White House Directly Approved Torture in Newly Disclosed Memos

Previously classified memos from the White House confirm that torture was directly approved at the highest level of the government. The Administration has previously suggested that it rescinded the infamous torture memo signed by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and treated that memorandum as an aberrant mistake. However, it is now confirmed that the White House approved a known form of torture to be used on detainees.

Ironically, the new memos are more of an embarrassment for Democratic leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi who continue to insist that there was no evidence supporting even in investigation into President Bush’s commission of criminal acts.

The pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 explicitly endorses the agency’s use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding. Notably, the memos were demanded by the CIA, which clearly feared a criminal prosecution for committing an act previously found to be a war crime.

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