Memos Shed Light on CIA Interrogation Practices

~

Newly-released U.S. government memos spell out in extraordinary detail some of the now-outlawed techniques CIA interrogators used on detainees.

The memos of the Bush administration Justice Department were intended to provide legal justification for tougher questioning of suspected terrorists in the days immediately following September 11, 2001.

In four memos dating to 2002 and 2005, attorneys of the Bush administration Justice Department spelled out how far CIA officers could go in handling suspected terrorists.

In language both lawyerly and graphic, the attorneys gave legal justification to slap, strip, and shackle detainees. The interrogators were told they could put them in painful standing positions, deprive them of solid food, keep them awake for extended periods of time, lock them in cold rooms, and submit them to the technique of simulated drowning known as waterboarding.

~