Friday, April 17, 2009

Torture Memos - Obama's Controversial Decision

I wish I had time to comment in more detail, but for now, here are some links to the news regarding President Obama's decision which involved:
  1. the release of previously classified documents and memos detailing the harsh interrogations (or torture if you see it that way) conducted by the C.I.A. during the Bush years; and
  2. not prosecuting members of the CIA that were carrying out methods which the Bush White House deemed to be legal (but may in fact NOT have been legal).
This decision was a compromise, and a lot of people were unhappy that it didn't go farther in one direction than the other. Check out info in the following articles for details and let me know what you think about this:


Memo Says Prisoner Was Waterboarded 183 Times - NYTimes.com

Pressure Grows to Investigate Interrogations

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe that these actions were completely wrong. I understand that the CIA was concerned that these individuals were terrorists and might have had information about September 11th but there is no reason why such torture was needed. They were completely ignoring the rights of these individuals. I can see using round about approaches to interrogation but there’s no reason to stick someone in a box with bugs for days, or to make them stay awake for days on end just to get information; it’s just not necessary. I think that it’s wrong to have kept these memos locked away for so long. I believe they should launch an investigation into the torturing and try and figure out who was behind all of it. Although they might not get punished for it because of the fact that they work for the CIA so we might never know the real truth.
~A.K. Period 2
Current Event 7

Anonymous said...

I believe that what the CIA did to those individuals was wrong on so many levels. I believe that no one deserves to be tortured to the extent to get information that the U.S may need. I think that what the CIA did was taking away from the constitutional rights of those individuals.
I wonder if the constitution was intended for everyone on the face of this planet. When you think about, do you really think that the constitution was thinking about the other parts of the world as a priority, or was it intended to keep the U.S running clean and steady?

• 5/1/09 3:45
• Extra credit

Mikko said...

I do believe what the CIA has done to interrogate prisoners are wrong. But at the same time I also believe they are only doing this to help their country. I know that beating someone to death just to obtain what they are looking for is wrong. I know that they are taking away the rights of these people and that they should not use their “supreme” powers/rights to do anything they want. But as I said earlier, they are probably only doing this to help their country. But I guess this doesn’t really give them an excuse to beat someone to death. And oh, I think the CIA only started this kind of interrogations after 9/11. But who knows.

Current Event #8

Anonymous said...

I think what the CIA did was not right. What they did in order to get information out of the prisoners was torture. they did not think about the prisoners rights. i think they abused there powers to get information. they did it for a good reason though but it still does not make it right becuase even when you break the law in order to help someone you still get in trouble.
Spencer Truong
Period 5
EXTRA CREDIT