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<h1><b>Previously secret torture memo
released</b></h1><font size=3><b>WASHINGTON (CNN)</b> -- The Bush
administration told the CIA in 2002 that its interrogators working abroad
would not violate U.S. prohibitions against torture unless they
"have the specific intent to inflict severe pain or suffering,"
according to a previously secret Justice Department memo released
Thursday.<br><br>
The interrogator's "good faith" and "honest belief"
that the interrogation will not cause such suffering protects the
interrogator, the memo adds.<br><br>
"Because specific intent is an element of the offense, the absence
of specific intent negates the charge of torture," Jay Bybee, then
the assistant attorney general, wrote in the memo.<br><br>
The 18-page memo is heavily redacted, with 10 of its 18 pages completely
blacked out and only a few paragraphs legible on the others.<br><br>
Another memo released Thursday advises that "the waterboard,"
or simulated drowning, does "not violate the Torture
Statute."<br><br>
It also cites a number of warnings against torture, including statements
by President Bush and a then-new Supreme Court ruling "which raises
possible concerns about future U.S. judicial review of the
[interrogation] Program."<br><br>
A third memo instructs interrogators to keep records of sessions in which
"enhanced interrogation techniques" are used. The memo is
signed by then-CIA director George Tenet and dated January 28,
2003.<br><br>
The memos were made public by the American Civil Liberties Union, which
obtained the three CIA-related documents under Freedom of Information Act
requests.<br><br>
"These documents supply further evidence, if any were needed, that
the Justice Department authorized the CIA to torture prisoners in its
custody," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security
Project.<br><br>
The Bush administration has consistently denied that the United States
tortures detainees.<br><br>
Reports say the CIA waterboarded three "high-value detainees,"
including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, although former Justice Department
official Daniel Levin suggested in congressional testimony in June that
there had been more than three instances of the practice, which critics
call torture.<br><br>
The third document released Thursday was blacked out except for a line
saying "Unless otherwise approved by Headquarters, CIA officers
(redacted) may use only Permissible Interrogation Techniques. Permissible
Interrogation Techniques consist of both (a) Standard Techniques and (b)
Enhanced Techniques," plus the instruction for interrogators to keep
records of sessions in which enhanced interrogation techniques are
used.<br>
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Find this article at: <br>
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/24/cia.torture/index.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/24/cia.torture/index.html</a>
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