Getting your player ready...
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A former State Department lawyer responsible for Guantanamo-related cases said Friday that the Bush administration overreacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and set up a system in which torture occurred.
Vijay Padmanabhan is at least the second former Bush administration official to publicly label “enhanced interrogation techniques” as torture. He said the administration was wrong in its entire approach when it sent detainees to the remote Navy base and declared it out of reach of any court.
The criticisms from Padmanabhan, the department’s chief counsel on Guantanamo litigation, are among the harshest yet made by a former Bush administration insider.
