That’s one revelation from the New York Times today:
Mr. Chertoff’s division was asked on several occasions by the intelligence agency whether its officers risked prosecution by using particular techniques. The officials said the C.I.A. wanted as much legal protection as it could obtain while the Justice Department sought to avoid giving unconditional approval.
One technique that C.I.A. officers could use under certain circumstances without fear of prosecution was strapping a subject down and making him experience a feeling of drowning. Other practices that would not present legal problems were those that did not involve the infliction of pain, like tricking a subject into believing he was being questioned by a member of a security service from another country.
More interesting to me is a second Bybee memo that names specific interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration:
The officials said that when the agency asked about specific practices, Mr. Bybee responded with a second memorandum, which is still classified. They said it said many coercive practices were permissible if they met the narrow definition in the first memorandum. The officials said Mr. Chertoff was consulted on the second memorandum, but Ms. Healy of the White House said he had no role in it.
So here’s an obvious opening for the Senate. The public has a right to know which specific “interrogation techniques” its own government is using against detainees; and who approved what. The second memo must be released. But one thing we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt: the CIA did nothing without getting explicit legal sanction from its superiors. Anyone who thinks torture has gone on without such sanction has to grapple with the insistence from the CIA that they have cast-iron legal cover. (Since the 2002 memo has now been rescinded, they might end up in legal trouble anyway. You think their superiors will back them up?) We also know that the Bush administration believes that tying someone to a board and repeatedly submerging him in water so he thinks repeatedly that he is about to drown does not constitute illegal torture. Can some reporter specifically ask Bush whether he approves of his own government’s policy? It seems to me that neither Chertoff nor Gonzales should be approved until we know what was in this second memo. And I have a feeling I know why they haven’t released it – and will do all they can to prevent its contents being known.
The Dish 