The top Obama administration officials have released a memo that describes CIA interrogators using waterboarding (near-drowning) techniques, which as been described as illegal tortue, approximately 266 times on 2 Al-Qaida prisoners. The memo included information such as officers using this technqieu at least 83 times in August 2002. John Kiriakou, who is a former CIA officer, had said that this technique was used on Abu Zubaydah for 35 seconds, before agreeing to tell all the information was used. Information such as 183 incidents in March 2003 against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is described as the planner of the 9/11 attacks. CIA officials were then fearing that they were trespassing on legal limits, and therefore stopped his interrogations.
President Barack Obama planned to visit CIA headquarters today and make public remarks to employees, as well as meet privately with officials, an agency spokesperson said last night. It would be his first visit to the agency, whose use of harsh interrogation methods he often condemned during the presidential campaign and whose secret prisons he ordered closed on the second full day of his presidency.
Reports have said that Barack Obama had ordered the release of the memos that describe these incidents. He has also said that persecution of the CIA officers will not be followed through, and that reform of the Bush administration interrogration and warrantless eavesdropping, counterterrorism programs should be examined. The 2005 Justice Department memo included reports that the waterboarding techniques exceeding the limits of its use including the volume allowed.
Michael V. Hayden, director of the CIA for the last two years of the Bush administration, would not comment when asked on the program Fox News Sunday if Mohammed had been waterboarded 183 times. He said he believed that that information was still classified.
Opinion: In my opinion, this should open many eyes to the way the United States has dealed with terrorism in regards to ethical standards.
Monday, April 20, 2009
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I feel relieved that President Obama is looking into this problem seriously. No one knew what was going behind under the name of CIA. Interrogation is needed for America to ensure its safety after what happened on 9/11, but its specific method must take into account the suspects' rights as human beings. I hope that after President Obama is done dealing with this problem, the CIA stops to use these kinds of rash methods.
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