DOJ Probes Itself Over Torture Memos

The Department of Justice is probing its own legal approval of waterboarding for the CIA, the New York Times reports. DOJ ethics chief H. Marshall Jarrett confirmed today that his office is conducting the first public inquiry of the 5-year-old advice and may issue a non-classified report when it is ready.

In a letter this week to two Democratic senators, Jarrett revealed that he was probing “the circumstances surrounding the drafting” of a 2002 DOJ memo that approved interrogations, as long as they induce less pain than organ failure or death. The report will likely criticize such memos and perhaps rebuke current and ex-DOJ officials who wrote them, experts say. (More waterboarding stories.)