- WASHINGTON -- Amid growing
domestic and international outcry over America's treatment of foreign prisoners,
the CIA has suspended its use of coercive interrogation techniques.
-
- Officials said they were suspending the use of the techniques
- which had White House approval - pending a review of their legality.
-
- While CIA interrogations will continue, operatives will
not be able to use "stress positions," light and noise bombardment
or sleep deprivation.
-
- The suspension is the latest fall-out of the scandal
at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad where an army investigation was launched
into the abuse, torture and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by American
troops.
-
- It is also related to a decision by the White House last
Tuesday to review an August 2002 legal memo which essentially suggested
that torture was legal if authorised by the president.
-
- The New York Times reported yesterday that the memo had
been written to provide an after-the-event legal basis for the harsh interrogation
techniques used to obtain information from suspected high-level al-Qa'ida
operatives.
-
- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
-
- http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=535743
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