American Torture Policy: How Did We Get Here?

Image from source, Vanity Fair

Right in the top five of most heinous things the Bush Administration has done to this country, is to give us a reputation as a country that tortures people. Somehow, they got the Republican base--and by extension an apathetic middle-American public--to go along with it.

I fear that we'll never no all of the details of what the Bush Administration has done to injure the way our nation operates and is perceived. But fortunately, there are some investigative reporters out there. Unfortunately, they all seem to write niche books, or work for niche magazines. Vanity Fair, at least, is fairly mainstream. Maybe there's hope yet.

[Excerpt]

The Green Light

As the first anniversary of 9/11 approached, and a prized Guantánamo detainee wouldn’t talk, the Bush administration’s highest-ranking lawyers argued for extreme interrogation techniques, circumventing international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the army’s own Field Manual. The attorneys would even fly to Guantánamo to ratchet up the pressure—then blame abuses on the military. Philippe Sands follows the torture trail, and holds out the possibility of war crimes charges. . .

Read it (it'll freak you out a little) at: Vanity Fair