"not always straightforward"


"Torture is illegal and abhorrent under any circumstances and we have nothing whatsoever to do with it. ... UK's security service had a duty to ensure any partner service would respect human rights but admitted this was "not always straightforward".

"Yet if we hold back and don't pass that intelligence, out of concern that a suspect terrorist may be badly treated, innocent lives may be lost that we could have saved."

a number of documents released April 16 provide the most detailed glimpse yet of the deliberations inside the C.I.A. surrounding the destroyed tapes, and of the concern among officials at the spy agency that the decision might put the C.I.A. in legal jeopardy.

The documents detailing those deliberations, including two e-mail messages from a C.I.A. official whose name has been excised,.

The e-mail messages also reveal that top White House officials were angry that the C.I.A. had not notified them before the tapes were destroyed. The e-mail messages mention a conversation between Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, and John A. Rizzo, the C.I.A.’s top lawyer, in which Ms. Miers was “livid” about being told after the fact.

“Rizzo is clearly upset, because he was on the hook to notify Harriet Miers of the status of the tapes because it was she who had asked to be advised before any action was taken,” according to one of the e-mail messages.

'Torture Memo' Author Yoo Gets Private Lawyer for Appeal of Detainee Lawsuit



Miguel Estrada will be representing Yoo for the appeal.

Estrada is a Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner and former Bush nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit,

The Justice Department said it will still pay for Yoo's defense, "as is normal practice when the potential exists for disagreement between the government and the defendant over complex legal questions."

Why We Endorsed Warrantless Wiretaps John Yoo

Torture at Thai CIA black site
Tapes had been held inside a safe in the C.I.A. station in Thailand, the country where two Al Qaeda suspects — Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri — were interrogated were destroyed by order of Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., who at the time was the head of the spy agency’s clandestine service.

Waterboarding joke
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), at Jan 31st’s black-tie dinner at Washington’s Alfalfa Club, said, ‘We had hoped Vice President Cheney would be here tonight. I hope it’s not his back injury that’s keeping him away. Apparently, he hurt it moving some things out of his office. Personally, I had no idea that waterboards were so heavy.'
Last year, Lieberman, who has voted against banning waterboarding, “reluctantly acknowledged” that he doesn’t believe that waterboarding is torture. “It is not like putting burning coals on people’s bodies. The person is in no real danger. The impact is psychological,” he said.

Condi chaired torture meetings at White House
The meetings were led by Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, and attended by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft and other top administration officials.