When the CIA wanted assurances in the summer of 2002 that their agents would not be prosecuted for using brutal interrogation methods against a so-called high-level detainee in custody the agency turned to Michael Chertoff, the former head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Chertoff, now the director of homeland security, told the agency that an August 2002 legal opinion drafted by John Yoo, then a deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ’s office of legal counsel, and signed by Jay Bybee, Yoo’s boss, would protect CIA interrogators from criminal prosecution if the methods of interrogation they intended to use against prisoners met any legal challenges, specifically, claims that the interrogators violated federal anti-torture statutes.
For an interrogation to meet the definition of torture, Yoo wrote, “the victim must experience intense pain or suffering of the kind that is equivalent to the pain that would be associated with serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in a loss of significant body functions will likely result.”
Chertoff’s guarantee that CIA agents would not be prosecuted for breaking anti-torture laws led directly to the use of waterboarding against alleged al-Qaeda operative Abu-Zubaydah in August 2002, the first time that method of interrogation was used against a prisoner in the so-called war on terror, according to Pentagon and Justice Department documents, previously published news reports, and several books that have been written about the Bush administration’s interrogation methods.
While Yoo, now a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, has been the recent target of widespread criticism for providing the Bush administration with the legal authority to use harsh interrogation methods against prisoners, it has become increasingly clear over the past several months that it was senior White House officials, such as Chertoff, who gave interrogators the green light to actually waterboard prisoners.
"The CIA was seeking to determine the legal limits of interrogation practices for use in cases like that of Abu Zubaydah, the Qaeda lieutenant who was captured in March 2002," says a January 29, 2005, New York Times story click here The report quoted unnamed sources who told the newspaper that "Chertoff was directly involved in these discussions, in effect evaluating the legality of techniques proposed by the CIA by advising the agency whether its employees could go ahead with proposed interrogation methods without fear of prosecution."
In his book "The One Percent Doctrine," author Ron Suskind said President Bush became obsessed with Zubaydah and the information he allegedly had about pending terrorist plots against the United States.
"Bush was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth," Suskind wrote. Bush questioned one CIA briefer, "Do some of these harsh methods really work?"
The waterboarding of Abu-Zubaydah, which Chertoff was queried about, was videotaped. The videotape was destroyed in November 2005 after The Washington Post published a story that first exposed the CIA's use of so-called "black site" prisons overseas to interrogate terror suspects, using methods that were not legal in the United States. John Durham, an assistant attorney general in Connecticut, was appointed special counsel earlier this year to investigate the destruction of that videotape as well as other interrogations that were filmed and later purged.
During his Senate confirmation hearing in February 2005, Chertoff vehemently denied allegations that he provided the CIA with legal guidance on the use of specific interrogation methods. Rather, he said he gave the agency broad guidance in response to questions about interrogation methods. He said he never addressed the legality regarding waterboarding or other techniques.
"You are dealing in an area where there is potential criminality," Chertoff said he told the agency, according to his Senate confirmation testimony. "You better be very careful to make sure that whatever you decide to do falls well within what is required by law."
The CIA officials who pressed Chertoff to provide promises that agency interrogators would not be prosecuted were former CIA General Counsel Scott Muller and his deputy, John Rizzo, according to the Times. Both men are now at the center of the probe involving the destruction of the videotaped interrogations. Rizzo is now the CIA’s general counsel.
According to the Times, however, Chertoff participated in the drafting of a second memo, also published in August 2002, which is still classified, that described specific interrogation methods CIA interrogators could use against detainees. The interrogation techniques used by the CIA were adopted from the Army and Air Force’s Survival, Evasion, Rescue, and Escape (SERE) training program.
Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union released more than 300 pages of documents showing that in 2003 military interrogators used methods they learned during SERE training against eight Afghanistan detainees held at the Gardez Detention Facility in southeastern Afghanistan. The methods used included being forced to kneel outside in wet clothing, being sprayed with a cold water, and being punched and kicked over the course of three weeks.... One of the prisoners, an 18-year-old Afghan militia fighter named Jamal Naseer, later died. The documents released to the ACLU say his body was so severely beaten by his interrogators that it appeared to be a black and green color at the time of his death.
Amrit Singh, an ACLU attorney, said SERE tactics used by interrogators that the DOJ approved using against detainees was not intended to be used by US forces as a defense. US soldiers were subjected to SERE methods during the course of their military training to prepare for the brutal treatment they might face if captured.
President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and other senior administration officials have long maintained that incidents at Gardez or the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib were isolated acts of violence by a few “bad apples” and not the result of any policy or directive that emanated from the White House or Justice Department.
Jason Leopold is editor of the online investigative news magazine The Public Record, http://www.pubrecord.org, and the author of the National Bestseller, "News Junkie," a memoir. Visit www.newsjunkiebook.com for a preview. He is also a two-time winner of the Project Censored award, most recently, in 2007, for an investigative story related to Halliburton's work in Iran. He was recently named the recipient of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation's Thomas Jefferson Award for a series of stories he wrote that exposed how soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been pressured to accept fundamentalist Christianity.
Blowing Smoke - Instead of Broomsticks - Up Lizzie Borden's
All of this is quite interesting. By the way, "Lizzie Borden took an axe and killed her mama with 40 whacks. Just to have a little more fun, she killed her daddy with 41." The point?
None of these stories means a (expletive deleted) thing without indictments. Who could be as bad a person as Bush and Cheney? Accomplice Nancy Pelosi. The problem we have faced for the last 10 years is a lack of respect en masse for the laws of our land and the Constitution by top elected leaders.
Before Bush, I never heard of Chertoff, nor will anyone ever again. If these gangsters don't go to prison, we, the people, are setting a precedent for further heinous behavior.
All these ancillaries are for amusement only. What counts are indictments in the House of Representatives.
by
Dusty Nathan (16 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 40 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 7:41:04 AM
Some of the hardest questions (indictments are hard) make investigative reporting so tough. I think a lot of well-meaning persons in government are more afraid of making mistakes than they are of prosecuting outrageous official conduct. As I commiserate with you reporters, I also beseech you to understand what "fear factor" has done to legislative courage. Who breaks the impasse?
by
Margaret Bassett (17 articles, 733 quicklinks, 16 diaries, 415 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 8:17:29 AM
Fix whatever the problem seems to be with 'immigration', and get the borders attended to. Period. Let there be no misunderstanding in the future, etc. The only reason that the whole stupid waterboard thing could have happened to begin with is because of pressure on the legal system.
I think that the people whose business it is to enforce and uphold the law(s) should also be in the business of learning as much as they can about them, and respecting them, too.
by
truthtruffle (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 90 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 10:34:17 AM
"The Washington Post published a story that first exposed the CIA's use of so-called "black site" prisons overseas to interrogate terror suspects, using methods that were not legal in the United States."
So we exported illegal acts. Our laws, especially as it relates to torture, selective rendition and other dark operations ought to carry stronger punishments if committed by our citizens outside of our own borders.
We are violating International Law, which is supposed to be the supreme law of the land.
And Chertoff, while apparently knowing better, became a "yes" man for the President and wrote the opinion to fit his will. And with our judicial system so corrupted by partisan politics will we ever be able to trust their opinions again?
Seems few within the US have the courage to educate themselves, independently verify and evaluate and then take action by doing the right thing.
And where is the International Community on these outrageous acts? Has the US been condemned? If not, why?
by
August Adams (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 293 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 11:08:31 AM
No matter how you sugar coat, camouflage, or paint lipstick on it, these interrogations are high crimes and misdemeanors. They violate THEIR constitutional oath. I know a took a similar oath once to serve/volunteer for America. I know what my oath said about upholding ALL laws of the land.
I don't care who said he said she said, they said and all this buck passing. The buck stops at the President and he will sing like a birdie, IMO. The total disregard for subpoenas is a crime in itself (e.g., Harriet).
So what are the politicians waiting for? Arrest those criminals. Oh that's right, the politicians don't care either because you see, they like the "passing down" of the new Tyranny. The servitude to the Corporate King pleases them and their pocket book. So who CAN arrest Mister Chertoff(mr. dual citizen of Russia)? Who can arrest the Prez?
They are laughing so hard at all of us. They are spitting on our names as they enter them into the world data bank.
Those walls built to keep the "illegals out", keep us in as well. They are laughing about that I am totally sure. Can you hear them say, " hey, they begged us to build the walls that shut them in! Like a dog in the yard!".
Jokes on us, but I'm not laughing.
As always, Mister Leopold's journalism is top notch reporting. I'm a faithful reader and was on the "TO" as well.
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shirley reese (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 158 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 12:16:06 PM
Chertoff is a dual citizen with Israel, not Russia. But I agree with what you're saying and also welcome Mr. Leopold to Oped.
Another thing worth mentioning were the Palmer-esque raids that were carried out by Chertoff after 9/11, where many people were rounded up, deported or jailed without charge or trial. Also perplexing, the list of domestic terrorist groups posted on the Department of Homeland Security website that were topped by animal activist groups while they completely ignored right wing extremist groups. Why does PETA get a top rating when Aryan Nation didn't even make the list? Although they've burned down a few buildings, PETA never killed anyone and we all know the opposite to be true when it comes to skinheads and the KKK. You would think in this case a person with dual citizenship to Israel would be far more diligent wouldn't you?
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Michael Shaw (6 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 249 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 1:55:57 PM
ms justice is blind as a bat-ter facing sandy k in 1963. we need hercules, or at least perry mason to right the wrongs. who you gonna call/ buszh busters!
get pappy buszh, his aleister crowley looking spouse, laura the car killer, jenna and lil' barbsy all in the same room with the shrub and lets have a counciling session for these huckleberries. could there be a more dis-functional family in all the kingdom? i think they could all be taken to the funny farm and never heard from again. even karl rogue said he has been frightened of alis in wonder-land mammy for 37 years.
uncle dicky and his playmates donny, ashy, condi, and colley can all be admitted as well.
by
Wolfie (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 395 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 6:11:33 PM
I have to say that I believe the comments about Chertoff and Israel are misplaced. One need not be from Israel or hold citizenship there to be an a-hole or just a plain old rotten human being.
If Chertoff held citizenship in France, Germany, etc., he would still be a rotten person and his acts would be equally as deplorable. The fact that he has ties to Israel makes no difference.
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Jason Leopold (89 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 7 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 2:25:49 PM
I was informed wrong by another person on the Chertoff citizenship. His name sure is Russian. Chertoff is guilty of treason and spying as well. Chertoff and Cheney make Satan look good. Heh heh. Actually Israeli ties are worse, IMO.
Will anyone hold these thugs accountable...ever? It's obvious Britain isn't going to do such.
ALmighty Apophus, come our way! The asteroid is traveling 280,000,000 miles per hour. Said to enter our atmosphere in 2012(originally it was 2017). You know where I am hoping it hits, don't you? LOL.
I predict my state(MT) will burn heavy this summer. We had a fire early, just yesterday.....a civil warning and then canceled. I said last summer this would be the year that MT goes up in flames. We burn millions of acres every year due to our drought, but this year...I think will be the killer fire. In the event, we will see what Chertoff(HSec) does to us...keep a watch.
by
shirley reese (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 158 comments)
on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 3:41:30 PM
If my earlier comment seems to be confusing that is because I intended to post it on buzzflash.net in response to a reader's comment about Chertoff being a torturer b/c he was from Israel.
How I ended up posting my response here I am not sure. But that's what I get for reading and commenting before I've had my coffee.
;)
by
Jason Leopold (89 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 7 comments)
on Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 1:18:33 AM
