Why the Prisoner Interrogation Story Won’t Go Away

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Why the Prisoner Interrogation Story Won’t Go Away
By Madison Powers, CQ Guest Columnist


For anyone who remembers Watergate, the unfolding story of U.S. involvement in torture and other unsavory information-gathering activities — sometimes referred to euphemistically as “enhanced interrogation techniques” — has taken a familiar turn. Once one bit of previously classified, or otherwise publicly unavailable, information comes into public view, a cascade of follow-up stories ensues.

The snowball effect is inevitable and no matter how many people — current and former administration officials, members of congress, and members of the military and various intelligence agencies — have a vested interest in letting this story go away, it just won’t die.

When one new set of details emerges, new questions arise. Who was involved? What was the extent of their involvement? What did they know and what should they have known, given their positions of authority? How far up the governmental ladder did involvement go? And, of course, who along the way tried to make sure that the story would not get out or only some highly misleading part of the story would see the light of day?

The last few weeks have been extraordinary in what we have learned and from so many angles. There is every reason to expect that the surprises will keep on coming. Consider just a small sample.

The first bombshell pertaining to CIA interrogation practices was contained in a report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (IRCR) printed last month in the New York Review of Books.

The previously confidential IRCR report was leaked, and for most of us, it was the most detailed, documented account thus far of the methods of interrogation the CIA had used on “high value detainees” held in the agency’s detention program and ultimately sent to the Guantánamo facility. The report, however, was not news to many in a position to act on the information it contained. It had been sent to the CIA’s general counsel in February 2007.

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