Three Bush Torture Memos To Be Declassified

Michael Isikoff in Newsweek is reporting that the White House is moving toward declassifying three memos that will, for the first time, detail enhanced interrogation techniques used on “high value” al Qaeda suspects.

The memos, written by Justice Department lawyers in May 2005, provide the legal rationale for waterboarding, head slapping and other rough tactics used by the CIA. One senior Obama official, who like others interviewed for this story requested anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity, said the memos were “ugly” and could embarrass the CIA. Other officials predicted they would fuel demands for a “truth commission” on torture.

The ACLU is asking for release of the memos via the Freedom of Information Act.  Last week The New York Review of Books highlighted a secret International Red Cross report delivered to the CIA in February that detailed how detainees were locked in coffin-like boxes, swung by towels around their necks into plywood walls, and forced to stand naked for days with arms shackled above their heads.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.