the doj torture greenlight, with a little more exposure
i mentioned it here during the reagan legacy week, with the hope that it wouldn’t be totally lost in the rush to get reagan’s head on a dime or a bill or whatever. i was unplugged from the mass media to a large extent, but the micro-media didn’t drop it, and the best resource i have found to date is here from kevin drum over at washington monthly. this is good, first, because it links most of the original texts (if indirectly), and second, because it’s generated 162 comments (so far).
I’ve got something simpler for the plain spoken President Bush: “We don’t torture prisoners. Not on my watch.” Why didn’t he say that instead and just put the whole subject to rest?
go there, follow the links around for a while, and then do something.
source documents are here (more directly), because they are that important. i haven’t had time to digest this mess myself, but what does it take to get a war crimes tribunal going?
Patrick Philbin, December 12, 2001 [pdf, ~960k]
John Yoo, January 9, 2002 [pdf, ~820k]
Alberto Gonzales, January 25, 2002 [pdf, ~600k]
Colin Powell, response to January 2002 Gonzales memo [pdf, ~400k]
Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations in the Global War on Terrorism: Assessment of Legal, Historical, Policy and Operational Considerations, March 6, 2003 [pdf, ~2.7m]