President Obama Repudiates The Torture Memos
Two days after taking office on January 20, President Barack Obama by Executive Order, released January 22, 2009, rescinded all the previous OLC guidance about "detention or the interrogation of detained individuals" and directed that no government agency may rely on any of OLC opinions on that topic between 2001 and 2009. He had declared shortly before taking office "under my administration the United States does not torture."
In April 2009, President Obama released redacted versions of the Torture Memos. Shortly afterward, he said that his administration would prosecute neither the authors of the memos nor those CIA or DOD personnel or contractors who carried out the acts described in them in the belief they were legal.
But in August 2009, the Justice Department announced that those who had exceeded approved "techniques" might face prosecution. The investigation by DOJ of such actions continued into 2010.
Read more about this topic: Torture Memos
Famous quotes containing the words president and/or torture:
“What are men celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from somebody. God is only the president of the day, and Webster is his orator.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“One line typed twenty years ago
can be blazed on a wall in spraypaint
to glorify art as detachment
or torture of those we
did not love but also
did not want to kill.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)