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The New York Times reported yesterday that the Central Intelligence Agency extensively used waterboarding against two al-Qaeda suspects. The technique, which Attorney General Holder has deemed to be torture, was employed 183 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 83 times against Abu Zubaydah according to one of the four Bush-era torture memos that were released by the U.S. Justice Department last Thursday. In a 2002 memo written by then assistant attorney general Jay Bybee, it was stated that the effects of waterboarding “produces the perception of ‘suffocation and incipient panic’, i.e. the perception of drowning.” A footnote from another released memo from 2005 noted that the torture technique was employed with more frequency and with greater volumes of water than even the CIA rules allowed for. The revelations regarding waterboarding are just a few of many to come to light in the wake of the memo release that was prompted by an ACLU lawsuit. Others include forced nudity, approved sleep deprivation for up to 11 days, and slamming detainees into walls. Despite this, the Obama administration has publicly stated that it will not actively pursue legal prosecution against CIA agents or military interrogators, nor against those who devised the memos authorizing such techniques. John Yoo, a leading author of the 2002 memos, will be debating the issue of presidential powers in a time of crisis that the released memos have reinvigorated later this morning at Chapman University where he is now a visiting Professor of Law.

GUEST: Katherine Darmer, Professor of Law at Chapman University.

Katherine Darner and Lawrence Rosenthal will debate John Eastman and John Yoo on Tuesday April 21st at 11:30 am at Chapman University, Memorial Hall. Doors open at 11 am. Tickets are required but are free.