In releasing the memos in response to a public records request from the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups, the Obama administration informed CIA officials they will not be prosecuted for past waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics.Attorney General Eric Holder promised in a separate statement that officials who used the controversial interrogation tactics were in the clear if their actions were consistent with the legal advice from the Justice Department under which they were operating at the time."
My judgment on the content of these memos is a matter of record," President Obama said in a statement released from the White House.
Obama prohibited the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding shortly after taking office in January. Such techniques "undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer," he said Thursday.
The president said that while United States must sometimes "protect information that is classified for purposes of national security," he decided to release the memos because he believes "strongly in transparency and accountability" and "exceptional circumstances surround these memos and require their release."
Obama argued that "withholding these memos would only serve to deny facts that have been in the public domain for some time.""
This could contribute to an inaccurate accounting of the past, and fuel erroneous and inflammatory assumptions about actions taken by the United States," he said.
He added that the officials involved in the questionable interrogations would not be subject to prosecution because the intelligence community must be provided "with the confidence" it needs to do its job. The president pledged to work to ensure the actions described in the memos "never take place again."
ADDENDA.- A més de no perseguir els "sicaris" de Bush a la CIA, Obama ha portat les tècniques de vulneració dels drets civils -control d'e-mails i trucades telefòniques- més enllà de la llei. Ho diu una informació del The New York Times que els nostres mitjans ignoraran. (Via Barcepundit)
The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.
