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Ashcroft, Rice approved harsh interrogation methods: Senate committee report

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

[JURIST] The US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday released a report by the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicating that former attorney general John Ashcroft and former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in 2002 approved the use of waterboarding and other extreme interrogation techniques used by CIA agents against Gunatnamo Bay detainees. According to the report, Rice approved of the methods as a matter of policy while she was serving as national security adviser, and Ashcroft later approved of the legality of the techniques:On July 17, 2002, according to CIA records, the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) met with the National Security Adviser, who advised that the CIA could proceed with its proposed interrogation of Abu Zubaydah. This advice, which authorized CIA to proceed as a policy matter, was subject to a determination of legality by OLC... On July 24, 2002, according to CIA records, OLC orally advised the CIA that the Attorney General had concluded that certain proposed interrogation techniques were lawful and, on July 26, that the use of waterboarding was lawful. OLC issued two written opinions and a letter memorializing those conclusions on August 1, 2002.In a written opinion on the techniques, the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) wrote that only federal law could prohibit their use and that they did not violate the country's Anti-Torture Statute . Several of the memoranda mentioned in the report were declassified earlier this month, but the report also indicated that there are additional memos that remain secret.The report supports many of the conclusions of a Novemeber Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) report detailing the extent of top Bush administration officials' involvement in implementing the techniques, which was declassified  on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said that he would not rule out the possibility of prosecuting lawyers responsible for authoring the memoranda regarding the techniques. Obama had previously said that he would not pursue prosecutions of CIA interrogators, a pledge which drew sharp international criticism. Earlier this month, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) released a final version of a report calling on current Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to determine whether any criminal laws were violated. In March, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) also called for an investigation into Bush administration policies through the formation of a "truth commission."

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 23, 2009 (boomark / email).