Torture Memo Author Says CIA Went Too Far

Bybee says agency exceeded guidelines
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 16, 2010 8:12 AM CDT
Torture Memo Author Says CIA Went Too Far
In this 2002 file photo, Jay Bybee testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

The Bush administration lawyer who gave legal cover to the CIA to use waterboarding and other brutal tactics is throwing the agency under the bus. Jay Bybee, who co-wrote the so-called torture memos, told a House panel that the CIA went way beyond what the Justice Department sanctioned, reports the Los Angeles Times. For example, he said the memos stipulated that waterboarding should not be used in "substantial repetitions," but CIA contractors subjected one detainee to it 183 times.

The Times runs down a slew of other techniques used that Bybee called unauthorized, including "diapering a detainee, forcing a detainee to defecate on himself," and "hanging a detainee from ceiling hooks." The CIA's inspector general has previously said that contractors sometimes went beyond legal guidelines, but this is the first time one of the authors of those guidelines (the other is John Yoo) has confirmed.
(More Jay Bybee stories.)

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