Over at Firedoglake Christy posted this video to accompany a piece she wrote about this story.
The White House on Wednesday defended the use of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, saying it is legal — not torture as critics argue — and has saved American lives. President Bush could authorize waterboarding for future terrorism suspects if certain criteria are met, a spokesman said.A day earlier, the Bush administration acknowledged publicly for the first time that the tactic was used by U.S. government questioners on three terror suspects. Testifying before Congress, CIA Director Michael Hayden said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubayda and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were waterboarded in 2002 and 2003.
Senate Democrats demanded a criminal investigation after Hayden's revelation.
Bush personally authorized Hayden's testimony, White House deputy spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Well it also looks like Bush must have authorized the torture in the first place, how interesting.
Fratto said CIA interrogators could use waterboarding again, but would need the president's approval to do so. That approval would "depend on the circumstances," with one important factor being "belief that an attack might be imminent," Fratto said. Appopriate members of Congress would be notified in such a case, he said.
One can only come to the conclusion that if the CIA needs presidential authorization to use waterboarding in the future it must have needed it when it did it was done in the past. Well now hey, guess what:
Fratto said waterboarding's use in the past was also approved by the attorney general, meaning it was legal and not torture.
Huh? So if the attorney general says it, it's not illegal? I always thought that the attorney general was the highest law enforcement officer in the land. I didn't realize he got to decide what is legal and what isn't.
Officials fear calling waterboarding torture or illegal could expose government employees to criminal or civil charges or even international war crimes charges.
Gee, ya think?
Critics say waterboarding has been outlawed under the U.N.'s Convention Against Torture, which prohibits treatment resulting in long-term physical or mental damage. They also say it should be recognized as banned under the U.S. 2006 Military Commissions Act, which prohibits treatment of terror suspects that is described as "cruel, inhuman and degrading." The act, however, does not explicitly prohibit waterboarding by name.
We have now lived through almost 8 years of neocon Bushism that has changed America fundamentally, at it’s core. There is a whole generation of kids under 12 who have grown up immersed in this ugly, greedy culture that’s been cultivated by the Bushite mindset.
This horrific mindset has got to be changed.
We have got to bring these Bush administration criminals to justice. We have also got to work to rid ourselves of the cancer that the Bushies have left behind for us not only in the Department Of Justice, as exemplified by the U.S. Attorneys and other DoJ staffers and bureaucrats that were installed during the Bush years and survived the U.S. Attorney purge of 2006/2007, but in all of the branches of the Executive and Judicial Branches. I am of the opinion that Justices Roberts and Alito should be impeached for lying to the Senate during their confirmation hearings and I think that is something we should work toward during the coming years.
We need to do this, if for no other reason than to teach the children who have been molded under the Bush regime that this behavior will not be tolerated by moral society.
(Originally posted at Amahchewahwah)