CIA asked to come clean on ‘grilling methods’

Much attention has focused on an August 2002 opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that torture might be justified in some cases — an opinion the department repudiated last week. But the specific tactics that were authorised for individual interrogations were approved in separate documents drafted about the same time by the CIA and approved by lawyers in the Deputy Attorney General’s office and the department’s criminal division, the senior Justice officials said.

The department has refused to release the documents as they’re classified, but officials said they did not violate US law barring the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering. The rules in question concern the interrogation of senior Al Qaeda leaders such as Abu Zubeida and Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Some of the tactics have been made public in news reports, including sleep deprivation, disorientation etc.

The harshest technique approved for any captive, according to two people familiar with the authorised methods, was intended to elicit information from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, captured in March 2003 in Pakistan. The technique permits interrogators to cover a captive with wet towels, causing discomfort and a drowning sensation. The CIA first asked the Justice Department to approve specific interrogation methods in 2002, after the capture of Zubeida, Al Qaeda’s operations chief, current and former government officials said.

A CIA spokesman said he would not comment on the techniques. Zubeida was shot in the groin during capture, and some US officials have suggested his pain medication was manipulated to elicit information. Much of Zubeida’s information has proved valuable, officials have said.

— LAT-WP