WASHINGTON, 28 June 2004 — The CIA has halted the use of harsh interrogation techniques approved by the White House pending a review by Justice Department and other administration lawyers, the Washington Post reported Sunday, quoting intelligence officials.
The tactics included feigned drowning, refusing to give pain medication for injuries, physical “stress positions,” light and noise bombardment, sleep deprivation, and making captives think they are being interrogated by another government, according to the Post.
“Everything’s on hold,” a former Central Intelligence Agency official aware of the decision told the daily.
“The whole thing has been stopped until we sort out whether we are sure we’re on legal ground.” The decision applies to CIA detention sites around the world where agents are interrogating suspected Al-Qaeda members, but not the military prison at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and others, according to the Post.
The suspension is related to the White House decision, announced Tuesday, to review and rewrite sections of an Aug. 1, 2002, Justice Department opinion on interrogations that said torture might be justified in some cases, the Post reported. On Tuesday the White House said the memo was the work of a small group of lawyers at the Justice Department. According to the Post however, administration officials now confirm the memo was vetted by a larger number of officials, including lawyers at the National Security Council, the White House counsel’s office, and Vice President Cheney’s office.
President George W. Bush said Saturday the United States is committed to upholding the Geneva Conventions, and pledged to prevent cruel and unusual punishment and hold accountable any violators of the policy.
In a written statement marking UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Bush said the American people “were horrified by the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These acts were wrong. They were inconsistent with our policies and our values as a nation.” Speaking yesterday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison “was a big hit” to US diplomacy. Photographs of abuses at the prison began to surface in late April.
Top US officials are “examining this entire matter from the ground up” to see if instructions were not followed “and to see where accountability should lie,” Powell said.
