Obama Releases Bush Memos Detailing Torture

A Bush-era memo on interrogation techniques acknowledged that waterboarding represented a “threat of imminent death,” but that the simulated-drowning procedure was not torture because it caused no lasting psychological harm, Reuters reports. The Justice Department memo and three others on interrogations were released to the public today—and simultaneously dismissed by Obama officials as no longer valid.

The memo also approved for use other forms of physical and mental stress to encourage detainees to cooperate with interrogators. Slapping suspects and shoving them into walls did not constitute torture; neither did sleep deprivation, close confinement, or introducing insects into a “confinement box.” The memo was issued by the Justice Department in 2002 to guide interrogators. (More torture stories.)