Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'

From ABC News courtesy of Eschaton:

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.

The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said.

Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.

At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

And

Then-Attorney General Ashcroft was troubled by the discussions. He agreed with the general policy decision to allow aggressive tactics and had repeatedly advised that they were legal. But he argued that senior White House advisers should not be involved in the grim details of interrogations, sources said.

According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: "Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly."

Click here for the rest.

All the way to the top.

I mean, I and countless other left-wing writers have been asserting since the Abu Graib pictures broke that the torture decisions had to come down from the highest levels of the Bush administration, but the political establishment simply yawned and ignored all the evidence. Maybe, just maybe, they'll start paying attention now. This ABC report comes hot on the heels of the revelation of a Rumsfeld torture authorization memo and a different White House torture authorization memo. Something appears to be going on behind the scenes, and I really hope that's the case.

This is some serious Nazi shit. Despite all the atrocities committed in the name of the United States throughout its history, there has always been a very broadly based cultural and political consensus that Americans don't torture. It was one thing that differentiated us from some of the most heinous and evil regimes around the world. But not anymore. This approval of torture, more than anything else probably, has made me despair for my country, has made me wonder from time to time if it's really even my country anymore. Because torture is straight up evil. Some Americans might torture, but it's not an American thing, just not a part of our values. This whole goddamned War on Terror, however, has made people crazy, willing to accept actions that essentially erase the America I love.

I really have a difficult time understanding why there isn't a whole lot more outrage about this. I don't understand why the Democrats haven't gone for Bush's jugular on this--I mean, I hate the Democrats and all, but, my god, where has all our human decency gone? Just what the fuck are our soldiers supposed to be fighting for? Why should I even salute the flag?

We really have moved into smoking gun territory on the torture issue now. These people should all be tried as war criminals.

How can justice get fucked in the ass like this?

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