The Political Chase

No More Water-Boarding

The CIA has banned water-boarding as an interrogation technique according to the Blotter. “Hayden made the decision at the recommendation of his deputy, Steve Kappes, and received approval from the White House to remove water-boarding from the list of approved interrogation techniques first authorized by a presidential finding in 2002.”

Until it gets leaked to the press otherwise, now that water-boarding has been removed from the Approved Torture List, the official policy is, “the most extreme techniques available…would be what is termed ‘longtime standing,’ which includes exhaustion and sleep deprivation with prisoners forced to stand, handcuffed with their feet shackled to the floor.”

What a relief. We can all sleep better at night now knowing that’s the “official” limit to torturing.

I may be wrong, but there seems to be some disconnects in ABC’s report. For example, the story appears to be a leak based on the sources cited, but allegedly, according to the report, water-boarding was stopped “three to four years ago.” We’ve known about the U.S. using water-boarding for years, and if the technique was stopped three to four years ago, what’s the significance of leaking theoretically old news now?

More later…