Torture Goes Up To the Top

It looks like that the "few rotten apples" involved in the abuse of prisoners in this War OF Terror is correct.  Only they aren't at the bottom of the barrel: 

A Senate investigation has concluded that top Pentagon officials began assembling lists of harsh interrogation techniques in the summer of 2002 for use on detainees at Guantanamo Bay and that those officials later cited memos from field commanders to suggest that the proposals originated far down the chain of command, according to congressional sources briefed on the findings.

The sources said that memos and other evidence obtained during the inquiry show that officials in the office of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld started to research the use of waterboarding, stress positions, sensory deprivation and other practices in July 2002, months before memos from commanders at the detention facility in Cuba requested permission to use those measures on suspected terrorists.

The reported evidence -- some of which is expected to be made public at a Senate hearing today -- also shows that military lawyers raised strong concerns about the legality of the practices as early as November 2002, a month before Rumsfeld approved them. The findings contradict previous accounts by top Bush administration appointees, setting the stage for new clashes between the White House and Congress over the origins of interrogation methods that many lawmakers regard as torture and possibly illegal.

See the Congressmen were concerned about the legality because torture is illegal, and that is exactly what we have been doing.  It hasn't saved American lives, as they will no doubt once again assert as a defense.  In fact it has most likely cost them.

tags: torture  rumsfeld  bush  guantanamo  lies  

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