Torture Memos - The Torture Memos

The Torture Memos

The "torture memos" is a term first used to cover three documents prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel, United States Department of Justice, and signed in August 2002: "Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. sections 2340-2340A" and "Interrogation of al Qaeda" (both drafted by Jay Bybee), and an untitled letter from John Yoo to Alberto Gonzales.

Since these were revealed, other documents related to the use of torture of detainees during the Bush administration have been revealed. These include a December 2, 2002, internal DOD memo signed by Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, authorizing 17 techniques in a "Special Interrogation Plan" to be used against the detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani; a March 13, 2003, legal opinion written by John Yoo of the Office of Legal Counsel, DOJ, and issued to the General Counsel of Defense five days before the U.S. invasion of Iraq started, concluding that federal laws related to use of torture and other abuse did not apply to agents interrogating foreigners overseas; and other DOD internal memos authorizing techniques for specific military interrogations of certain individual detainees.

In 2005, Alberto Gonzales testified before Congress that the CIA sought the 2002 opinion after having captured Abu Zubaydah in 2002, who was then believed to be a significant al-Qaeda figure who could provide important information to U.S. efforts to constrain and prevent terrorism. They were anxious to get as much information from Zubaydah as fast as possible. Questions by CIA officers over which tactics could be used on the detainee had spurred writing the torture memo, which is reflected in the language of the memo; "You have asked for this advice in the course of conducting interrogations of Abu Zubaydah." The memo's author, John Yoo, acknowledged the memo authorized the "enhanced interrogation techniques" used by the CIA in Zubaydah's interrogation. Yoo told an interviewer in 2007, "there was an urgency to decide so that valuable intelligence could be acquired from Abu Zubaydah, before further attacks could occur."