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• Tuesday, April 21, 2009 07:32 PM

  OT: torture, again

  Banned Techniques Yielded ‘High Value Information,’ Memo Says
  
  President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.
  
  “High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.
  
  Admiral Blair sent his memo on the same day the administration publicly released secret Bush administration legal memos authorizing the use of interrogation methods that the Obama White House has deemed to be illegal torture....
  
  Admiral Blair’s assessment that the interrogation methods did produce important information was deleted from a condensed version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001....
  
  Admiral Blair’s private memo was provided by a critic of Mr. Obama’s policy.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/politics/22blair.html

  They won't stop as long as torture is off the table. We know what will happen in the future if no one is held accountable now.

  —EJ Read EJ's other letters
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