Top Bush administration lawyers issue the first [PDF] in a series of classified memos providing legal justification for a wartime president to authorize “enhanced interrogation” methods such as waterboarding, stress positions, and extended sleep deprivation. The controversial guidance, which is not revealed publicly until 2004, asserts that such practices do not constitute torture. The administration also claims that al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are not entitled to Geneva Convention protections for prisoners of war. In 2009, the incoming Obama administration, which considers the techniques torture, bans them. In 2014, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence releases its highly critical investigation into the CIA’s interrogation program, finding the techniques to be counterproductive for intelligence gathering.
