Bush Administration

WASHINGTON - Democratic lawmakers criticized former vice president Dick Cheney on Sunday for allegedly ordering that a CIA counter-terrorism program be kept secret from congressional leaders, with two senators questioning the legality of such secrecy. A top Democrat called for an investigation. Republicans were far more circumspect, but some acknowledged the White House should have briefed Congress. Exactly what the secret intelligence program was remained a mystery, but sources said the CIA had opened an internal inquiry.

America is at a turning point. How we will come to terms with the government abuses unleashed in the aftermath of 9/11 is a historic test of our highest principles. Are we a nation of laws? Will we stand by our commitment to the rule of law over the tyranny of state-sanctioned brutality? Maryland's particularly powerful congressional delegation in Washington can be pivotal as the nation chooses how to proceed. And, of course, members of Congress will more likely rise to the occasion if they hear from the public they represent.

WASHINGTON - - The Obama administration will announce plans Friday to revive the Bush-era military commission system for prosecuting accused terrorists, current and former officials said, reversing a presidential campaign pledge to rely instead on federal courts and the traditional military justice system. Word of the imminent decision infuriated human rights groups, who argued that any trials under the system created by former President George W. Bush would be widely viewed as tainted and said the Obama administration was duplicating the mistakes of former administration.

Time to move ahead with light rail line Any time a worthy project comes along, there will be NIMBYs who oppose it, just as is now the case for the Red Line ("Canton organizing to oppose transit plan," April 26). But much of this opposition is based on ignorance. Some people don't want "trains" on Boston Street. But there is an enormous difference between a light rail vehicle and a 100-car coal train. People are also concerned about noise and vibration on the streets. Well, just stand at the corner of Howard and Lexington streets.

Enhanced interrogation techniques" is the euphemism used by the Bush administration for the treatment of "enemy combatants" (another euphemism) - which included sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and, of course, water-boarding. I don't think it takes a big leap of the imagination to label EITs for what they are: torture. Time will tell if these "techniques" were justified, necessary or successful, but for now let's put an end to the name game. After review by the Justice Department, President Barack Obama has begun to release "secret" memos concerning the legal rationalization for the use of torture - mainly by the CIA - in gaining information.

For days now, President Barack Obama has been insisting that while he condemns the torture of terrorist suspects, he would not allow the prosecution of CIA personnel for acts that were considered legal under the Bush administration. The president clearly was walking a fine line in trying not to alienate an agency whose help he badly needs in defeating terrorism, and responding to demands of supporters for a full accounting of the mistreatment of prisoners documented in Justice Department memos released last week.

WASHINGTON - A U.S. military agency that trains troops to resist and survive torture offered critical help in developing harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA, according to a Senate committee report to be released Wednesday. The military expertise also was used by the Justice Department to develop controversial legal justifications for abusive interrogation methods, according to the report by the Senate Armed Services Committee. Sen. Carl M. Levin, a Michigan Democrat and committee chairman, said the report "connects the dots" to show how the techniques familiar to military experts found their way into controversial memos by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that authorized abusive interrogation practices.

Many Americans have long suspected the Bush administration wasn't being completely truthful about the interrogation techniques used to extract information from terrorist suspects captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Officials conceded some methods were "harsh," but they insisted no detainees were tortured or seriously mistreated. Now a long-suppressed report by the International Committee of the Red Cross has surfaced to give the lie to those denials. The report's contents, presented to U.S. authorities in 2007 but made public only this week, describe in graphic detail officially sanctioned beatings, torture and abuse of prisoners in secret CIA prisons around the world that clearly violated U.S. and international law. The ICRC investigators, who interviewed 14 "high value" detainees at Guantanamo in 2006, cited cases in which prisoners were soaked with water and forced to stand naked in icy cells for days at a time, or confined in coffin-like wooden boxes too small to stand up in. Prisoners were deprived of sleep, food and medical care, punched, slapped or slammed into walls, and subjected to simulated drowning in a technique known as "waterboarding."

WASHINGTON - The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to launch an investigation of the CIA's detention and interrogation programs under President George W. Bush. The panel thus sets the stage for a sweeping examination of some of most secretive and controversial operations in recent agency history. The probe is aimed at uncovering new information on the origins of the programs as well as scrutinizing how they were executed - from the conditions at clandestine CIA prison sites to the interrogation regimens used to break al-Qaida prisoners, according to Senate aides familiar with the inquiry plans.

WASHINGTON -Accused in a 2002 grenade blast that wounded two U.S. soldiers near an Afghan market, Mohammed Jawad was sent as a youth to Guantanamo Bay, where under orders by President Barack Obama, he could one day be among detainees whose fate is finally decided by a U.S. court. But in a potential problem, Pentagon officials note that most of the evidence against Jawad comes from his own admissions. And neither he nor any other Guantanamo detainee was ever told about their rights against self-incrimination under U.S. law. The Miranda warning, a fixture of American jurisprudence and staple of television cop shows, might also be one of a series of constitutional hurdles standing between Obama's order to close the island prison and court trials on the mainland.