Psyche, Science, and Society

Report: DHS Secretary Chertoff gave ok to torture

December 21st, 2007

Jason Leopold at Truthout is reporting that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff (best know for his role in allowing hundreds of New Orleanians to die) advised the CIA that it was legal to use torture techniques on Abu Zubaydah:

Chertoff, according to intelligence sources who spoke to Truthout, was briefed about the videotaped interrogations. Chertoff told former CIA General Counsel Scott Muller and his deputy, John Rizzo, that an August 1, 2002, memo widely referred to as the “Torture Memo” put the CIA on solid legal ground and that its agents could waterboard a prisoner without fear of prosecution. The memo was written by former Justice Department attorney John Yoo.

Leopold also has a source who states that CIA acting General Counsel Rizzo authorized the destruction of videotapes of this interrogation, contrary to the New York Times’ account:

An intelligence official told Truthout that the CIA’s Muller and Rizzo feared that the Justice Department’s issuance of a new legal opinion defining torture in broader terms than Yoo’s August 2002 memo would expose its agents - specifically those who interrogated Abu Zubaydah - to prosecution and so Rizzo had approved the destruction of the videotapes. That reported approval followed publication of The Washington Post story exposing the CIA’s secret prisons, and the new legal opinion defining torture. Last week, The Times reported, however, that Rizzo did not give a top spy in the agency’s clandestine division final approval to destroy the videotapes. Whether Rizzo did or did not approve destruction of the videotapes is one of the questions Congress said it was determined to get answers to.

Read the whole article here.

Entry Filed under: Bush administration, CIA, International Law, Interrogation, Law, Torture, War Crimes