DOJ Letter Gives CIA Some Latitude in Interrogations

Terrorism

DOJ Letter Gives CIA Some Latitude in Interrogations

Posted Apr 28, 2008, 05:07 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A Justice Department letter sent to Congress last month suggests the Central Intelligence Agency may use interrogation methods possibly barred by the Geneva Conventions to prevent a terrorist attack.

An executive order issued by President Bush last July said the CIA would comply with international law in conducting its interrogations. The letter shows the administration is reserving the right to determine on a case-by-case basis whether interrogation methods amount to prohibited “outrages upon personal dignity,” the New York Times reports.

“The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act,” said deputy assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski in the March 5 letter.

Sen. Rod Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Intelligence Committee, told the Times he feared the administration’s new rules put Geneva Convention restrictions on a “sliding scale.”

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