More torture - Compliments of Dick Cheney

It really is time to reign these folks in, the damage that results from it can't possibly be worse than what it's doing to America's image in the world.

By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com

Thursday, October 4, 2007; 1:42 PM How the United States became associated with torture is not just a matter of historical interest. And that's all the more clear today, with the publication of a major New York Times story describing the Bush administration's ongoing circumvention of national and international prohibitions against barbaric interrogation practices. In other words: It continues. ........

...Few other issues speak so clearly to how we see ourselves as a people -- and how others see us. But the White House's non-denial denials, disingenuous euphemisms and oppressive secrecy have repeatedly stifled any genuine discourse. Bush shuts down discussion by declaring that "we don't torture" -- yet he won't even say how he defines the term. Facts are the most crucial and largely missing element in this debate. Today, we have a few more.

There's not a whole lot of doubt about where these polices originated: "Associates at the Justice Department said Mr. Gonzales seldom resisted pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney and David S. Addington, Mr. Cheney's counsel, to endorse policies that they saw as effective in safeguarding Americans, even though the practices brought the condemnation of other governments, human rights groups and Democrats in Congress. Critics say Mr. Gonzales turned his agency into an arm of the Bush White House, undermining the department's independence."

There's also more on this at MSNBC, but they now appear to contain the beginning of what appears to be official denials, and an attempt to block information from the public. Denials, which I don't think would hold up in the case that the Attorney General offered a "secret opinion".

Asked about the story Thursday, Perino confirmed the existence of the Feb. 5, 2005, classified opinion but would not comment on whether it authorized specific practices, such as head-slapping and simulated drowning....

The American Civil Liberties Union called for an independent counsel to investigate the Justice Department’s torture opinions, calling the memos “a cynical attempt to shield interrogators from criminal liability and to perpetuate the administration’s unlawful interrogation practices.”