’)Your government, gone rogue.
Legal documents filed in federal court in New York today reveal that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issued three secret memos in May 2005 related to the use of torture to interrogate detainees in CIA custody.
Until now, the public knew about two memos disclosing excessive interrogation methods. The memos were not publicly released but referred to in government filings as part of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking records under the Freedom of Information Act.
“These torture memos should never have been written, and it is utterly unacceptable that the administration continues to suppress them while at the same time declaring publicly that it abhors torture,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU’s national security project.
Bush administration officials worked in concert “to evade and violate the laws that prohibit cruelty and torture,” Jaffer said. “Some degree of accountability is long overdue.”
