C.I.A. Torture Exposed

The lead article in today’s New York Times is titled, “Memos Spell Out Brutal C.I.A. Mode of Interrogation.” The banner story describes the release of memos by the Justice Department in the Bush administration requested and used to justify harsh techniques used by the C.I.A.

The memos read like something you would expect from Saddam Hussein, not from the liberators of  his regime. They are cruel and cold in their precision and even part of the Obama administration argued against their release.

Apparently, you can legally deprive a captive of sleep for 11 days, you can douse them with water of 41 degrees, you can waterboard for 40 seconds… This is like the stuff you would see in the Holocaust museum, not the annals of the U.S. government.

Mentioned in passing is the fact that the United States prosecuted Japanese interrogators for similar techniques after World War II.

President Obama has said he will not prosecute agents for carrying out these techniques because he wants to look forward and not back. Perhaps, he should have said, “They were just following orders.”

Even if they are given a pass, I don’t see how we can hold up our head again as a nation unless we prosecute the authors of the memos. They are listed with profiles in The Times as Jay S. Bybee, John Yoo, Jack Goldsmith, James B. Comey and Steven G. Bradbury.