A week or two ago our Pod Pundits were all talking about how there was a Good Bush who put an end to all Dick Cheney's torture programs. I've always suspected that some of that was an echo of the Bush family's efforts to clean up the family's political brand name so that Jeb can run for President some day.
But I know I've heard once or twice as part of that line that torture was somehow ended years ago, even as early as 2004. Sunday's New York Times is reporting that Justice Department lawyers were still engaged in the criminal activity of writing legal opinions to help torturers evade the legal consequences of their torturing (U.S. Lawyers Agreed on the Legality of Brutal Tactic by Scott Shane and David Johnson 06/0609):
Previously undisclosed Justice Department e-mail messages, interviews and newly declassified documents show that some of the lawyers,The torture perpetrators have to prosecuted. This isn't going away.including James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general who argued repeatedly that the United States would regret using harsh methods, went along with a 2005 legal opinion asserting that the techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency were lawful.
That opinion, giving the green light for the C.I.A. to use all 13 methods in interrogating terrorism suspects, including waterboarding and up to 180 hours of sleep deprivation, “was ready to go out and I concurred,”Mr. Comeywrote to a colleague in an April 27, 2005, e-mail message obtained by The New York Times. [strikethroughs mine]
Tags: accountability for torture, torture
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