The release of Bush administration memos has re-ignited the controversy.

The documents you see here are marked "top secret," but they were shown to the public last month. They are memos written by government officials under the previous president, George W. Bush. The memos have to do with the treatment of prisoners captured in foreign countries who are suspected of being involved with terrorist activities. As you can see, some parts of the memos are blacked out, and remain top secret. Why do you think this is so? These memos were released by President Obama, who was under a lot of pressure to release them. That pressure came from groups that want to find out if government officials broke the law by allowing harsh treatment or even torture of foreign prisoners. One such group, the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, filed a lawsuit demanding the release of the memos. The ACLU claimed that the American people have the right to know whether or not their government is allowing the torture of its prisoners. The lawsuit was successful, and President Obama released the memos. Do you think this was the right thing to do?

The memos were written by lawyers for the Bush administration. They were written for the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA was responsible for questioning foreign prisoners for information about possible future terrorist attacks. The memos said that the CIA could use harsh methods to question these prisoners, including something called "waterboarding." Waterboarding involves the prisoner being strapped onto a board face-up, and pouring water over the prisoner's face so he can't breathe. The memos said that waterboarding did not cause enough pain to be considered torture. Do you agree or disagree? President Obama says that the use of waterboarding and other harsh methods for questioning prisoners was wrong, and that by doing so, the United States "lost its moral bearings." What do you think he meant? Do you agree?