1 Boring Old Man

White House Defends Interrogation Method

Bush personally authorized Hayden’s testimony, White House deputy spokesman Tony Fratto said. "There’s been a lot written out there — newspaper, magazine articles, some of it misinformation," Fratto said. "And so the consensus was that on this one particular technique that these officials would have the opportunity to address them — in not just a public setting, but in a setting in front of members of Congress, and to be very clear about how those techniques were used and what the benefits were of them."

Fratto said CIA interrogators could use waterboarding again, but would need the president’s approval to do so. That approval would "depend on the circumstances," with one important factor being "belief that an attack might be imminent," Fratto said. "The president will listen to the considered judgment of the professionals in the intelligence community and the judgment of the attorney general in terms of the legal consequences of employing a particular technique," he said. "The president will listen to his advisers and make a determination."

Fratto said waterboarding’s use in the past was also approved by the attorney general, meaning it was legal and not torture…

I won’t be boring about this bit of malarkey. It speaks for itself. I do, however, want to comment on this phrase, "waterboarding’s use in the past was also approved by the attorney general, meaning it was legal and not torture." This kind of double-speak has become a standard part of Bush Administration lingo. Because they do something, it’s okay. Because they say something, it’s okay. There are no limits on what they do. It’s like Papal Infallibility. If the Pope says it’s true, then it is true. So, the thing that makes waterboarding not torture is that it was approved by Alberto Gonzales? or John Ashcroft? two independent thinkers if there ever were any [how about Hammurabi? or Moses?]. That’s an amazing thing to actually say, much less put forth as a legal argument. Essentially, the Attorney General is not the steward of the Laws, he is the Law. Executive Privilege, Alberto Gonzales as Law-Giver, Vice President Cheney as the 4th Branch of government, Torture isn’t really Torture, indefinite imprisonment without Habeas Corpus, overseas Torture rather than ‘in-house’ Torture, yada-yada-yada.