Link to Justice Department memos on interrogation techniques

The link goes to The New York Times and a hat tip goes to Power Line.

Though it is a bad idea to reveal interrogation techniques, the documents may prove useful in exposing the hysteria of some of the criticisms of Bush administration policy. An example follows.

The linked document offers a description of waterboarding. To no surprise on my part, the description in the memo differs from the ones Judge Evan Wallach used in his oft-cited legal criticism ("Drop by Drop: Forgetting The History of Water Torture in U.S. Courts") of the technique:

One investigator describes water-boarding as a technique "in which a prisoner is stripped, shackled and submerged in water until he begins to lose consciousness." Another current source says that in water-boarding "a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown." The similarity is startling, given the opprobrium occasioned by its application to American military personnel. Furthermore, it is striking because, as discussed at length below, it bears a stark resemblance to conduct by American troops in the Philippine insurgency following the Spanish-American War, just over a hundred years ago.

The similarity, it turns out, is startling because it doesn't exist as described.

Incidentally, the two citations Wallach used for his descriptions of waterboarding both came from stories in The New York Times.

Will we see a correction?