Another Torture Bombshell

If anyone had any doubt as to the absurdity of the Bush administration's argument supporting torture, they should read the article in today's Foreign Policy issue written by a former Bush official. The official in question is a man by the name of Philip Zelikow. He was appointed as Secretary of State's Condolezza Rice's counsel and was the executive director of the 9/11 Commission. But because he had a high security clearance he vowed to secrecy (even though he had seen the memos) and spoke out only today after the memos became public knowledge.

It turns out that Zelikow wrote an alternative memo at the time Gonzales and his clan were writing their torture memos. The memo offered an alternative view of their interpretation of the US and international law. In particular, Zelikow argued that their interpretation of "cruel, human and degrading" was not legally sound: and in fact, that those methods clearly violated Article 16 of the Convention against Torture, as well as the Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. By the way, the violation of Common Article 3 is a federal offense, a war crime, punishable up to life imprisonment! In addition, this bureaucrat argued for moral standards to be evaluated before approving these methods. In other words, what was the unique value of the information we learned from the terrorists? And what did that do to us? In other words, the question is not who these terrorists are, but who we are, as Zelikow eloquently puts it. In addition, he pointed out that the memo ignored the 8th amendment, "conditions for confinement," by approving the confinement of prisoners in small boxes. Finally, he also suggested that the methods would be legal if they would not "shock the conscience" of the American people and if the federal courts could impose the same methods on the American citizens in American jails if national security was at stake. This obviously would never be possible! Hence, the methods are illegal under US law in the opinion of Mr. Zelikow.

Ok, but even this damning memo is not the end of the story. It is what the Bush cronies did with it! Not only did they ignore it, but they tried to destroy every single copy. This sounds much like obstruction of justice and tampering with crime scene! I mean, this stuff just keeps getting nastier and nastier.

In the end, I was really heartened by President Obama's statement today that it would not be up to him to decide if those who drafted the memos would be prosecuted. This is up to the Justice Department! Well said, Mr. President. You truly make us all proud!