CIA destroys tapes of harsh questioning

[Nelson Lund]

Janet Alexander wrote:

> . . . .

> Alas, if actions to end the war since the Democrats became a majority 
> are any indication, torturers have little to fear from Democratic 
> control of the political branches.
>
> Janet Alexander

Today's Washington Post 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/08/AR2007120801664.html?hpid=topnews) 
has a long story that begins as follows:

    "In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a
    first look at a unique CIA
    <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Central+Intelligence+Agency?tid=informline>
    program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism
    suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan
    group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
    <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/p000197/>
    (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention
    sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to
    make their prisoners talk.

    "Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was
    waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as
    torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill
    <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Capitol+Hill?tid=informline>.
    But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two
    lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S.
    officials said."

I have no way of knowing whether this, or anything else in the story is 
true, and I don't assume that this list is an appropriate forum for 
debating the issue. But in light of previous discussions, I thought some 
others might be interested.

Nelson Lund
George Mason


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