calls gained traction in late December, when the Senate Armed Services Committee alleged that top Bush officials, including former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, "bore major responsibility" for the abuses committed by US interrogators in military detention centers.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 16, 2009 (boomark / email).