If Not for Memo, Torture Might Not Be An Issue

The question of whether members of the U.S. military and intelligence communities should be allowed to use waterboarding and other forms of torture during interrogations might be largely irrelevant today if not for a memo signed by Under Secretary of Defense James R. Clapper Jr. Oct. 29, 2007.

On that day, Clapper issued a memo granting “Operational Approval of the Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System (PCASS)” and designating the polygraph and its cousin, the PCASS, as the “only approved credibility assessment technologies” in the Department of Defense. And that's where the problems begin.

Click here to read the complete copyrighted story, If Not for Memo, Torture Might Not Be An Issue, at Bob McCarty Writes.