Word: harsh
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Even before the Aug. 24 release of the 2004 CIA inspector general's report revealed the full extent of harsh methods used on terror detainees, much of the furor over the agency's enhanced interrogation techniques has been over questions of morality, legality and politics. But there's also a cold, practical question: Did harsh methods like waterboarding cause terrorist suspects to give up valuable, actionable information? (Read "Five Questions for the CIA IG's Interrogation Report...
...Defenders of the harsh interrogation - notably Cheney - claim it yielded a rich vein of information, possibly including details of imminent attacks on the U.S. homeland. But tantalizing references to the IG's findings contained in the now infamous "torture memos" by the Bush Administration Office of Legal Counsel suggest that interrogators didn't get much actionable information out of the detainees. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said last week that the truth lies somewhere in between: that the program achieved "modest success" - providing the agency with useful information about al-Qaeda organization and leadership, but not necessarily information about attacks...
...memos from 2002 to 2005 provided the legal underpinning for the harsh techniques, and we already know that many of these were in fact used - waterboarding was used on one detainee 183 times, and on another 83 times. But the IG report should supply more granular detail on the use and frequency of the techniques...
...Supporters of the harsh interrogations say they were conducted in a highly controlled environment: doctors were on hand to monitor the health of detainees, strict limitations were placed on the extent and frequency with which the techniques were applied. But waterboarding a detainee 183 times - not to mention the use of power drills - suggests things got out of hand. The IG report should tell us if the interrogators went rogue. (Read how waterboarding got out of control...
...first OLC memo to authorize the use of harsh methods was dated Aug. 1, 2002, but there have been some suggestions that interrogators were employing coercive techniques well before then. An FBI interrogator who was involved in interrogations until May that year has testified to Congress that some methods being used then were "borderline torture." (In protest, the FBI withdrew from participating in the interrogations before the first memo was written.) If the IG report confirms that, it may be impossible for Obama to hold off Holder's planned investigation...