White House Approved Harsh Interrogation Tactics

I haven't posted in a long time, but I needed to write something about this article in the Washington Post. Officials in the White House and in the CIA have confirmed that the Bush administration gave written approval of harsh interrogation techniques, including water-boarding, in not one but TWO separate memos. The first was written in 2003 at George Tenant's request. The second came in 2004, also at Tenant's request, but after his departure from the CIA. In both cases, the CIA made a case to the administration that such techniques were the only way they could get information they needed out of the apprehended Al Queda suspects. Under pressure, the administration agreed to give them "cover" so that the White House couldn't distance itself from the CIA should a backlash against the tactics arise.

As we know, such a backlash did arise, and the administration has repeatedly attempted to distance itself from the harshest tactics used to question the detainees. They continue to down play and hide behind classified information while they continue to deny habeas corpus to the detainees. The revelation of these memos doesn't really tell us anything we didn't know before. However, it does attach certain people--most notably, Condi Rice--to the tactics. Such explicit knowledge should preclude Rice from any public service position for the rest of her life, if it doesn't land her in jail! Any aspirations to become President of the U.S. are now gone. She will forever be linked with this dark chapter in U.S. history.

Rice is not the only one besmirched by our countries willingness to torture. Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, and Gonzales will all be judged harshly by history, and rightfully so. But perhaps the biggest casualty of this whole sick affair, apart from the victims themselves, is to the reputation of the United States. We can no longer hold our standards up as those to be emulated, unless we want our own soldiers tortured, that is. We can no longer claim the moral high ground. All we can do is to try to rebuild our reputation in the coming years and decades. That is George Bush's legacy.