waterboarding

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Cops Say Utah Couple Waterboarded Girl, 9

Father, stepmother charged with child abuse

(Newser) - A husband and wife in Utah are accused of a form of child abuse so cruel it is widely considered a violation of the Geneva Convention. Police say the Provo couple allegedly waterboarded a 9-year-old girl on at least three occasions, KUTV reports. The girl's father, 29-year-old Joseph Mitchell,...

CIA Nominee Offered to Quit Over Interrogation Background

Gina Haspel's role in agency's past techniques has sparked controversy

(Newser) - Gina Haspel , President Trump's nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, offered to withdraw her nomination amid concerns that a debate over a harsh interrogation program would tarnish her reputation and that of the CIA. That's according to two senior administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity...

First Female Nominee to Lead CIA Has Controversial Resume

Gina Haspel has ties to agency's waterboarding program

(Newser) - With his decision to move CIA chief Mike Pompeo into the post of secretary of state, President Trump made a little history. He also nominated Gina Haspel to replace Pompeo, thus setting her up to be the first woman to run the spy agency. The nomination must be confirmed by...

CIA Told Psychologists They'd Be to Blame for Terrorist Nuke

It was part of pressure on them to continue harsh interrogation techniques

(Newser) - The two psychologists who were handsomely paid by the CIA to devise harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding say they had reservations about using them but were pressured by US security officials to keep going. "They kept telling me every day a nuclear bomb was going to be exploded...

Trump Doubles Down in First Interview as President

Discusses border wall, waterboarding, voter fraud with ABC

(Newser) - President Trump doubled down on just about every controversial claim he has made in recent days during an ABC News interview that aired Wednesday night. In the first one-on-one interview he has given as president, Trump spoke to anchor David Muir about inaugural crowds, the border wall, ObamaCare, and waterboarding,...

CIA Director: I'd Quit Before I'd Ever Order Waterboarding

Even if the president ordered him to, John Brennan says

(Newser) - Donald Trump has expressed his enthusiasm for waterboarding , and CIA Director John Brennan has responded that he would absolutely refuse to carry out orders to do so. But during a Q&A Wednesday at the Brookings Institution, Brennan issued his strongest statement yet, noting he would step down as head...

CIA Chief: I'd Refuse Orders to Waterboard

Even if they come from the president

(Newser) - If Donald Trump wins the presidency, he'll need a new CIA chief. In an interview with NBC News , John Brennan says he would defy presidential orders to waterboard prisoners. "Absolutely," he said. "I would not agree to having any CIA officer carrying out waterboarding again."...

Ex-CIA Chief: US Troops Could Ignore President Trump

Hayden says if he ordered waterboarding once in White House, troops obligated to not obey

(Newser) - If a President Trump ever got serious about bringing back waterboarding or some of his more dire policies, he's got at least one former director of the CIA saying he'd have a hard time doing it, reports Politico . "I would be incredibly concerned if a President Trump...

Woman Gets 78 Years for Waterboarding Kids

Missouri children subjected to 'systematic torture'

(Newser) - A St. Louis woman's brutal mistreatment of her three children went far beyond the legal definition of child abuse to become systematic torture, prosecutors say. Lakechia Schonta Stanley, 34, has been sentenced to 78 years in prison for the abuse, which included whippings with electrical cords, beatings with blunt...

For ISIS Hostages, a Litany of Horror Before Death

Americans, Brits bore brunt of excruciating abuse for months

(Newser) - When James Foley was forced to his knees in the sands outside Raqqa, stared straight into a camera, and met his unimaginably horrifying and public death at the hands of the Islamic State, the world recoiled at the brutality. But Foley's execution—and those that followed—was the culmination...

ISIS Waterboarded Hostages

American James Foley was among them, reports Washington Post

(Newser) - James Foley and at least three other hostages held by the Islamic State were waterboarded multiple times during captivity, reports the Washington Post . The newspaper quotes anonymous sources for the scoop, and says the ISIS militants "appeared to model" the infamous technique —labeled as torture by President Obama—...

Cheney Cracks Joke About Waterboarding

Interrogation technique a punchline for Cheney, Rumsfeld at roast

(Newser) - Hey, did you hear the one about strapping people down and forcing them to inhale water so they feel like they're drowning? Waterboarding was just one of the questionable punchlines at a recent roast of Dick Cheney, according to attendees. Cheney told a joke—which he attributed to Jay...

Brennan's Likely Pick for Top Spy Job Has Torture Ties

CIA's mystery woman highly qualified, tainted

(Newser) - A woman who helped run the CIA's detention and interrogation program after 9/11 and green-lighted the destruction of interrogation videos is in line to become the new chief of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, the Washington Post reports. The woman, who is undercover and thus not named, is...

Brennan: Always Better to Capture, Not Kill, Terrorists

Dianne Feinstein has to clear the room as CIA nominee testifies on drones

(Newser) - John Brennan, President Obama's nominee to run the CIA, went to Capitol Hill today and defended the US drone strategy he helped engineer as Obama's top counterterror adviser. The drone strikes are necessary, he testified, because the US remains "at war" with al-Qaeda and other terrorists bent...

Ex-CIA Man Kiriakou Gets 2.5 Years for Leaks

Judge says she would have given him worse sentence if not for plea deal

(Newser) - Former CIA officer John Kiriakou was sentenced today to more than two years in prison by a federal judge who rejected arguments that he was acting as a whistleblower when he leaked a covert officer's name to a reporter . A plea deal required the judge to impose a sentence...

The CIA's Hypocrisy on Secrets
 The CIA's Hypocrisy on Secrets 
OPINION
Jan 9, 2013 12:43 PM CST

The CIA's Hypocrisy on Secrets

Author Ted Gup says the agency's only secretive when it wants to be

(Newser) - On Thursday, ex-CIA deputy director Jose Rodriguez publicly protested that agents had only used water bottles when waterboarding detainees, not the buckets shown in Zero Dark Thirty. Disclosures like that must chafe John Kiriakou , the ex-agent facing 30 months in prison for passing info to a reporter. "The contrast...

Senators Take Zero Dark Thirty Gripes to Sony CEO

Feinstein, McCain, Levin send letter to Sony CEO

(Newser) - Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow's film about the Osama bin Laden raid, was already quite controversial , and it just got more so. Three senators sent a letter to the chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment yesterday accusing the fictionalized film of being "grossly inaccurate and misleading in...

Claim: CIA Waterboarded Gadhafi's 'Enemies'

And delivered them to him 'on a silver platter': Human Rights Watch

(Newser) - Human Rights Watch has uncovered evidence that waterboarding—and other severe abuse of detainees—was practiced more widely during the Bush administration than has been acknowledged, according to an investigation by the organization. The newly discovered incidents expose close cooperation between Washington and Libya's late dictator Moammar Gadhafi in...

Holder: We Won't Prosecute Harsh Interrogations

Attorney general closes last two cases from Afghan, Pakistan

(Newser) - It's official: The US won't level any criminal charges over harsh interrogation techniques. Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday closed the final two cases involving the deaths of prisoners in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2002 and 2003, the New York Times reports. The move brings a three-year Justice department...

Pediatrician Accused of Waterboarding Daughter

Girl, 11, tells police of alleged abuse

(Newser) - The 11-year-old daughter of a pediatrician in Delaware tells police that her father routinely waterboarded her as a form of punishment, reports the local News Journal . Melvin Morse and his wife, Pauline, face several child abuse and endangerment charges and have temporarily lost custody of the girl and her younger...

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