Skip to article

Politics

April 17, 2009

Explaining and Authorizing Specific Interrogation Techniques

The Justice Department released four memos on Thursday describing interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency. The first, from August 2002, described 10 techniques used in the interrogations of Abu Zubaydah, a terrorist logistics specialist. It concluded that the methods did not constitute torture under United States law. Memos from May 2005 introduced four more techniques and confirmed that the combination of interrogation methods was allowed. Another memo that month claimed United Nations articles did not apply and, even if they did, the interrogation program did not “shock the conscience,” the relevant standard. Full story. View the memos.