Latest in Interrogation: Criminal
In the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery, Western European security forces unleashed a dizzying storm of arrests and prosecutions and announced "exceptional" new measures to combat terrorism.
An interesting development in the ongoing debate regarding the optimal disposition for captured al Qaeda members: The Justice Department has just announced that two al Qaeda members (both citizens of Yemen) were captured in Saudi Arabia (and have now been "lawfully expelled" to the United States to face a civilian criminal trial in the Eastern District of New York. The criminal complaint alleges that Saddiq Al-Abbadi and Ali Alvi both participated in attacks on U.S.
On December 30, the outgoing Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Dianne Feinstein, sent a letter to the White House.
The document---which was released earlier today---overviews a number of proposed reforms to U.S.
I have now spent enough quality time with the SSCI interrogation report---and with minority views and the CIA response---that I am ready to begin commenting upon it. This is not to say I have finished reading it all; far from it. A plane flight to Israel and a lot of other hours have only gotten me started.
Here is the fifth and final installment in our running, side-by-side comparison of the twenty findings and conclusions of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Study on the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program---along with responses by the Committee Minority and the CIA.
Summaries of Study findings seventeen through twenty can be found below.
James Connell III, lawyer for 9/11 accused Ammar al-Baluchi, had this to say today:
"The CIA and its defenders are using Mr. al Baluchi as a scapegoat for its illegal and reprehensible use of torture," said James Connell, civilian attorney for Mr. al Baluchi. "The United States spent incredible amounts of money, energy, and American credibility, and now the CIA is pointing at Mr.
At approximately 1:40 p.m., John Brennan, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will make a statement on the SSCI's detention and interrogation study.
Below you will find the third in our running comparison of broad areas of agreement and disagreement as between the Executive Summary to the Senate Intelligence Committee's Study on the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program, the report by the Committee's Minority, and the response by the CIA itself.
We only have a C-Span link thus far, but will embed video, and post a transcript, when and if one or the other becomes available.
The outgoing Democrat and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee is addressing the Committee's Study, released yesterday; and, among other things, the search of Committee staffers' computers by the CIA.
[Update: the Senator has concluded his remarks.]