February 5, 2008

CBS:

CIA Director Michael Hayden publicly confirmed Tuesday for the first time the names of three suspected al Qaeda terrorists who were subjected to a particularly harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding, and why.

"We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time," Hayden said during a Senate hearing. "There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al Qaeda and its workings. Those two realities have changed."

Hayden said that Khalid Sheik Mohammed - the purported mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States - and Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were subject to the harsh interrogations in 2002 and 2003. Waterboarding is an interrogation technique that critics call torture. Read on...

Senator Dick Durbin has called on the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation , but in a press conference today, Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto said the U.S. would consider waterboarding again under the right circumstances. And the ACLU has demanded an independent investigation, since the DoJ investigating themselves is a questionable proposition. Contact your representatives in the House and Senate and tell them how you feel about it.

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