Obama intel nominee involved in 'torture'

Barack Obama's pick for a top intelligence post at the Homeland Security Department has ties to the CIA's 'torture' program, says a congressional aide. The aide who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed the case, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. President Obama nominated Philip Mudd to be under secretary of intelligence and analysis at Homeland Security. His confirmation hearing is expected next week. Mudd was deputy director of the Office of Terrorism Analysis at the CIA during the administration of former president George W. Bush. He had knowledge of the agency's 'torturous' interrogation methods. The Senate will have to decide if indirect involvement or knowledge of the agency's interrogations, which included a method of simulated drowning called "waterboarding," is enough to disqualify a candidate. The congressional aide said that Mudd is likely to be questioned on whether the analysis branch pressured interrogators in the field to use harsher methods because they believed detainees were not telling the truth. In April, Obama released classified CIA memos that showed Bush administration lawyers authorized the use of techniques against enemy combatants. Later, Obama, who called them torture, banned the use of the techniques.