Historian Timothy Naftali wrote: “To protect [al Qaeda operations chief Abu] Zubaydah’s CIA interrogators from future prosecution on U.S. torture laws, the Justice Department issued an ‘interrogation’ opinion on August 1, 2002. The opinion defined torture as narrowly as possible–as acts that caused pain ‘associated with a sufficiently serious physical condition or injury such as […]
Category: quotes
8/1/2002
“Testifying before Congress on August 1, 2002, Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, noted that Tarik Hamdi, an IIIT [Saudi-based charity International Institute for Islamic Thought] employee, had personally provided Osama bin Laden with batteries for his satellite phone, a critical link in the stateless world that bin […]
8/1/2002
In Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee’s August 1, 2002, memo to Acting General Counsel to the CIA John Rizzo, “The OLC [Office of Legal Counsel] concluded that the use of the following ten interrogation techniques by the CIA would not constitute torture: 1) attention grasp, 2) walling, 3) facial hold, 4) facial slap, 5) cramped […]
8/1/2002
On August 1, 2002, in a meeting of top U.S. military commanders, Central Command leader General Tommy Franks said: ” ‘The end state for this operation [in Iraq] is regime change. …Success is defined as regime leadership and power base destroyed; WMD capability destroyed or controlled; territorial integrity intact; ability to threaten neighbors eliminated; an […]
8/1/2002
“On August 1, 2002, in an infamous memo written largely by [Deputy Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), John] Yoo but signed by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, the OLC redefined the crime of torture to make it all but impossible to commit. …If all else failed, Yoo and Bybee advised, the […]
8/1/2002
A Washington Post article on June 8, 2004, mentioned “the existence of the so-called Torture Memo, a secret document drafted for the president [Bush] by his Office of Legal Counsel. Written in August [1] 2002, the memo reassessed the executive’s prerogatives and responsibilities under U.S. law and under the Geneva Convention Against Torture and Other […]
8/1/2002
“On August 1 [2002], the CIA issued a classified paper that was distributed to senior Bush administration officials. It concluded that a shipment of high-strength aluminum tubes from China to Iraq was a sign that Iraq was reviving its uranium enrichment program in order to build an atomic bomb.” – James Risen, State of War, […]
8/1/2002
“[T]he infamous ‘torture memo‘ of August 1, 2002… formed part of the legal basis for what President Bush later confirmed were ‘alternative’ interrogation procedures used at secret locations on Abu Zubaydah, a top al Qaeda operative; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al Qaeda mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks; and other ‘key architects of the September 11th’ […]
8/1/2002
Deputy Chief in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) John Yoo’s ‘torture memo‘ of August 1, 2002, “identified torture with acts that cause the amount of pain ‘associated with a sufficiently serious physical condition or injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of bodily functions.’ Any action that fell short of these extreme […]
8/1/2002
Presidential advisor Karl Rove wrote, regarding President Bush’s fight against terrorism: “Of all the steps the Bush administration took…no issue became as controversial as when the president–unbeknownst to me at the time–authorized the use of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs) on high-value terrorist detainees. These tough, coercive techniques included stress positions, cramped confinement, ‘insult slaps,’ dietary […]