This is my 2nd or 3rd assigned blog of the year, I would say. The topic is the alleged torture being inflicted overseas during the Bush Administration's run in office. The Bush Administration had said to the CIA that the interrogators that work abroad do not violate the United States prohibitions unless their intentions are to "inflict severe pain or suffering." This was one of three memos sent out that day which later were released to the public due to the Freedom of Information Act. The other two memos sent that day were: 1) President Bush personally believed that the waterboard method, or restraining a captive on their back, putting a cloth over their face, and pouring water on their head for a "drowning" effect, did not violate the Torture Statute. And 2) Required interrogators to keep a record of sessions in which the "enhanced interrogative tactics" were being used.
In 2003, according to the Justice Department analyses, the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved 24 different classified interrogation techiniques for use on detainees in the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. In 2006, an Iraqi Air Force general who surrendered to the US forces, Abed Hamed Mowhoush, was tortured to death by Chief Warrant Officer Lewis E. Welshofer Jr. of the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment. Welshofer was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to 60 days of barack confinement and a fine of $6,000. And, by obligation, I am being asked to add my personal opinion on the topic. To that, I answer, I don't think anyone should be tortured unless they know something that has the potential of harming others.
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