Friday
Dec122008
The Torture Blame Game: Better Late than Never?
Friday, December 12, 2008 at 15:12
Most newspapers note the report of the Senate Armed Services Committee concluding that top Bush Administration officials, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers, authorised torture in the name of the War of Terror.
Of course, the report doesn't use the T-word, couching its findings:
Senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees.
Nor does the report implicate the originator of the "aggressive techniques", Vice President Dick Cheney, who began seeking authority for such an approach within days of 9-11. Because the report starts its narrative from a Presidential memorandum signed 7 February 2002, it omits the story --- told in articles and books by Jane Mayer, Philippe Sands, and Barton Gellman amongst others --- of how Cheney's office led the attempt to circumvent Congress and the courts to expand Executive power for detention and torture.
The 250-page report is still classified, but a 19-page unclassified executive summary has been released.
Of course, the report doesn't use the T-word, couching its findings:
Senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees.
Nor does the report implicate the originator of the "aggressive techniques", Vice President Dick Cheney, who began seeking authority for such an approach within days of 9-11. Because the report starts its narrative from a Presidential memorandum signed 7 February 2002, it omits the story --- told in articles and books by Jane Mayer, Philippe Sands, and Barton Gellman amongst others --- of how Cheney's office led the attempt to circumvent Congress and the courts to expand Executive power for detention and torture.
The 250-page report is still classified, but a 19-page unclassified executive summary has been released.