19.12.14 10:46 Age: 10 yrs

Mr. Edward Lehman provides legal insight regarding CIA “Torture Report”

On December 18^th 2014, Mr. Edward Lehman, Managing Partner of Lehman, Lee & Xu, participated in CCTV’s “Dialogue” program discussing legal issues raised by the “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques” or “torture” methods used by the CIA on terrorist suspects. Details of these actions are described in the recently made public official report of the USA Senate Intelligence Committee. Mr. Lehman jointed the panel to speak about the legality of “water-boarding” under International Law as well as under USA law, and addressed the legal memo developed by USA government lawyers at that time arguing that such “water-boarding” should not be considered torture.

 

The discussion included difficult hypotheticals such as the question of whether such methods would be acceptable in a scenario in which hundreds of lives may be saved. The conclusion is that as long as a law is “The Law.” It should be followed with no exceptions. If there is a need for exceptions to The Law, then there is a need to change the law.

 

The full video may be seen at the following link: http://english.cntv.cn/2014/12/18/VIDE1418846878619631.shtml