Torture memos

Originally Posted by Undertoad

I also choose to believe the Bush administration frequently exaggerated the terrorist threat level for political purposes including to justify torture.

But that's something you don't actually know about until more information is released, so choosing to believe that is irrational partisanship.

We know from the memos that the CIA Inspector General found there was no conclusive proof that harsh interrogation techniques (torture) helped prevent any "specific imminent attacks"...despite numerous assertions by Bush/Cheney/Rice that torture led directly to preventing such attacks. (political?)

The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to recently declassified Justice Department memos.

That undercuts assertions by former vice president Dick Cheney and other former Bush administration officials that the use of harsh interrogation tactics including waterboarding, which is widely considered torture, was justified because it headed off terrorist attacks.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66895.html

We also know that the CIA director later ordered an investigation of the CIA IG - a highly unusual and unprecedented action. (political?)

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, has ordered an unusual internal inquiry into the work of the agency’s inspector general, whose aggressive investigations of the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation programs and other matters have created resentment among agency operatives....

...Any move by the agency’s director to examine the work of the inspector general would be unusual, if not unprecedented, and would threaten to undermine the independence of the office, some current and former officials say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/wa...ntel.html?_r=1

We know from the bipartisan Senate Armed Services Report that Cheney/Rumsfeld pressured interrogators to use torture to find a (non-existent) connection between al Qaida and Saddam Hussein. (political?)

The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66622.html

We know that Bush's DoJ Office of Professional Responsibility has issued a report (to be made public in the next few weeks) that reportedly says the DoJ attorneys who wrote the torture memos may have deliberately slanted their legal advice to provide the White House with the conclusions it wanted. (political?)

A Torture Report Could Spell Big Trouble For Bush Lawyers

IMO, yes...without knowing all the facts, all of the above stink of politicization to justify the use torture.

Which is why we need some type of hearings to get to the truth and to prevent such practices in the future.