Al Qaeda exporting jihad with a hip-hop vibe

The latest video from Somalia’s al Qaeda-backed Al-Shabaab wing is as slickly produced as a reality TV show but with a startling message — complete with a hip-hop jihad vibe. “Mortar by mortar, shell by shell, only going to stop when I send them to hell,” the unidentified voice raps on the video, which runs at least 18 minutes.

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Leahy wants to probe ‘chain of command’ on torture

An independent commission is needed to determine who authorized the use of abusive interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists, a leading advocate of such a panel said Sunday. “I want to know who was it who made the decisions that we will violate our own laws; we’ll violate our own treaties; we will even violate our own Constitution,” Sen

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Senate report: Rice, Cheney OK’d CIA use of waterboarding

Top Bush administration officials gave the CIA approval to use waterboarding, a controversial interrogation technique, as early as 2002, a Senate intelligence report shows. On July 17, 2002, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who later became secretary of state, said the CIA could proceed with “alternative interrogation methods,” including waterboarding, when questioning suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. The decision was contingent on the Justice Department’s determining the method’s legality.

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Did Waterboarding Prevent Terrorism Attacks?

In the wake of the release of the CIA torture memos, the Obama Administration already has its hands full with critics on the left who want senior Bush Administration officials prosecuted for the use of harsh interrogation techniques like water boarding. But thanks to former Vice President Dick Cheney, it has to deal with a different line of attack from the right. The growing chorus claims the Administration selectively chose which CIA memos to declassify, deliberately holding back documents that show “the success of the effort…specifically what we gained as a result of this activity,” as Cheney put it in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity Monday.

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Administration to release Bush-era interrogation memos

The Obama administration will release four Bush-era memos on terror interrogations Thursday, according to a senior administration official. The administration also informed CIA officials they will not be prosecuted for past waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics, the official also confirms. The memos, written by a top Justice Department lawyer, provided legal guidance to the entire executive branch, including the intelligence agencies, on permissible “enhanced interrogation techniques” that could be used against suspected terrorists taken into custody.

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