There is now such a thing as the Bush administration’s Torture 13. They belong to the nefarious circle by virtue of authorizing torture to be systematically employed in the name of information gathering post-9/11 for the sake of intelligence. They carried out the strategy, as well as legally justified it. All these point to the creation of a torture regime during the Bush administration.
Bush VP, Dick Cheney, reportedly ordered the implementation of torture. Counsel to the VP, David Addington, actually fought for the commander-in-chief’s impunity from any law that prohibits torture. White House counsel and attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, ‘wrote and reviewed a number of the legal opinions that attempted to immunize torture.’
Military psychologist and consultant, James Mitchell, gave official approval to torture, monitored Abu Zubaydah’s interrogation, observed the use of ‘borderline torture,’ and allowed waterboarding under his supervision (reportedly, ‘a total of 183 times in a month for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 83 times in a month for Abu Zubaydah’). Former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, approved the use of torture in the military scope, taking after the CIA methods.
The rest of the members of the dubiously vaunted and infamous circle are CIA people and top-notch government lawyers. As to national security advisor (2001-2005) and Secretary of State (2005-2008), Condoleezza Rice, as well as George W. Bush, himself, it is sufficient to think that the concept of democracy is tantamount to bureaucracy, making the accountability for torture reach all the way to the top.
Via salon.com
