Word: congressed
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...congressional briefing was used by Bradbury to argue that prolonged sleep deprivation did not "shock the conscience," a legal standard based on the Constitution's Fifth Amendment right to due process. While "not conclusive on the Constitutional question," Bradbury argued that the lack of objections from members of Congress following the classified briefing contributed to providing "a relevant measure of contemporary standards." If Bradbury had concluded that extended sleep deprivation did "shock the conscience," the technique would have been illegal under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which applied constitutional standards to the treatment of CIA detainees...
...newly declassified memo by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel mentions a secret briefing McCain and other members of Congress received sometime before Oct. 17, 2006. The memo says the lawmakers were told about six CIA interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation...
...memo recounts McCain's reaction this way: "[S]everal Members of Congress, including the full memberships of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and Senator McCain, were briefed by General Michael Hayden, Director of the CIA, on the six techniques that we discuss herein," writes Steven G. Bradbury, a deputy assistant attorney general in the July 20, 2007, memo, which cites a CIA summary of the discussions. "In those classified and private conversations, none of the Members expressed the view that the CIA detention and interrogation program should be stopped, or that the techniques at issue were inappropriate." (See TIME...
...former senior intelligence official familiar with Hayden's discussions with Congress also told TIME that Bradbury's characterization of the discussions was incomplete - but in a different way. "Hayden didn't go to the committees seeking approval for the techniques; he was simply seeking guidance," says the official. "There was no singular view from the committees. There were people who wanted us out of the counterterrorism business, and there were people who said, 'Why aren't we still doing waterboarding...
...This is not the first time that a member of Congress has disputed the CIA's account of a briefing. In May, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disputed the CIA claims that she had been briefed in 2002 about the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods including waterboarding. She has maintained that she did not learn about the use of the technique until the following year...