WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond advised the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2008 to let US intelligence services use new methods of so-called "enhanced interrogation" if they were not banned by international law, a letter released by WikiLeaks revealed.
"This approach allows for the possibility that new techniques that are not explicitly authorized by the AFM [Army Field Manual], but nevertheless comply with the law, may be developed in the future," Bond, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence vice chairman at the time, wrote in the letter.
WikiLeaks released the letter on Wednesday as part of the hacked contents of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan's private AOL account.
Bond acknowledged in the letter that clearly defined abuses such as forcing detainees to perform sexual acts, be naked, wear hoods or sacks over their heads, or duct tape over their eyes, should be banned.
However, Bond insisted in the letter that the "interrogation of high-level detainees… has been also one of the most valuable sources of intelligence on protecting America and in disrupting terrorist plots according to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Hayden."
In the letter, Bond requested that US intelligence agencies should not be limited on using new methods of interrogation that may be developed in the future.
Bond, a Republican, retired from the Senate in 2010 after serving for 24 years, and became a partner in the giant US law firm of Thompson Coburn, which has more than 380 attorneys and offices in Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Washington, DC and Southern Illinois.
WikiLeaks said it would soon release additional documents from Brennan’s private e-mail account.
