By Diane Sweet in the USA:
Report: ‘Holy Hell’ breaks loose over torture memos
Published: Friday April 3, 2009
The Obama administration’s commitment to promises of transparency in government is being sorely tested by a battle that has erupted over Attorney General Eric Holder’s determination to release classified Bush-era interrogation memos, and intel officials equally as determined to keep those documents right where they are.
Britain: Inquiry into torture allegations announced: here.
Slow steps on closing Guantanamo: here.
THE International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that medical professionals who monitored CIA interrogations at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay violated medical ethics by participating in torture: here.
A recently released confidential Red Cross report on the treatment of 14 “high value” detainees details the CIA’s methods of torture. It also outlines violations of international law committed by Washington in the “war on terror”: here.
The Obama administration and torture: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Apr 16, 3:03 PM EDT
Obama: Memos’ release required by law
By JENNIFER LOVEN
AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the release of legal opinions governing harsh questioning of terrorism suspects is required by the law and should help address “a dark and painful chapter in our history.”
Obama issued a statement accompanying Thursday’s release of four significant memos written by the Bush administration in 2002 and 2005. The president said that the interrogation techniques outlined in the memos “undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer.”
Obama said he believes some national security information must remain classified, but that these graphic memos are different. Obama said withholding them would deny facts already in the public domain and would contribute to an inaccurate accounting of the past.
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Apr 16, 3:01 PM EDT
No charges against CIA officials for waterboarding
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder says the government won’t prosecute CIA officials for using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics on terror suspects.
The decision comes as the Obama administration releases four long-secret legal memos from the Bush administration authorizing a dozen harsh interrogation techniques against high-value terror suspects.
Holder said in a statement Thursday it would be unfair to prosecute CIA employees for following the legal advice given at the time. And he says the government will defend any CIA employee in any court action brought in the U.S. or overseas.
Even before President Barack Obama took office, aides signaled his administration was not likely to bring criminal charges against CIA employees for their roles in the secret, coercive terrorist interrogation program.
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