Monday

The New York Times published a very troubling piece this morning. It was the result of weeks of interviews with about a dozen former high ranking officials in the Bush Administration. I am told by a neutral and reliable source that the history reflected in the piece actually did occur. Thus, we now know that in 2002 President authorized the CIA to use its now-infamous ten techniques for extracting information from reluctant detainees. We also know that he withdrew that authorization sometime in 2005, out of a concern that the techniques were fruitless or illegal or both. Today, the Times quotes unnamed Bush Administration officials stating that President re-authorized nine of the ten techniques of torture in 2007. If the timeline in this piece is correct, then President Bush authorized the use of torture (a) after the Supreme Court ruled that the Geneva Conventions apply to all foreign persons detained anywhere by the US and (b) after he signed into law Sen. McCain’s bill prohibiting the use of torture of all persons detained by the US. The Geneva Convention that applies to non-state, non-uniformed actors prohibits touching them (other than to move them about in a prison environment), and the McCain-authored law specifically prohibits the CIA techniques. Thus, if the NY Times article is accurate, that would mean that the President committed a felony for each act of torture he authorized and which was carried out after (a) or (b) above. Will anyone in the government do anything about this?