Torture and the C.I.A.

This government does not torture people. So said President George W. Bush on Oct. 5. Many, both in the United States and abroad, do not believe this and remain convinced that the C.I.A. has engaged in interrogation techniques that do indeed amount to torture. The most notorious and highly publicized of these is waterboarding. A detainee suspected of terrorist involvement is placed head tilted on an inclined board with a cloth covering his face. Water is then poured over the fabric, which causes the suspect to feel he is drowning. While this and other methodslike keeping prisoners in stress positions, exposure to extreme temperatures and sleep deprivationdo not leave physical scars, they can result in long-term psychological damage. Moreover, in his Sept. 27 testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Allen Keller, a physician who has treated torture survivors (see Am. 10/22, Current Comment), noted that such techniques rarely occur in isolation, but are more commonly used in combination with other abusive interrogation methods.

As psychologists point out, information obtained under such conditions is often useless, wrenched as it is from a victim desperate to stop the pain. Nevertheless, they have been among the C.I.A.s so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. According to two 2005 classified memos whose existence was reported on Oct. 4, the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel gave a green light to the use of many of these abusive techniques. Congress, with good reason, is now demanding to see the memos. The issue of torture emerged at the confirmation hearings of Michael B. Mukasey, the administrations nominee for the position of attorney general. Asked whether waterboarding was torture, Judge Mukasey gave a disappointingly evasive answer.

International law has long prohibited the use of any form of torture. Even in times of war, treaties such as the Geneva Conventions, the This article appears in November 5 2007.