NYT: Aides Say Memo Backed Coercion for Qaeda Cases

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/27/international/middleeast/27MEMO.html?hp

Aides Say Memo Backed Coercion for Qaeda Cases

By DAVID JOHNSTON and JAMES RISEN

Published: June 27, 2004

WASHINGTON, June 26 — An August 2002 memo by the Justice Department that concluded interrogators could use extreme techniques on detainees in the campaign against terror helped provide an after-the-fact legal basis for harsh procedures used by the C.I.A. on high-level leaders of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.

The legal memo was prepared after an internal debate within the government about the methods used to extract information from Abu Zubaydah, one of Osama bin Laden's top aides, after his capture in April 2002, the officials said. The memo provided a basis for coercive techniques used later against other high-ranking detainees, like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the chief architect of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, who was captured in early 2003.

The full text of the memo was made public by the White House on Tuesday without any explanation about why it was written or whether its standards were applied. The memo suggested that the president could authorize a wide array of coercive interrogation methods in the campaign against terrorism without violating international treaties or the federal torture law. It did not specify any particular procedures but suggested there were few limits short of causing the death of a prisoner.

It has been known that the methods used on Mr. Zubaydah and other senior Qaeda operatives stirred controversy in government counterterrorism circles. But until now, it has not been clear that the memo was written in response to the Central Intelligence Agency's efforts to extract information from high-ranking Qaeda suspects, and was unrelated to questions about handling detainees at Guantánamo Bay or in Iraq.

-snip-

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.