Report: White House sanctioned harsh tactics

[spanone]

A new Senate report says Bush officials quickly abandoned 'humane' interrogation techniques.

Michael Isikoff
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Apr 21, 2009 | Updated: 10:06 p.m. ET Apr 21, 2009

The report, an advanced copy of which was provided to several news organizations, draws on newly declassified documents that Levin says bolsters his principal message: That the abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo were not caused by "a few bad apples," as Bush administration officials repeatedly asserted. Instead, Levin said in a statement Tuesday, it was the product of high-level White House decisions to utilize a controversial series of "enhanced" and coercive interrogation techniques despite vociferous warnings by U.S. military lawyers and FBI officials that they could subject U.S. officials to prosecutions for torture and war crimes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/194846/output/print

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Lerkfish]

2. why anyone believed them in the first place is bizarre

it was obvious to anyone with a brain what was happening.

[stillcool]

3. I found this in the Levin report...

In the First Bybee memo, the OLe had asserted that "any effort
by Congress to regulate the interrogation ofbattlefield detainees would violate the Constitution's
sole vesting ofthe Commander-in-Chiefauthority in the President.,,932 In keeping with that
finding, the March 14, 2003 fmal OLC memo held that the power to detain and interrogate
enemy combatants arose out ofthe President's constitutional authority as Commander in
Chief. 933 "In wartime," according to the memo, "it is for the president alone to decide what
methods to use to best prevail against the enemy.,,934
(U) In the March 14, 2003 final opinion, the OLC used its broad reading ofthe
Commander-in-Chiefauthority to conclude that "even if' federal criminal statutes "were
misconstrued to apply" to interrogations, the "Department ofJustice could not enforce this law
or any ofthe other criminal statutes.,,935 According to the OLC, "ven ifan
interrogation method arguably were to violate a criminal statute; the Justice Department could
not bring prosecution because the statute would be unconstitutional as applied in this
context.,,93