WASHINGTON: After banning and then publicizing the most controversial interrogation practices employed by the CIA, President Obama called on the agency Monday to live up to its mission under its new marching orders."We live in dangerous times," Obama said at the CIA headquarters in Virginia. "I am going to need you more than ever."Obama last week released legal memos written by the Bush-era Justice Department that gave the CIA authority to use harsh interrogation tactics on Al Qaeda suspects -- including waterboarding, in which drowning is simulated. The release of the memos has drawn criticism from some current and former intelligence officials and Bush administration officials. However, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. has called waterboarding "torture." Along with other methods, it is forbidden under orders Obama signed in his first week in office. "I have put an end to the interrogation techniques described in those memos," Obama told CIA employees. "I believe that our nation is stronger and more secure when we deploy the full measure of both our power and the power of our values -- including the rule of law."CIA Director Leon E. Panetta drove the same message home: "We can fully protect our nation and our values at the same time," he said Monday.The White House sought to show it is leaving the past behind by announcing that no CIA agents would be prosecuted for interrogations sanctioned under the Bush administration. Obama's advisors also have suggested that the highest-level officials who authorized the practices will be immune.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
Comments