Sun Nov 14, 2010 at 11:35:21 AM EST
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| A horror of the George W. Bush era as President was the decision to use harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding and other torture methods, to force information out of terrorism suspects. George Bush still defends waterboarding.
The US Department of Justice has been investigating for almost 3 years the destruction of 92 CIA videotapes in late 2005 that recorded this interrogation. A few days ago, it became public that the DOJ will not file criminal charges in the burning of these records. The tapes are said to have shown interrogations of 2 high-profile detainees, and were said to show waterboarding, a technique that creates the sensation of drowning in the subject. Human rights groups and the Obama administration classify this as torture.
Rush Holt, who chairs the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel and is senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is a long-standing advocate of reform and better accountability in interrogation and intelligence matters. Here is his statement on the apparent end of the investigation into the destruction of CIA detainee interrogation tapes. Rush Holt:
It is unfortunate that this serious episode is allowed to pass without anyone being held accountable for actions detrimental to good intelligence operations and even detrimental to overall national security. Also, the destruction of the tapes was a flagrant affront to Congress.
"One reason the Special Prosecutor apparently was unable to bring charges against those who destroyed interrogation tapes is because there is no explicit legal requirement that the CIA retain such tapes. When the House passed the annual Intelligence Authorization legislation earlier this year, it included my provision to require the CIA to retain interrogation tapings, making their destruction a clear-cut violation of law. This would maximize intelligence derived from interrogations and help prevent detainee abuses such as occurred at Abu Ghraib.
Unfortunately, Senate Republicans blocked the inclusion of the provision in the final version, so it was not included in the bill that President Obama signed into law. This episode is another reminder of why we need a bipartisan commitment to effective and meaningful Congressional oversight of the intelligence community.
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| Rosi Efthim :: Rush Holt on the Destruction of CIA Waterboarding Torture Tapes |
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