[Sosfbay-discuss] Torture Memos Released

[Brian Good]

The CIA wanted to hold them back, but they're being released 
unredacted except to hide the identities of the interrogators.  

Apparently they include an 8-1-02 memo authored by John Yoo 
and
signed by Jay Bybee, and some 2005 memos by Steven G. 
Bradbury.   According
to the Wall Street Journal, one of these 
memos said "a prisoner's head could be struck against a wall
as 
long as the head was being held and the force of the blow was

controlled by the interrogator."

MSNBC reports the story under a headline that seems to exonerate 
the CIA: "CIA employees won't be tried for waterboarding;  Holder 
gives first definitive assurance officials are legally in the clear".  

Obama's statement reserves all rights
with respect to retaining the
classified nature of secret
activities, and seems to suggest that he 
will leave any prosecutions
to the Spanish court.  "[N]othing
will be 
gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the
past."  

Bybee is now a Judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 
reportedly posted to
Las Vegas.  According to Sourcewatch, Bradbury 
got
an English degree in 1980 from Stanford, where he had been a 
resident
at Synergy House.

Editorial comment:  While Obama's statement claim that  "these
methods 
of interrogation are already a thing of the past"
may technically true, it 
fails to acknowledge that only prosecution and punishment can
prevent 
them from being a thing of the future as well.  


http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB123975168816518691-lMyQjAxMDI5MzE5NDcxNTQxWj.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30249847
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/04/obama_explains_memo_release_decision.php
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Steven_G._Bradbury




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