"In good faith" is quite the vague term and no doubt holds little water in a court of law. Yet those three words are the hinge pin upon which the fate of the Guantanamo prison interrogator's future depends. Law suits could jeopardize the future of these interrogators because of the vague terminology used by the Bush Administration shortly after the Guantanamo gulag was opened.
The Washington Times reports today:
The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of torture laws if they believed "in good faith" that harsh techniques used to break prisoners' will would not cause "prolonged mental harm."
That heavily censored memo, released Thursday, approved the CIA's interrogation techniques method by method but warned that if the circumstances changed, interrogators could be running afoul of laws against torture.
The Aug. 1, 2002, legal opinion signed by then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee was issued the same day that he wrote a memo for then-White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales defining torture as only those "extreme acts" that cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by death or organ failure.
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Clearly this is one more piece of evidence that the Bush Administration had no concept of the future ramifications of its torture policy and/or didn't worry about the interrogator's future legal liability. It also is one more example of the rag-tag government assembled by the Bush Administration. Katrina opened that door for all to see.
Time after time this administration has failed to protect the citizens of this nation- a clear revocation of the pledge of office taken by Bush and Cheney. They have participated in the wrecking of this nation due to their incompetence of governance. Does the average Joe and Jane realize this fact yet? They ought to when they open their wallets, when they watch the Iraq and Afghanistan war news. Clearly the people of New Orleans as well as the residents of New York City dearly understand the incompetence.
Yet conservative pundits, clearly in the death-throes, ask us not to judge the Bush-Cheney administration too harshly: maybe some years from now historians will be kind to them. Clicking ruby slippers. Sorry, pals, it was a mess from day one. No, not a 'mess,' but rather a crime. A crime against humanity both to its own citizens as well to many world citizens. Crimes of aggression and omission: of what they did and what they failed to do.
Beyond the monumental transfer of wealth upwards from those in the middle to the top tier, beyond the trillions of dollars in bank notes, and beyond the ruined dreams of home ownership, lie the graves of 4,000 of our military men and women asked to fight a specious and ill conceived preemptive war of diversion. Yet perhaps those are more lucky than the 20-year-old returning veterans who will suffer the rest of their lives with amputations, disfigured faces, and traumatic brain injury. Their living hell will haunt George Bush an Dick Cheney the rest of their lives.
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