Did Obama 'torture some folks'?


"In the immediate aftermath of 9/11," President Obama said during the process of declassifying the Senate's shocking report on Bush-era CIA torture, "we did some things that were wrong. We did a lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks." Obama was adamant in his condemnation of torture both before and after he took office, and he made ending American use of torture a major campaign promise.
Now, documents obtained by BuzzFeed News suggest Obama himself may have "tortured some folks" during his presidency. The pages, released through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal that during Obama's tenure, U.S. interrogators have used a number of techniques that at least border on torture, according to human rights advocates, if not outright cross the line.
Those tactics include "separation," which is considered solitary confinement under a new name, as well as sleep deprivation and a technique called "Fear Up," in which the interrogator "identifies a preexisting fear or creates a fear within the source" and then suggests that fear will cease if the suspect talks.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
One document obtained also alleged about 300 cases of more serious detainee abuse in Afghanistan by U.S. troops and spies in 2011 and 2012. "Detainees said they were threatened with death, attack dogs, and rape, or their families' lives were threatened," with one detainee claiming "he was beaten and forced to sign a confession he didn't make." The Department of Defense declined to comment to BuzzFeed News about these allegations.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
The Week Unwrapped: Why are we watching the ocean floor?
Podcast Plus, what can we learn from a football club on the brink? And which jobs will fall to AI first?
-
Quiz of The Week: 2 – 8 August
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
The week's best photos
In Pictures A volcano stirs, a deathly flower blooms, and more
-
ICE scraps age limits amid hiring push
Speed Read Anyone 18 or older can now apply to be an ICE agent
-
Trump's global tariffs take effect, with new additions
Speed Read Tariffs on more than 90 US trading partners went into effect, escalating the global trade war
-
House committee subpoenas Epstein files
Speed Read The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for its Jeffrey Epstein files with an Aug. 19 deadline
-
India rejects Trump threat over Russian oil
Speed Read The president said he would raise tariffs on India for buying and selling Russian oil
-
NY's Hochul vows response to Texas gerrymander
Speed Read Gov. Kathy Hochul has promised to play ball with redistricting that favors the Democrats
-
Texas Democrats exit state to block redistricting vote
Speed Read More than 51 legislators fled the state in protest of the GOP's plan to redraw congressional districts
-
Trump criticized for firing BLS chief after jobs report
Speed Read Bureau of Labor Statistics chief Erika McEntarfer oversaw a July jobs report that the president claims was rigged
-
Trump revives K-12 Presidential Fitness Test
Speed Read The Obama administration phased the test out in 2012, replacing it with a program focused on overall health rather than standardized benchmarks